Thanks to rising rates and sagging home values, early buyouts from Ginnie MBS are starting to look long in the tooth. Opportunities are out there, but are not for the faint of heart. (Includes data chart.)

The agency’s earnings increased in fiscal year 2022 while its MBS issuance declined by 30.5% on an annual basis. Ginnie defended its reliance on contractors and upcoming revisions to capital requirements.

Sophisticated pricing models for agency MBS, like the Bloomberg MBS Index, are subject to various sorts of model error. Experts say it takes an expert to know how to use them.

An industry trade group wants Ginnie to make permanent an assistance program that aided just a handful of nonbank servicers.

The GSEs’ social disclosures should be as granular and specific as those reported for credit-risk transfer deals, according to investors.

Standards involving delinquencies and in-person audits of issuers will remain on hold through at least the end of June.

While agency MBS trading typically slows towards the end of the year, the average daily volume of trades in December 2022 was the lowest on record since the beginning of 2020. Banks are showing weak demand for the securities.

The FHFA will significantly reduce a controversial fee for comingled securities in UMBS; no consistent trend in delinquencies and losses across MBS and ABS in December; term SOFR not an option as GSEs leave LIBOR behind.

Increasingly, nonbanks are using their “owned” MSRs as collateral for repo lines. And why not? Servicing values continue to be strong, and prepayments are almost non-existent.

Spreads tightened this week for a new CRT transaction from Fannie and new non-agency MBS; prepayment rates on agency MBS exceptionally low; lessons from Silvergate Bank’s crypto activity.