It looks like things are looking well for the Federal National Mortgage Association. Popularly known as Fannie Mae, the country’s biggest home loan purchaser has announced that its mortgage portfolio grew in June while the delinquency rate on the loan it guarantees fell to the lowest level this year in May.

According to the government-sponsored enterprise, its gross mortgage portfolio jumped 6.3%, or about $4.1 billion, to $817.8 billion last month. The figure was said to increase by 12.1% from last year. Fannie Mae chief executive officer Michael Williams attributed the growth to stricter lending standards that the company has implemented in recent years. He said the “stringent” lending criteria have helped Fannie Mae develop strong business books over the past decade.

The rate of late payments on the loan it guarantees, on the other hand, fell in May. Although the figure is considerably higher than last year’s rate of 3.68%, the latest serious delinquency rate has shown significant improvement over the last few months, officials said. Data showed that delinquency rate for single-family loans fell to 5.15% in May from 5.30% and 5.59% in April and February, respectively.

The rate for late payments on multi-family loans, meanwhile, declined to 0.76% during the same period from 0.78% in April and a record high of 0.79% in March. Last year, the May rate for delinquent loans was 0.50%.

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