Fannie Eyes MBS Risk-Transfer Structures

Fannie Mae is working on new structures that would allow the mortgage giant to guarantee and securitize mortgages it likes (in terms of pricing and risk) and sell off the pieces it doesn't like to other investors."We tested our first structure to transfer risk to other market participants who have a different view of risk than us," Fannie executive vice president Thomas Lund told a Credit Suisse financial services forum Feb. 8. "These structures will allow Fannie to serve its customers and participate in more transactions," he said, and it works with many products, including subprime mortgages. The EVP for single-family mortgages noted that Fannie started purchasing subprime loans from a "very limited" number of its lenders last year. "We began to dip our toe in the water of subprime whole loans to determine if we could bring value to that segment of the market," Mr. Lund said. He indicated that Fannie wants to increase its involvement in the subprime market. The government-sponsored enterprise can be found on the Web at http://www.fanniemae.com.