The robust second quarter brought year-to-date agency MBS issuance to $562.02 billion, just 1.3% below the level reached in the first six months of last year.

Meanwhile, whatever happened to all that chatter about Amazon.com buying loanDepot?

Residential loan sales by Wells Fargo tumbled 23% while U.S. Bank suffered a 38% sequential decline…

The privately held Stearns originated $4.5 billion of home mortgages during the second quarter, a 45% sequential gain…

The other lenders that Moody's looked at: Ditech Financial, Freedom Mortgage, Mr. Cooper, New Residential, Ocwen Financial, PennyMac Financial Services, Provident Funding Associates and Stearns Lending...

Despite the so-so reading from the government, nonbank mortgage giants the likes of loanDepot and United Wholesale Mortgage continue to hire in large numbers.

Some of the top expanded-credit MBS issuers – including Invictus Capital Partners, Angel Oak Companies, Lone Star Funds and New Residential Investment – issued one security each in the second quarter after bringing two deals each during 1Q19…

It was the heaviest quarterly issuance volume since the July-September cycle in 2017.

In terms of risk layering, some 10.5% of bank loans were in the lowest risk category, with high credit scores and low loan-to-value ratios. Just 8.8% of nonbank loans were in that bucket, according to Inside The GSEs.

If you’re wondering why the deal is taking so long, it’s because COH is a foreign entity and there are certain regulatory hoops to jump through. When originally announced, the sale was valued at $2.7 billion – all cash…