Determinants of Primary Market Spreads on U.K. Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities and the Implications for Investor Reliance on Credit Ratings

CFA Digest ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-88
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Handley

Subject Climate change risks and housing gmarket dynamics. Significance Climate change is raising sea levels and increasing the incidence of high-intensity storms. The risks associated with owning a home in a high-risk area are rising, but US flood insurance premiums, mortgage lending and property values are underpricing these risks. Impacts Investors may grow wary of residential-mortgage-backed securities as these assets can be packaged from the same at-risk regions. High-cost storms are a major risk to homeowners and mortgage lenders, and will be increasingly considered ahead of transactions. Private insurers are priced out of US flood insurance, but policy will enable more private activity as the market grows.


Significance The marked increase in 2015 expenses stems in part from Goldman's 5.1-billion-dollar settlement with the Department of Justice (DoJ) and various federal and state regulators announced on January 14 relating to the firm's securitisation, underwriting and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities from 2005 to 2007. On January 15, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a 700,000-dollar award to a whistle-blower, the first-ever such award to a company outsider for analysis that led to a successful enforcement action. Impacts The SEC's whistle-blower payout to an outsider may incentivise further 'bounty-hunting' against corporations by external experts. Business-friendly judicial decisions that have limited class action recoveries will not necessarily restrict whistle-blower claims. The salience of the Sanders campaign among primary voters skews post-election political headwinds against deregulation-friendly Democrats.


Author(s):  
Şenay Ağca ◽  
Saiyid S. Islam

Securitized debt markets play a vital role in financial markets in risk-sharing and creating alternative financing sources, which provide benefits for both borrower and lenders. This chapter describes the main characteristics of securitized debt and securitized debt instruments. Major securitized debt instruments are mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) including residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBSs) and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBSs) as well as asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). The characteristics of these securities, their associated benefits and uses, and the risk factors that determine the performance of securitized debt instruments are covered. The evolution and size of these securitized markets is also discussed. Overall, the chapter indicates that securitized markets help originators in transferring risks and monetizing illiquid assets and aid investors by providing an efficient mechanism for portfolio diversification and ability to better adjust their investments to their risk preferences.


2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (10) ◽  
pp. 3514-3555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenghuan Sean Chu ◽  
Marc Rysman

We study the market for ratings agencies in the commercial mortgage backed securities sector leading up to and including the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Using a structural model adapted from the auctions literature, we characterize the incentives of ratings agencies to distort ratings in favor of issuers. We find an important equilibrium distortion, which decreased after the crisis. We study several counterfactual experiments motivated by recent policymaking in this industry. (JEL D44, G01, G24)


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document