Bank and thrift MBS holdings fell by 4.6 percent during 2013, and by the end of the year, they were down 7.8 percent from the all-time high of $1.634 trillion reached at the end of March 2012.

Radian and United Guaranty were co-champs of the MI league last year. Radian reported the largest new insurance written figure, $55.04 billion.

Industry participants expect that volume will continue to grow as investor demand for commercial MBS remains strong despite some loosening of underwriting standards.

Since Mel Watt was sworn into a five-year term as Federal Housing Finance Agency director on January 6, the former North Carolina Congressman has made no public appearances or policy statements except for canned comments attributed to him in routine FHFA press releases.

Still, purchase-mortgage originations fell sharply in the fourth quarter, dropping almost 23 percent from the previous period, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

January 2014 marked the fourth month in a row where combined agency securitization included more purchase-money mortgages than refinances, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

According to Inside Mortgage Finance, one thing is clear: the commercial banking industry is continuing to shed MSRs, at least in aggregate.

Inside Mortgage Finance makes it official: residential originations tanked in the fourth quarter, but certain nonbanks gained at the expense of the largest players.

Through the first nine months of 2013, commercial banks sold $1.077 trillion of home mortgages, according to call-report data compiled by Inside Mortgage Trends.

In fact, 10 of the 17 banks tracked by Inside Mortgage Trends posted increased mortgage-banking income during the final three months of 2013, and all of them reported a positive showing.