Reverse Mortgage Funding took the top position in annual HECM Mortgage Backed Securities issuer rankings in 2018 with 41% market share and responsible for $3.92 billion of HMBS securities, according to data compiled by New View Advisors. The reverse mortgage lender, founded in 2013, was followed by AAG, Finance of America Reverse, Ocwen Loan Servicing and Longbridge Financial in terms of the top 5 issuers by total volume issued during the year.
RMF’s total included $600 million in HMBS the company purchased from Live Well Financial in November, while AAG’s total, amounting to 20% market share, comprised virtually all new issuance and tails, New View pointed out in its commentary on the issuer rankings. Calendar 2018 marks the first year when Longbridge has been included in the top 5, New View noted.
The yearly HMBS total of $9.6 billion issued in 2018 was a decline from the 2017 total of $10.5 billion, as was previously reported, and signaling lower volume going forward, according to New View.
Seasoned issuance as compared to new issuance is a consideration for the overall HMBS market picture, the commentary noted.
“Thank a 2018 total of highly seasoned issuance from RMF of nearly $2.2 billion for the relatively strong issuance totals,” New View writes. “Tail issuance continues to provide volume (and profit) stability to HMBS issuers to offset the new issue slowdown. Of 2018’s issuance, $2.7 billion was from tails.”
