Commercial banks continued to edge away from the mortgage-securities market in the final months of 2005, allowing their agency MBS holdings to shrink slightly, according to a new analysis of call report data by Inside MBS & ABS. Commercial banks held a total of $897.14 billion of securities backed by single-family mortgages at the end of 2005, a decline of 0.6 percent from the previous quarter. For the year, bank MBS holdings grew a modest… [Two data tables included]