Investments

Laurel Davis, VP, credit risk transfer at Fannie Mae, explains why the switch to a REMIC structure for CAS is important, and why it took so long.

The company’s first transaction, Eagle Re 2018-1, transfers a portion of the credit risk on approximately $36.3 billion of mortgages, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac transferred a substantial amount of credit risk to the private sector through both single-family and multifamily market transactions in the first half of the year, with activity expected to rise in 2019, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The firm's risk profile has not altered, executives said on a third-quarter earnings call Wednesday; it remains "appropriately cautious."

When the mortgage giant will be released from government control is anyone's guess, but the company's third-quarter report shows signs of an easier transition.

The €411 million deal puts it in the small club of UK managers that have completed three or more transactions in 2018.

The structure reduces counterparty risk in the GSE's benchmark Connecticut Avenue Securities program; it also expands the investor base.

The New York-based firm is adding 4.9 years to the reinvestment period of the $518.6 million Neuberger Berman CLO XVIII.

The backloaded maturity schedule of the debt brings comparisons to the city's supposedly abandoned "scoop-and-toss" practices.

The $597 million AREIT 2018-CRE2 is also slightly less concentrated than the sponsor's inaugural deal, completed in February.