Fannie Stressing Guaranty/Securitization Biz?

Fannie Mae appears to be emphasizing its credit guarantee/securitization business and taking a slow-growth approach when it comes to its mortgage investment portfolio, based on a monthly activity report issued by the giant mortgage company. During the first five months of this year, Fannie has issued $290.8 billion in mortgage-backed securities, according to the May report. (In comparison, Freddie has reported the issuance of $204.1 billion in MBS so far this year.) Meanwhile, Fannie has increased the size of its mortgage portfolio by $15.3 billion to $736.9 billion since March 1, when the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight removed a cap on its portfolio growth. OFHEO also removed a cap on Freddie's portfolio, but Fannie's competitor increased the size of its portfolio by $70.9 billion, to $770.4 billion, from March 1 to the end of May. The May activity reports show that Fannie had a 1.22% serious delinquency rate on its single-family portfolio and Freddie had a 0.81% rate.