Interactive Data Corporation (IDC) announced that it’s providing daily independent evaluations for fixed rate reverse mortgage backed securities (HMBS) issued under the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program.

A provider of financial market data and analytics, IDC is among the first data providers in the industry to offer daily evaluations for fixed rate HMBS said a company statement.

According to IDC, holders of GNMA HMBS have been challenged to find independent evaluations for these securities. Previously, they relied on broker quotes or information from a dealer to assess current market value and can now realize the benefits of subscribing to independent evaluations of fixed rate GNMA HMBS as an input to their valuations process.

“GNMA HMBS have undergone dramatic growth over the past few years, and we find that many of our clients — especially insurance companies, mutual funds, and custodian banks — are increasingly requesting evaluations for these structures,” said Liz Duggan, managing director, Evaluations, Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data. “Our clients can now subscribe to our independent evaluations for fixed rate GNMA HMBS as an input to their valuations process.”

Origination volume in 2009 for GNMA HMBS was approximately $8.5 billion, up more than 600% from 2008 and currently is showing no signs of slowing down. GNMA has also indicated that it expects 25-30 percent growth in HECM originations.

Additionally, pricing for GNMA HMBS has skyrocketed over the past few months, so its not a huge surprise data providers are seeing value in providing a service like this.