With the first six months of the year in the books, the rankings are now in for the top issuers of HECM mortgage-backed securities (HMBS), according to the most recent HMBS market commentary from New View Advisors.
American Advisors Group (AAG) continued to lead HMBS issuers for the first half of 2016 with an estimated $955.2 million in issuance comprising 90 pools, according to New View Advisors, which compiled its data using private sources as well as publicly available Ginnie Mae data.
Reverse Mortgage Funding ranked second among issuers with an aggregate issuance amount totaling $931.3 million across 70 pools, giving the company a 21.24% market share.
Finance of America Reverse issued the highest amount of pools with 104, comprising an aggregate HMBS issuance of $716.8 million. This now gives the company a market share of 16.34% halfway through 2016.
Liberty Home Equity Solutions—now issuing HMBS as Ocwen Loan Servicing—and Live Well Financial rounded out the top-five issuers, with $521.2 million and $463.5 million, respectively, representing market shares of 11.88% and 10.57%.
The top-five HMBS issuers accounted for 81.8% of all issuance, up slightly from 79.8% during the first quarter of 2016.
While there was no change in the rankings among HMBS issuers from the previous quarter, the first half of the year did see the addition of one issuer, The Money Source, which issued approximately $34.7 million of HMBS. The addition of The Money Source now brings the total number of HMBS issuers to 14.
Despite the slowdown in HECM endorsements this year, New View Advisors notes HMBS issuance remains robust, aided by growth in tail issuance and highly seasoned pools.
“Continued strength in home price appreciation and capital markets execution also help the industry maintain volume in the face of increased mortgage lending scrutiny and regulatory oversight, and ongoing HECM program changes such as financial assessment,” writes New View Advisors in its commentary.
In total, HMBS issuers produced approximately $4.386 billion for the first half of 2016, only $137 million less than the $4.523 billion reported as of the second quarter of 2015.
See the full HMBS Issuer rankings.
Written by Jason Oliva
