Freddie Mac is taking advantage of favorable market conditions to tee up another offering of securities transferring the credit risk of residential mortgages that it insures.
The deal, STACR2016-DNA4 is the company’s 24th Structured Agency Credit Risk transaction, and the seventh in its actual loss ‘DNA’ series that features loans with original loan-to-value ratios of between 60% and 80%.
The notes are general obligations of Freddie Mac, but are linked to the performance of a $24.8 billion reference pool of 106,116 mortgages acquired by Freddie between January 1, 2016 and March 31, 2016, and subsequently securitized into agency mortgage-backed securities. Payment of interest and principal can be written down if enough of the loans in the reference pool default.
The Class M-1, Class M-2, Class M-3 and Class B Notes will be offered to investors.
The remaining classes are unrated and will be retained by Freddie Mac.
These loans have a weighted average FICO of 748, which is well above Freddie Mac’s historical pre-crisis average and in line with recent prime jumbo RMBS, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency. They also have a weighted average debt-to-income ratio of 34.6%, which is higher than KBRA typically sees in prime jumbo RMBS, but still consistent with prime-quality underwriting.
Freddie Mac has agreed to retain at least 5% of the aggregate credit risk at each mezzanine tranche level.