Trading desks had a busy month in February as rising rates caused participants to act. Where do we go from here? Good question.

The Ginnie Mae early buyout game is catching on fast, with new players entering the fray. loanDepot recently increased a repo line, bolstering its ammunition.

If you’re interested in buying delinquent FHA/VA mortgages out of MBS pools, one shop, PennyMac, reveals just how much money you can make.

Read the tea leaves: Rising rates and a jump in MBS activity could portend trouble up around the bend.

Some $714 billion of loans were removed from Ginnie MBS last year, with about 86% of them representing borrower payoffs. Repurchases of delinquent loans were also up sharply from 2019. (Includes two data charts.)

A pop quiz: What backstops $2 trillion in mortgages, earns $1 billion-plus per year but still doesn’t have a permanent boss?

Have Federal Reserve policies, and the flood of refis that they’ve created, permanently altered MBS markets?

What might the new Biden administration do with Fannie and Freddie? Good things ahead for Ginnie? Let the speculation begin.

In 2020, mortgage records were broken all over the industry. MBS trading, meanwhile, had its best year since 2010.