Most of the decline in bank MSR activity in the first quarter was attributable to Wells Fargo, while Flagstar accounted for a big chunk of the increase among savings institutions.
The surging broker channel is attributable to rapid growth at United Wholesale Mortgage, by far the largest platform in the business. According to IMFresearch, no other table-funder comes close.
The $29.42 billion of refinance mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was up 30.2% from April and marked the biggest monthly volume since December 2017.
Fannie's MBS issuance was up significantly from April to May while Freddie posted a smaller monthly gain. Purchase mortgages and refinancing both rose substantially.
The average firm posted a pretax net loss of $214,000 loss in the first quarter. Retail-focused lenders and independent mortgage bankers fared relatively better.
Broker originations accounted for a growing share of first-quarter production in all three major mortgage products. United Wholesale accounted for the channel's growth.
Commercial banks held a combined $1.673 trillion of MBS at the end of the first quarter, maintaining their position as the largest investor class in the market...
The Federal Reserve reduced its holdings of agency MBS by $47 billion during the first quarter, but several other investor groups picked up the slack. Total MBS outstanding grew 0.4% during the first three months of the year.
It was the weakest reading on home-equity originations since early 2015, when production of closed-end seconds and new borrowing on home-equity lines of credit totaled an estimated $38.0 billion.