Ginnie Mae earnings up 6% for fiscal year, issuance down

Ginnie Mae earned $541.5 million in its fiscal year of 2010, up 6.2% from the previous year, but issuance dropped for the first time since 2006. Ginnie Mae guarantees timely payment of principal and interest on federally insured loans to investors of mortgage-backed securities. Issuance of Ginnie-backed MBS slipped 1.4% to $413 billion. (Click on chart to expand.) Revenue before profit at the company ramped up 54% from the previous year to more than $1 billion. Total assets increased as well to $17.1 billion. The amount of outstanding MBS portfolio guaranteed by Ginnie Mae increased by $220.2 billion in fiscal year 2010. This led to an increase in guaranty fee revenue. According to Ginnie, the production from its MBS program provided the capital to finance home purchases, refinances or rental housing for roughly 1.9 million U.S. households. Write to Jon Prior.