In a move that validates and gives further credibility to Ginnie Mae’s mortgage guarantee model, President Theodore Tozer has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the President of the Japan Housing Finance Agency (JHF), Shinya Shishido, marking the first time in Ginnie Mae’s history an inter-governmental MOU has been signed with another country.
"This is a significant development for Ginnie Mae,” said Tozer. “Japan’s interest in working with us, to learn more about how Ginnie Mae is able to fund virtually all FHA, VA, and RHS loans in the United States and support mortgage lending by small and medium sized lenders, demonstrates that our model works. We are appreciative that the JHF recognizes how strong our model is and that they want to learn from it and emulate it.”
Japan and the U.S. share many common interests, especially regarding housing finance. Japan has become one of Asia’s most successful democracies and largest economies, which is driving homeownership among the people of Japan.
Japan, through its financial institutions, is an important investor in Ginnie Mae's mortgage backed securities (MBS), playing an integral role in helping Ginnie Mae fulfill its mission of bringing global capital into the U.S. housing finance market—a system that runs through the heart of the U.S. economy—while minimizing risk to the taxpayer.
This MOU acknowledges Ginnie Mae as having long tenured success with its securitization business model at attracting global capital on behalf of the diverse government sponsored lending programs for single family, multifamily, healthcare facilities, and reverse mortgages.
“The Japan Housing Finance Agency will greatly benefit from this important alliance by tapping into Ginnie Mae's knowledge of cutting-edge securitization methods,” said JHF President Shinya Shishido.
The relationship between JHF and Ginnie Mae, as partners contributing to the stability in global financial markets, is extremely important. Japan is the world’s third largest economy and by entering this MOU on housing and housing finance, that partnership will become even stronger and will better facilitate the sharing of strategies and policies to enhance the funding of MBS and investments.
