Mortgage-Backed
Securities
OTC Description
Mortgage-backed
securities (MBS) are debt obligations that are backed by the cash flows from pools
of mortgage loans on residential and commercial property. SecondMarket's MBS Market
facilitates transactions primarily in two areas of the mortgage-backed space:
non-agency Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) and Commercial Mortgage-Backed
Securities (CMBS), together representing approximately $2.5 trillion in securities.
The agency RMBS market, due to a combination of implicit and explicit government
guarantees, continues to function in an orderly manner, with tight bid-ask spreads
and a significant number of market participants. Non-agency RMBS, however, have
come under significant pressure not only from the downturn in housing prices and
the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis but also from a variety of legal
and regulatory changes/proposals that have caused considerable uncertainty regarding
the future performance of the underlying loans. The CMBS Market has seen increased
stress and dislocation as well with deteriorating economic trends. SecondMarket
has leveraged its technology and deep buyer base, adding MBS data and analytical
tools to centralize price discovery and trading in a wide variety of CMBS as well
as RMBS backed by prime (jumbo), subprime, alt-A, option ARMs and home equity
loans.
backed
by the cash flows from pools of mortgage loans on residential and commercial property.
These mortgages were originally
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extended to homeowners and investors by banks and other lending institutions,
then purchased and assembled into pools by a variety of government and private
entities. These entities then issue securities with tranches of various maturities
and credit quality. The coupons and principal payments from the residential mortgages
provide the cash flow to repay the residential mortgages, while rental income
provides the revenue stream to repay the commercial mortgages. First developed
in late 1970s, the residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) market has grown
tremendously in the past few decades and is currently estimated to be a $8 trillion
market. The majority of RMBS are issued by government sponsored entities (GSEs)
Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and are (now that the government has taken
over Fannie and Freddie) explicitly backed by the Federal government. These securities
are generally referred to as “agency” paper/RMBS. The rest of the RMBS market
has been structured and issued by private institutions such as banks, thrifts,
broker-dealers and homebuilders. The RMBS transactions are generally backed by
homogeneous pools exclusively comprised of either prime, subprime, adjustable
rate mortgages or home equity loans. These securities are often referred to as
“private label” or “non-agency” paper/RMBS and represent an estimated $1.8 trillion
of the RMBS market. OTC
are
also opening our marketplace for the trading of commercial mortgage backed securities
(CMBS). The mortgage pools backing CMBS are also grouped together |
relatively
homogeneously, consisting of pools of multi-family, office, retail,
industrial and medical properties, with principal and interest payments
backed by streams of rental income. CMBS are all issued by private
entities, and the market is estimated to be over $700 billion in CMBS
outstanding. RMBS Liquidity The agency RMBS market, due to a combination
of implicit and explicit government guarantees continues to function
in an orderly manner, with tight bid-ask spreads and a significant
number of market participants. RMBS issued by the private sector,
however, have come under significant pressure not only from the downturn
in housing prices and the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis,
but also from a variety of legal and regulatory changes/proposals
that have caused considerable uncertainty regarding the future performance
of the underlying loans. With many traditional market makers on Wall
Street either closed or no longer making markets for RMBS securities,
investors have had no place to turn for price discovery, or outlets
to sell their positions. Further, there remains significant uncertainty
about the future direction of TARP and how that will impact the distressed
mortgage market. With all this ongoing uncertainty about the future
economic, legal and regulatory environment, opportunities exist on
for non-traditional investors to step in and potentially profit from
all the dislocation in the markets. Today, there are new distressed
mortgage investors coming into the market constantly. Read
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