Word: mbs
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...example, many Mortgage Backed Securities ("MBS"), a species of ABS, became toxic following the collapse of the housing market. Like all ABS, MBS derive their value from underlying loans, in this case, mortgages. A large group of mortgages provides the payment stream to the holders of ABS in the form of individual interest and principal payments made by a borrower to the bank...
...result of declining home prices, if a borrower defaults on their mortgage, market prices for the home would be less than the balance on the mortgage. However, since MBS derive their value from a pool of loans - typically thousands of individual mortgages - the default of some portion of the mortgages would not mean the security had no value, only a reduced value. Unfortunately, banks, in an effort to increase their investment returns, exacerbated the problem by using enormous leverage to purchase and securitize mortgage loans. Thus, even if MBS's value declined because of defaults, because...
...Finally, the seemingly unprecedented drop in prices together with increased default rates made it nearly impossible to assign value to MBS. As a consequence, MBS that had some intrinsic value were illiquid, and banks were forced to keep the toxic assets on their balance sheets...
...Pricing plain-vanilla mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which are based on thousands of home loans, isn't easy. But MBS are only the tip of the troubled bank iceberg. Lurking below are bonds that are more complicated, and much more difficult to value. Among the most confounding are collateralized debt obligations (CDOs...
...mortgages rose as high as 80% earlier this year as other lenders retrenched. The percentage has dropped somewhat since, says FHFA Director James Lockhart, but if either Fannie or Freddie had to stop buying mortgages, rates would clearly skyrocket. If either firm actually defaulted on its debts or MBS guarantees, the consequences might be catastrophic. Why's that? Read...