Prepayments on VA loans in Ginnie MBS jumped in February and will likely remain elevated in March. It’s a recurrence of an ongoing problem for Ginnie and VA: streamlined refinance business.
Regulators are pushing higher capital requirements on banks and looking favorably at credit-risk transfer transactions, helping to increase CRT issuance. Investor demand for bank CRT is also outstripping supply.
Banks, the largest holders of agency MBS among investor groups, aren’t expected to be big buyers this year. Money managers helped to fill the void left by banks last year, but that might not continue into 2024.
Great Ajax received a loan from Rithm Capital and moved to have Rithm serve as external manager of the REIT. Rithm plans to have Great Ajax invest in commercial mortgages.
Bank ABS holdings rose unexpectedly in the fourth quarter, but most of the gain came from a portfolio securitization of consumer loans by one institution. (Includes two data tables.)