Washington, DC – Today, the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) announced that issuance for its Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) program reached $27.3 billion in January 2009. For FY 2009, Ginnie Mae MBS issuance stands at $108.95 billion, compared to $43.3 for the first four months of FY 2008.

Single-family MBS issuances by region:

• $7.3 billion from the West
• $4.6 billion from the Midwest
• $5.1 billion from the Mid-Atlantic
• $8.2 billion from the South
• $1.3 billion from the Southwest
• $ 1 million from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

"Ginnie Mae was created to be there when the market needs it most and provide stability, and that is exactly what we are doing now," said Joseph J. Murin, president of Ginnie Mae. "Our steady increase in MBS issuance and recent actions by the Administration signal we are on the right path to help stabilize the financial industry and work through the housing downturn and credit crisis."

For the last 40 years, the industry has turned to the safety and security of Ginnie Mae MBS because it has the full faith and credit backing of the United States Government. As a result, Ginnie Mae's commitment to its mission has remained constant. This has allowed Ginnie Mae to provide homeownership opportunities for more than 30 million households by securitizing loans insured or guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Development and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH).

Ginnie Mae is a wholly-owned government corporation within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ginnie Mae pioneered the mortgage-backed security (MBS), guaranteeing the very first security in 1970. An MBS enables a mortgage lender to aggregate and sell mortgage loans as a security to investors. Ginnie Mae securities carry the full faith and credit of the United States Government, which means that, even in difficult times, an investment in Ginnie Mae is one of the safest an investor can make.