Last year's pendulum swing in loan purpose toward the purchase-money market yielded a significant increase in the share of agency business with primary MI coverage. And a larger share of insured business layered heavy debt burden with lower credit scores. (Includes three data tables.)

Agency MSR transfers declined by 27.5% in the fourth quarter, to $219.05 billion

Volume was down on an annual basis across prime, subprime, Alt A and scratch-and-dent deals.

Several top buyers of bulk agency MSR in the fourth quarter also sold some servicing as they rebalanced their portfolios. Lakeview was the top buyer in both bulk and coissuance deals. (Includes three data tables.)

Lakeview handled $644.49 billion in agency servicing as of the end of 2023.

Prime MBS issuance was up 15% from the third to the fourth quarter, while ECM production faded 15%. The sole growth market in 2023 was home-equity loan securitization. (Includes three data tables.)

Ginnie Mae remained the fastest-growing sector of the agency servicing market in the fourth quarter, while Fannie Mae posted a small decline. (Includes two data tables.)

Make no mistake about it, all sectors slowed in the fourth quarter...

Agency MBS issuance declined by 41.1% on an annual basis in 2023.

The ABS market was the only sector in structured finance to boost production in 2023, although issuance slipped in the fourth quarter. Residential MBS accounted for most of last year’s steep decline.