Ginnie Mae Rations Commitments

Ginnie Mae is worried that it could run out of commitment authority in September, so it is asking lenders to cut back on Ginnie Mae security issuances over the next two months."Effective immediately, Ginnie Mae is instituting temporary procedures to ration commitment authority," according to a July 10 memorandum to all Ginnie Mae participants. Ginnie Mae is asking issuers to estimate their commitment needs in July and August and submit a request. "Ginnie Mae will carefully review all requests from issuers, but may approve requests for less than the full amount," Ginnie Mae executive vice president George Anderson said in the memorandum. Ginnie Mae notified Congress several weeks ago that it had exceeded 75% of its fiscal 1998 commitment authority, which totals $130 billion. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30.