A handful of nonbanks with limited production capacity saw significant gains in their GSE servicing portfolios during the first quarter, including New Residential Investment, Matrix Financial Services and Pingora Loan Servicing. Overall, Fannie/Freddie MSRs grew $9.1 billion from December.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got proportionally more of their single-family business from large-volume sellers in the first quarter, although production was down sharply in every seller category. [Includes two data charts.]
Freddie Mac increased its production of single-family mortgage-backed securities at a time when its two secondary market competitors saw significant declines in volume. [Includes two data charts.]
The uniform MBS is scheduled to launch in just over three months, but there is still some confusion about how it will affect investors in the to-be-announced market. Earlier this month, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Investment Company Institute, in a joint letter, urged the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department to clarify certain diversification requirements under the single security initiative.
After a year and a half of following its carefully scripted plan to normalize its balance sheet and return to good, old-fashioned monetary policy, the Federal Reserve muddied the waters at last week’s meeting of the Federal Open Markets Committee.
Speaking at a public forum recently, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed will continue to offload the massive $4 trillion portfolio it acquired through quantitative easing in the wake of the housing crisis.
Single-family mortgage business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac slumped in the fourth quarter of 2018 as purchase-mortgage activity faded, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis of mortgage-backed securities disclosures. [Includes two data charts.]