Higher conforming loan limits for agency mortgage-backed securities programs didn’t do much to offset a sharp decline in total jumbo lending last year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. [Includes three data charts.]

New production of agency single-family MBS fell for the sixth month in a row in Febru-ary, sinking to the lowest monthly output in nearly five years. [Includes two data charts.]

Despite hefty declines in their sales volume last year, Wells Fargo and PennyMac continued to rank as the top sources of third-party originations in agency mortgage-backed securities. [Includes one data chart]

Commercial banks and savings institutions increased the amount of mortgage servicing rights they handle for other investors in the fourth quarter of 2018, although valuations for the asset softened. [Includes one data chart]

Retail mortgage lending remained the dominant originations channel in 2018, but it lost some luster to third-party production channels. [Includes two data charts]

Lenders delivered $93.54 billion of conventional, FHA and VA mortgages with loan amounts exceeding $453,100 into agency mortgage-backed securities last year, a 23.9% decline from 2017.

Ginnie Mae saw a modest increase in issuance of single-family mortgage-backed securities in January, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of MBS disclosures ...

Consumer asset-backed securities, including unsecured debt consolidation loans and education financing, remained the most popular ABS category for banks…

The one bright spot in the residential mortgage market last year was purchase-mortgage lending, which provided at least a faint glow in an otherwise dreary year for lenders. [Includes four data charts.]

Commercial banks and savings institutions increased their investment in non-mortgage ABS during the fourth quarter of 2018, though the industry’s appetite for the product remained tepid. [Includes two data charts.]