With domestic economic growth stagnating in the first quarter as consumer debt levels continue to climb, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee this week opted to leave interest rates unchanged and to maintain the status quo when it comes to its agency MBS investment strategy. The Bureau of Economic Analysis put the rate of growth in gross domestic product at 0.7 percent, versus the 2.1 percent growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2016, suggesting that the economic recovery from the Great Recession may be getting long in the tooth. At the same time, on the consumer front, a new study from Northwestern Mutual found...

As Congress considers changes to the Dodd-Frank Act and other regulatory reforms, the Structured Finance Industry Group weighed in with a white paper detailing various regulatory reforms sought by participants in the MBS and ABS markets. One of the top priorities for the trade group is the so-called Regulation AB2, which sets loan-level disclosure requirements for securities. The Securities and Exchange Commission set...

Holdings of non-agency mortgage-backed securities by most banks and thrifts are declining, according to a ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Banks and thrifts held $63.00 billion of non-agency MBS as of the end of 2016, down 23.9 percent from the end of 2015. The holdings are concentrated among five banks, which accounted for 64.9 percent of all non-agency MBS held by the industry as of the end of 2016. JPMorgan Chase held ... [Includes one data chart]

There is a new boss in the Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities market. PennyMac Financial rose to the top of the issuer ranking in the first quarter of 2017 despite a sharp decline in volume, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. PennyMac issued $10.78 billion of single-family Ginnie securities during the first three months of the year. The figures in this analysis are based on Ginnie loan-level disclosures, which truncate loan amounts to $1,000 increments. PennyMac’s first-quarter production was off 27.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016, a slightly bigger decline than the 24.8 percent drop in overall Ginnie issuance. Even though the firm fared slightly worse than the total market, its first-quarter downturn was less severe than Wells Fargo’s. Wells has been the top Ginnie producer for a long time, as well as the top player in most segments of the ... [ Charts ]

A steep drop in VA-backed securities issuance in the first quarter of 2017 suggests that Ginnie Mae’s efforts to curb serial refinancing of VA loans are working, according to agency officials. Speaking on a panel at the annual VA Lenders Conference in Kansas City, MO, this week, Ginnie executives said that a change in pooling requirements for streamlined refinance mortgages appears to have curbed a destructive appetite for refinancing new VA loans within six months of closing. The practice has caused faster prepayments in Ginnie mortgage-backed securities pools and smaller payouts to investors. VA refi volume fell 42.7 percent from the previous quarter (see chart on page 2), contributing significantly to the 32.2 percent decline in total VA loan securitization during the period. John Getchis, senior vice president at Ginnie Mae, said he does not think the churning trend will continue because the ...

For years, officials at the Federal Reserve seemed nonchalant about coming up with a final exit strategy for the U.S. central bank’s massive holdings of agency MBS and debt and Treasury Securities, currently valued at approximately $4.5 trillion. But now, in relatively short order, the prospect of the Fed beginning to reduce its holdings has become a “thing” – so much so, in fact, that officials there reportedly are starting to put together just such a plan. The likelihood of such a move suddenly got much stronger when the Commerce Department announced late last week that the personal-consumption expenditures price index rose 2.1 percent from a year ago. The Fed has been striving to achieve 2 percent inflation for at least the last five years, and now appears to have the green light it has been waiting for. According to various press reports, the Fed’s plan would entail...

Wells Fargo’s legal woes are continuing after a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last week ordered the company to face several lawsuits by institutional investors alleging MBS fraud. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that Wells Fargo must face five lawsuits by a few dozen funds that are holding the bank liable for losses incurred after the MBS they purchased lost value due to the financial crisis. The plaintiffs include...

Investors in Taiwan held $208.1 billion of agency MBS, non-agency MBS and ABS at the midway point of 2016, making it the largest overseas investor in the market, according to preliminary Treasury Department data. Taiwan increased its holdings of U.S. MBS and ABS by 9.6 percent from the midway point in 2015, a time period during which overall foreign investment was flat. Treasury releases annual estimates of U.S. MBS and ABS by individual foreign countries as of the middle of each year. The estimates include both government-related and private-sector investors domiciled in the country. Mainland China had been...[Includes one data table]

There was little change in the amount of agency MBS held by the Federal Reserve in 2016 compared to the previous year, although the account generated a whopping $46.3 billion in net interest income last year. The 2016 net interest gains from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MBS were down slightly from 2015, when the Fed reported $49.0 billion, according to an independent annual audit of the Fed. Conducted by KPMG, the audit estimated...

FHA-insured jumbo lending fell slightly in the fourth quarter of 2016 although year-over-year results were a lot better. Production of conforming-jumbo purchase and refinance loans insured by the FHA slipped 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter, a slight bump on the way to an annual jumbo origination total of $26.9billion. Year-over-year, FHA jumbo production was up 5.6 percent from 2015. Conforming-jumbo loans represented 9.8 percent of FHA loans securitized last year, according to data compiled by affiliated newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance. Purchase mortgages comprised 64.9 percent of jumbo loans insured by FHA in 2016 and 98.7 percent were fixed-rate loans. Nonbanks comprised the top five FHA jumbo lenders. Wells Fargo, which closed the year with $423.8 million in FHA jumbo originations, was in sixth place. Quicken Loans led the field with $802.5 million of ... [ Charts ]