September turned out to be the best month so far this year for issuance of agency mortgage-backed securities thanks to a surge in activity at Fannie Mae.
Last month’s issuance of fixed-rate MBS on behalf of Fannie, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae amounted to $86.960 billion.
Activity accelerated from August, when $85.192 billion in MBS was issued on behalf of the three providers of mortgage market liquidity.
Historical data from eMBS, which supplies the numbers, indicate that the last time business was this strong was in October 2013, when issuance was a revised $89.375 billion.
Business fell short, however, of the $102.146 billion in agency issuance during September 2013. The year-earlier total was originally reported at $102.332 billion.
MBS issuance at Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie totaled $629.209 billion from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30.
September’s gain would not have been possible were it not for Washington-based Fannie, where volume ascended to $36.535 billion from $31.206 billion during August.
Year-to-date Sept. 30, Fannie’s volume stood at $253.717 billion.
Not far away in McLean, Va., Freddie saw fixed-rate MBS issuance slip to $24.485 billion in September from $25.489 billion the prior month.
Freddie’s year-to-date total was $174.311 billion.
Back in the nation’s capitol, government-owned Ginnie lost the most ground in September, — with issuance volume falling to $25.940 billion from $28.498 billion.
During the nine months ended Sept. 30, fixed-rate MBS issuance at Ginnie was $201.181 billion.
