Fannie Mae has announced that the company issued $7.2 billion multifamily mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the fourth quarter of 2011, the highest quarterly issuance since Fannie Mae began reinvigorating its multifamily MBS business in 2009. Total new issuance for 2011 was $23.8 billion, up from $16.4 billion in 2010. Fannie Mae also resecuritized $6 billion of DUS MBS through its Fannie Mae Guaranteed Multifamily Structures (Fannie Mae GeMS) program in 2011.
"Market activity in our multifamily securities is clearly gaining momentum. Tradable float, the volume of securities available to investors, has increased significantly over the past few years. Fannie Mae's multifamily MBS outstanding has grown to over $100 billion. As volumes increase and liquidity rises, we expect market participants will focus on Agency multifamily securities in the coming year," said Kimberly Johnson, Fannie Mae vice president of multifamily capital markets.
Fannie Mae's DUS MBS securities provide market participants with easily-modeled cash flows and call protection in defined maturities of five-, seven- and 10-years. Fannie Mae's GeMS program consists of structured multifamily securities created from Fannie Mae's portfolio of mortgage securities. Features of Fannie Mae GeMS have included block size transactions, collateral diversity and pricing close to par through Fannie Mae's multifamily REMICs and multifamily Mega securities.
Highlights of Fannie Mae's multifamily activity in 2011 include the following:
►New multifamily MBS business volumes in the fourth quarter of 2011 totaled $7.2 billion. Total 2011 new issuance volumes reached $23.8 billion.
►Issuance of Fannie Mae's structured multifamily securities created from its portfolio totaled $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, including $1.8 billion in GeMS REMICs and $0.1 billion in GeMS Megas. For full-year 2011, Fannie Mae issued $6.0 billion in GeMS securities, including $4.4 billion in GeMS REMICs and $1.6 billion in GeMS Megas.
►Fannie Mae Capital Markets sold $10.6 billion of multifamily mortgage securities in 2011, including $2.8 billion in the fourth quarter.
