Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $57.9 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the month of July, a 12 percent increase from June, continuing an off-and-on monthly rebound that started in April, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis.However, MBS issuance through the first seven months of 2014 was down 59.0 percent from the same period a year ago Top-ranked Wells Fargo’s Fannie and Freddie securitization, at $7.91 billion, rose by 8.5 percent on a monthly basis but dropped 71.6 percent year-to-date.

Mortgage origination volume was up in all three major production channels during the second quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Retail originations remained the biggest source of new business, accounting for 61.0 percent of second quarter production. Total volume in the channel – which includes consumer-direct lending and traditional branch-office production – increased by 27.7 percent to an estimated $180 billion during the second quarter. Retail’s increase was higher than the overall 25.5 percent growth in total originations, nudging its share of the market slightly higher. Third-party originations were...[Includes four data charts]

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae each recorded double-digit increases in single-family business in July, marking the fourth straight monthly gain, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS, an affiliated newsletter. The three produced $85.3 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities last month, an 11.6 percent increase from June’s volume. The biggest increase was at Fannie, where production was up 12.6 percent for the month. The steady gains in production starting in April have not been...

A solid increase in non-agency commercial MBS issuance during the second quarter of 2014 provided most of the lift in new income-property securitizations, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis. A total of $36.69 billion of commercial mortgages were securitized during the second quarter, up 16.1 percent from the first three months of the year. At the midway point in 2014, new CMBS issuance remained 24.7 percent behind the heady levels recorded over the same period last year, which ended up being the market’s highest point since the financial crisis. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae saw...[Includes two data charts]

The immediate future is looking mostly bright for publicly-traded real estate investment trusts that toil in the commercial real estate sector – that is, as long as origination volumes remain healthy. Several high-profile commercial REITs – including Starwood Property Trust, Colony Financial and Ladder Capital – do not report second quarter results until next week, but hopes are high that earnings will be mostly positive. One commercial REIT that did report this week was...

A trade group representing non-agency MBS investors continues to raise concerns about settlements that give servicers credit for completing loan modifications on mortgages in non-agency MBS. Regulators and others counter that the settlements include protections for the investors, who ultimately benefit from loan mods completed under the settlements. The latest flare-up involves $4.0 billion in loss mitigation actions required of JPMorgan Chase under a recent settlement with federal and state regulators. Last week, the settlement’s monitor credited Chase with $6.31 million in consumer relief under the settlement, with 56 percent of the relief completed on Chase’s own holdings and the remainder completed on loans serviced for others, likely mortgages in non-agency MBS. The settlement prompted...

Standard & Poor’s said it is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission to address issues raised by the enforcement staff in connection with botched ratings of several commercial MBS transactions in 2011. A spokesperson for S&P said the rating agency and its parent company, McGraw Hill Financial Inc., are cooperating with the SEC after receipt of a “Wells Notice” last week indicating both companies may soon be the target of a regulatory enforcement action. The SEC notice is...

Efforts to reform the non-agency market may be gathering momentum as the Structured Finance Industry Group is set to reveal its preliminary recommendations for changes to non-agency mortgage-backed securities and comments on the sector’s reform are due to the Treasury Department shortly. Industry participants have plenty of suggestions for how to fix the market, but any revival looks to be years away. On Aug. 4, the SFIG will release “green papers” as part of its Project RMBS 3.0 initiative ...

Two Harbors Investment is preparing to issue a $267.67 million jumbo mortgage-backed security, according to a preliminary term sheet obtained by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The deal is scheduled to close Aug. 5, nearly a year after the only other jumbo MBS issued by Two Harbors. Agate Bay Mortgage Trust 2014-1 is backed by 30-year fixed-rate mortgages from a variety of lenders, led by RPM Mortgage with a 12.8 percent share, New York Community Bank ...

JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have both paid major settlements regarding FHA lending, and both have curtailed their participation in the program, according to a new analysis of Ginnie Mae data by Inside FHA Lending. During the first six months of 2013, Chase accounted for 11.8 percent of the FHA mortgages in newly issued Ginnie mortgage-backed securities. During the first half of 2014, its volume of FHA loans in Ginnie pools was down 75.8 percent from the same period last year, and its share of the market sank more than half, to just 5.1 percent. Jamie Dimon, Chase’s president and CEO, recently questioned why the bank should stay in the FHA business when legal costs are so high. The Ginnie data show it ... [1 chart]