The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the SEC to review the margin requirements in Rule 4210, arguing that lenders use to-be-announced securities to hedge their interest rate exposure rather than for speculation purposes.

It could be years before the Fed sells any of its holdings of agency MBS, according to John Williams, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Issuing a non-agency MBS isn’t cheap; trade groups push for data, timeline if GSEs change credit scoring models; Ginnie reiterates its buyout policy.

Volume increased in the risk-transfer deals issued by Freddie and Fannie. However, unpaid principal balance on the covered pools declined. (Includes data chart.)

Ginnie Mae President Alanna McCargo wants small banks, credit unions and community development financial institutions to have access to the Ginnie securitization program.

Small lenders may be able to avoid some of the margin requirements by diversifying the pool of broker-dealers they use for hedging.

The nation’s two largest “mREITs,” Annaly and AGNC, continued to shrink their securities holdings in the first quarter, but with the Fed moving to the sidelines, that trend could be ending.

The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged James Im, a former bond trader for Nomura Holdings, with fraud for inflating the prices of MBS he bought from and sold to investors.

With rates rising for much of the year, MBS trading has been weak but not exceedingly so. But thanks to recent carnage in the stock market, bonds may be “in” again.

With refinance activity plummeting, lenders with concentrations of purchase loans were more likely to see their agency sales increase in April. Total agency MBS issuance fell 11% from March. (Includes two data charts.)