Mortgage-Backed Securities

Mortgage-backed securities pages explain what happens to many mortgages after origination and why that hidden market still affects ordinary borrowers. This section is about the secondary mortgage market, loan sales, agency-backed structures, servicing rights, and the institutions that help standardize mainstream mortgage lending.

Start with Secondary Mortgage Market, Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS), and Securitization to understand the basic flow from closed loan to pooled security.

Then compare Agency MBS with Non-Agency MBS, and read Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae to see how different parts of the U.S. mortgage market are supported.

Finish with Loan Sale, Mortgage Investor, Mortgage Servicing Rights (MSR), Pass-Through Security, To-Be-Announced (TBA) Market, and Whole Loan to understand why the company that made the loan, owns the loan, and services the loan are not always the same.

In this section

• Secondary Mortgage Market
  The secondary mortgage market is the market where closed mortgages are sold, bought, pooled, or financed after origination.
• Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS)
  A mortgage-backed security is an investment security backed by a pool of mortgage loans.
• Securitization
  Securitization is the process of pooling mortgage loans and turning them into securities that can be sold to investors.
• Agency MBS
  Agency MBS is a mortgage-backed security tied to agency-backed or agency-guaranteed mortgage pools.
• Non-Agency MBS
  Non-agency MBS is a mortgage-backed security that does not rely on the standard agency-backed or agency-guaranteed framework.
• Fannie Mae
  Fannie Mae is a government-sponsored enterprise that supports a large part of the conventional conforming mortgage market.
• Freddie Mac
  Freddie Mac is a government-sponsored enterprise that supports a large part of the conventional conforming mortgage market.
• Ginnie Mae
  Ginnie Mae is the government corporation tied to guarantees on certain mortgage-backed securities backed by government-loan programs.
• Loan Sale
  A loan sale is the transfer of mortgage ownership or economic interest from the original lender to another party after origination.
• Mortgage Investor
  A mortgage investor is the party that owns or economically benefits from a mortgage after origination.
• Mortgage Servicing Rights (MSR)
  Mortgage servicing rights are the rights to service a mortgage account and collect the related servicing fee income.
• Pass-Through Security
  A pass-through security is a mortgage-backed security structure that passes principal and interest cash flow from pooled mortgages through to investors.
• To-Be-Announced (TBA) Market
  The TBA market is the forward-trading market for many agency mortgage-backed securities before the exact underlying pools are specified.
• Whole Loan
  A whole loan is an individual mortgage sold or held as a single loan asset rather than as part of a pooled security.