The agency MBS market continued to grow at a measured pace during the third quarter of 2017, with several key investor groups showing interest in the market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis.

The average daily trading volume in agency MBS inched up to $223.6 billion in November, the second best showing of the year, according to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Finan-cial Markets Association. The only other month that was stronger was January at $229.8 billion.

Language in the pending Senate tax bill that could hammer the value of mortgage servicing rights is causing grave concern in the industry and, if the wording remains, nonbank mortgage firms could get hammered financially.

There may be more room for private investors in the secondary mortgage market sooner than ex-pected, if congressional testimony this week from Federal Reserve Gov. Jerome Powell, President Trump’s nominee to replace Fed chief Janet Yellen, is a reliable indicator.

Commercial banks and savings institutions boosted their holdings of residential MBS to a record $1.839 trillion during the third quarter, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis.

Real estate mortgage investment trusts continued to build up their agency MBS investment port-folios during the third quarter, though most REITs had a more difficult time in the less-liquid non-agency MBS market.

Credit Suisse and MBIA Insurance Corp. continued their wrangling in New York state appellate court in a $235 million MBS securities lawsuit brought by the bond guarantor in 2009.

Annaly Capital Management increased its agency MBS holdings by 16.1 percent in the third quarter. Its closest competitor among real estate investment trusts specializing in the space, AGNC In-vestment Corp., pushed up its investment by 13.3 percent.

Correspondent-based lending operations are accounting for a growing share of the FHA and VA home loans pooled in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. In fact, correspondent originations are the only production channel to see year-over-year growth in FHA and VA business through the first nine months of 2017. Retail and wholesale-broker production is down for both FHA and VA loans. Correspondent programs are most dominant in the FHA market, perhaps reflecting a preference among large producers to have recourse to a primary-market lender if the government later finds defects in how the loan was originated. Correspondents accounted for 48.7 percent of FHA loans pooled in Ginnie MBS during the first nine months of the year, up from 43.1 percent in all of 2016. Volume was up 1.7 percent from the ... [Charts]

A new net tangible benefit test for ensuring that a VA borrower benefits from a refinancing appears to be the obvious solution to the VA’s churning problem, according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML). Modeled after the FHA net tangible benefit test, the test seems to be a “foregone conclusion” for VA, analysts said. A Ginnie Mae/VA task force is currently working to resolve the problem, which is causing rapid prepayments in Ginnie mortgage-backed securities and raising serious doubts as to whether aggressive refinancing truly benefits veterans and servicemembers. “There is a critical need to ensure that veteran borrowers are not harmed by repeated refinancings through VA’s Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan program,” said Mortgage Bankers Association President/CEO David Stevens during a recent appearance before the House Financial Services Committee. IRRRLs, also referred to ...