Keep Hiking G-Fees – It Will Help Jumbos?

Three decades back GE Financial Services looked at entering the prime conventional market as a securitizer but realized one essential fact: It couldn’t compete against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because they could borrow at better rates in the debt market because of the implied government backing of their bonds. (As it turned out that implied guarantee was real.)  Anyway, the world has changed a ton since then. The jumbo MBS market is beginning to show signs of new life. Late Friday S&P assigned top grades to a $310 million jumbo deal brought to market by Credit Suisse. We keep hearing reports (unconfirmed) that more deals are underway. Now we can ask this question: will forthcoming and constant hikes in g-fees finally create parity between Fannie/Freddie and the private market. Or is that still a dream?