HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (“HMBS”) issuance in April totaled $525 million, $84 million more than March’s $441 million and $10 million less than April 2025’s $535 million total. 67 pools were issued in April, one more than in March. April issuance ranks approximately twentieth in terms of monthly issuance since 2009 but there have only been three instances of lower volume in the month of April during that time.
For all HMBS, FAR was the top issuer in the month of April with $170 million – an increase of $32 million from March’s $138 million. Issuance from Longbridge was $147 million, an increase of $33 million from March. Mutual of Omaha issuance increased by $17 million to $98 million. Onity Mortgage Corporation, formerly PHH, issued $59 million – the same as in March. Ginnie Mae/RMF (aka “Issuer 42”) again issued no HMBS pools.
Original (“First Participation”) production in April was $330 million, an increase of $70 million over both February and March and $15 million less than April 2025’s $345 million.
For the first four months of 2026, FAR was the top issuer of First Participation HMBS with $358 million issued, followed by Longbridge with $336 million, Mutual of Omaha with $241 million, and Onity with $132 million.
The 67 pools issued in April consisted of 18 First Participation pools, 47 tail pools, and 2 pools which included both First Participations and tails. Original pools are those HMBS pools backed by First Participations in previously uncertificated HECM loans. Tail HMBS issuances are HMBS pools consisting of subsequent participations. Tails are not from new loans, but they do represent new amounts lent. Last month’s tail pool issuance totaled $194 million compared to March’s $181 million.
There were 19 pools in April with an aggregate pool size less than $1 million. Issuers are taking advantage of Ginnie Mae’s provision to issue pools as small as $250,000. This represents $12.1 million of UPB that may not otherwise have been issued in April. Ginnie Mae issued APM 23-11 in 2023 which allows participations from the same loan to be pooled more than once in the same month. The aggregate of participations pooled in April for which more than one participation from the same loan was pooled is $69.1 million, of which $7.8 million were First Participations.
New View Advisors compiled this data from publicly available Ginnie Mae data as well as private sources.