Where reverse mortgage securities issuers stand in Q1 2025

Finance of America (FOA) retained its spot as the top HMBS issuer in the industry in Q1, issuing 72 pools with an aggregate amount of $435.9 million for a market share of 28.2%. Also retaining its position in the no. 2 slot is Longbridge Financial, which issued 35 pools in Q1 with an aggregate amount of $357.2 million, coming out to a 23.1% market share.

The third-place ranking shifted in Q1, with PHH Mortgage Corp. — a division of Onity Group and parent of Liberty Reverse Mortgage — taking it by issuing 58 pools with an original aggregate amount of $309.1 million. This gives PHH a 20% market share. Coming in fourth in Q1 is Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, the current market leader in terms of HECM originations, issuing 18 pools with an aggregate amount of $281.3 million bringing its market share to 18.2%.

These four issuers combined maintain a market share of 89.5%, encompassing the vast majority of HMBS issuance activity.

For the remaining rankings, Traditional Mortgage Acceptance Corp. (TMAC, dba GoodLife Home Loans) leads the pack. It issued 25 pools with an original aggregate amount of just under $84.5 million, with a market share of 5.5%. Both Plaza Home Mortgage and Guild Mortgage take up places six and seven, respectively, both with market shares of 2.3% each and both having issued seven pools during the quarter.

Plaza managed to pull slightly ahead in the rankings due to its original aggregate amount of $35.9 million, slightly outdoing Guild’s $35.2 million.

The final two spots on the rankings are occupied by SunWest Mortgage Company (nine pools with an original aggregate amount of $4.3 million and a market share of 0.3%), while Money House issued one pool with an aggregate amount of $1.8 million and a market share of 0.1%.

Not appearing on the list is the former HMBS portfolio of Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF), which has been held by Ginnie Mae since shortly after the company’s late 2022 bankruptcy. Now known as “Issuer 42,” it has issued no pools since its seizure and there has not been an indication from Ginnie Mae that this will change.

Year over year, the number of issuers in Q1 declined by two, with Money Source and Mortgage Assets Management (MAM) no longer being on the list. Last year, Onity Group acquired the reverse lending assets of MAM from Waterfall Asset Management, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings results and a subsequent conference call last summer.

Onity’s PHH was already subservicing the MAM portfolio at the time of the transaction. In Q1 2024, MAM accounted for a 2.1% market share among the HMBS issuers of the time, according to New View.

The larger question surrounding the HMBS marketplace at the moment concerns the supplemental reverse mortgage securities program announced last year by Ginnie Mae, known as “HMBS 2.0.” A final term sheet for the supplemental program was issued in November of last year, some of the final major policy work conducted by then-acting president Sam Valverde prior to his exit from the company.

Last month during an earnings call, FOA CEO Graham Fleming responded to a question about a timeline for HMBS 2.0, saying that “Ginnie continued to make progress on the operational side relative to the implementation of HMBS 2.0,” based on conversations the company has had with the company.

He added that based upon their last conversation, “as soon as they have the appointees in place, they do expect this to move forward,” he said. The Trump administration has yet to nominate a full-time president for Ginnie Mae, something that did not occur during the president’s first term despite getting close.