For the most part, jumbo MBS issuance has been weak (though improving), but the ABS market has been on fire...

Most of the slack is being taken up by nonbanks, which serviced $1.571 trillion of agency MBS at March 31.

The trend reflects the surge in VA home loan originations over the past few years at a time when the FHA has lost market share to private mortgage insurers.

In the jumbo MBS sector, mortgage firms issued $4.60 billion of bonds in 1Q, a hefty 20.3 percent increase from 4Q and more than triple the volume posed during the first three months of 2014.

The steadily declining average loan-to-value ratio on PMI-covered refinances reflects dwindling production in the HARP program.

Credit unions now lay claim to almost 10 percent of the residential lending market.

The share of GSE business that came from the top five sellers increased slightly in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the previous quarter.

Broker originations delivered to the GSEs increased by 16.0 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the previous quarter, the biggest gain among the three production channels.

Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities issuance fell in the first quarter of 2015 with FHA volume slipping during the period, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending’s analysis of agency data.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized $151.1 billion of refi loans during the first quarter, a 34.8 percent increase from the end of 2014.