Fannie Mae Completes Final Credit Insurance Risk Transfer Transaction of 2018 on $12.8 Billion of 15-year and 20-year Single-Family Loans

Program Continues to Demonstrate Market Leadership and Reduce Taxpayer Risk

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Nov 15, 2018, 10:30 ET

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fannie Mae (OTC Bulletin Board: FNMA) announced today that it has completed its eighth and final Credit Insurance Risk Transfer™ (CIRT™) transaction of 2018, covering existing loans in the company's portfolio. The deal, CIRT 2018-8, which covers $12.8 billion in unpaid principal balance of 15-year and 20-year loans, is a part of Fannie Mae's ongoing effort to reduce taxpayer risk by increasing the role of private capital in the mortgage market. To date, Fannie Mae has acquired about $7.6 billion of insurance coverage on $307 billion of loans through the CIRT program.

"In 2018, we entered into commitments to insure over $91 billion of single-family loans through CIRT, transferring almost $2.6 billion of risk through eight separate transactions. This latest transaction transferred $192 million of risk to twenty reinsurers," said Rob Schaefer, Vice President for Credit Enhancement Strategy & Management at Fannie Mae. "We are proud to be the leading manager of single-family residential credit risk in the industry, and to have taken a leading role in partnering with private sources of capital in transferring mortgage credit risk, building a market that barely existed even five years ago. As the CIRT program continues to grow, Fannie Mae remains committed to increasing liquidity in the risk-sharing market through the regularity and transparency of our credit risk transfer transactions."

In CIRT 2018-8, which became effective September 1, 2018, Fannie Mae will retain risk for the first 35 basis points of loss on a $12.8 billion pool of loans. If the $44.7 million retention layer is exhausted, reinsurers will cover the next 150 basis points of loss on the pool, up to a maximum coverage of approximately $192 million.

Coverage for this deal is provided based upon actual losses for a term of 7.5 years. Depending on the paydown of the insured pool and the principal amount of insured loans that become seriously delinquent, the aggregate coverage amount may be reduced at the one-year anniversary and each month thereafter. The coverage may be canceled by Fannie Mae at any time on or after the four-year anniversary of the effective date by paying a cancellation fee.

The covered loan pool for the transaction consists of fixed-rate loans with loan-to-value ratios greater than 75 percent and less than or equal to 97 percent, and original terms between 15 and 20 years. The loans were acquired by Fannie Mae from April 2017 through May 2018. A summary of key deal terms, including pricing, for this new and past CIRT transactions can be found at http://www.fanniemae.com/resources/file/credit-risk/pdf/cirt-deal-pricing-information.pdf.

Since 2013, Fannie Mae has transferred a portion of the credit risk on single-family mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of over $1.5 trillion, measured at the time of transaction, through its credit risk transfer efforts, including CIRT, Connecticut Avenue Securities^™ (CAS), and other forms of risk transfer. As of September 30, 2018, $1.1 trillion in outstanding unpaid principal balance of loans in our single-family conventional guaranty book of business were included in a reference pool for a credit risk transfer transaction. Depending on market conditions, Fannie Mae expects to continue coming to market with CIRT and CAS deals that allow private capital to gain exposure to the U.S. housing market.

More information on Fannie Mae's credit risk transfer activities is available at http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/funding-the-market/credit-risk/index.html.

Fannie Mae helps make the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and affordable rental housing possible for millions of Americans. We partner with lenders to create housing opportunities for families across the country. We are driving positive changes in housing finance to make the home buying process easier, while reducing costs and risk. To learn more, visit fanniemae.com and follow us on twitter.com/fanniemae.

SOURCE Fannie Mae