Collateralized Mortgage Obligation (CMO)

During 2007 through 2010 there existed what we commonly refer to as the subprime mortgage crisis. Through deduction of readings by those considered esteemed in the realm of finance - such as Ben Bernanke - the crisis arose out of an earlier expansion of mortgage credit. This included extending mortgages to borrowers who previously would have had difficulty getting mortgages; this both contributed to and was facilitated by rapidly rising home prices. Pre-subprime mortgages, those looking to buy homes found it difficult to obtain mortgages if they had below average credit histories, provided small down payments or sought high-payment loans without the collateral, income, and/or credit history to match with their mortgage request. Indeed some high-risk families could obtain small-sized mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), otherwise, those facing limited credit options, rented. Because of these processes, home ownership fluctuated around 65 percent, mortgage foreclosure rates were low, and home construction and house prices mainly reflected swings in mortgage interest rates and income.

Although Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) are very similar, they are not the same. MBS are a type of bond or securities that represent an investment in a pool of mortgage loans. For example, if I want to buy a house the first thing I will need to do is go to a bank to request a mortgage for the amount of money I need. Then, after the bank approves me the mortgage (plus interests), the bank will sell my mortgage to an investments bank which eventually will sell it to more investors. The MBS is a way to lend money to people without worrying about they have the money to pay or not.

In the new system, an investment banker buys the mortgage from the lender, borrowing millions of dollars to buy thousands of mortgages, and every month he gets payments from homeowners for each of the mortgages. The banker then consolidates all the mortgages and splits the final product into three sections: safe, okay, and risky mortgages, which make up a collateralized debt obligation (CDO). As homeowners pay their mortgages, money flows into each of the sections, with the safe filling first and the risky filling last, contributing to their respective names. Credit agencies stamp the top two safer mortgages with a triple A or triple B rating, which are then be sold to investors who want a safe mortgage, while the risky slice is sold to hedge funds who want a risky investment. The bankers make millions, pay back their loans, and investors also make a worthwhile investment. So pleased are the investors, however, that they want more. Unfortunately, back at the beginning of the cycle, the mortgage broker can no longer find qualified mortgagers

Rating agencies would rate CDO’s (Collateralized Debt Obligations) on the basis of what tranches they were put into. The highest credit rating and safest is an AAA senior tranche, which has the lowest return because it’s considered “safe”. The middle tranches are rated AA and BB, these are considered riskier but have a higher rate of return. Eventually, when qualified people who would be considered to have an AAA mortgage ran dry. Lenders were quick to lend money out to lower-rated mortgages because they knew they would sell the to investors and pass on the risk to someone else. Even rating agencies were rating BB tranches and then labeling them AAA. While all of this was happening, big time investors thought they were buying safe investments

Merrill Lynch posses the share of the relocation services market. In arrangement with their vision of growth and diversification, CMI sees an importance in entering the relocation services market. Entry could round out their whole service offering and allow them to better compete with Merrill Lynch. Thus the CMI idea to create a “residential real estate financial services company” (Lewicki 576) was born.

The world’s financial system was almost brought down in 2008 by the collapse of Lehman Brothers that was a major international investment bank at that time. The government sponsored these banks’ bailouts that were funded by tax money in order to restore the industry. Before the crisis, banks were lending irresponsible mortgages to subprime borrowers who had poor credit histories. These mortgages were purchased by banks and packaged into low-risk securities known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). CDOs were divided into tranches by its default risk. The ratings of those risks were determined by rating agencies such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. However, those agencies were paid by banks and created an environment in which agencies were being generous to ratings since banks were their major clients.

Enclosed is a copy of “Group Assignment” about the understanding of CDOs. This report is aim to critically examined how CDOs may help banks to avoid liquidity risk and create more assets, and also problems in term of the purpose of CDOs, the role of three mechanisms in CDOs and problems faced in CDOs. After that, it discusses how CDOs created problem for Lehman Brothers by analysis subprime mortgage crisis. Finally, this report provides some recommendations for making the CDOs as effective liquidity risk

After some time, and with the mortgage market soaring, buyers and sellers were making their own rules. Salomon Brother’s created a CMO in 1983, which dominated the mortgage market in 1986.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) explains the old system of lending and the new securitization process. Matt Demon narrates how the home buyers repaid their loans to lenders, and consequently, the lenders sold the loans to the investment banks which combined the mortgage loans with other credit loans creating a collateral debt obligation a complex derivative. The collateral debt obligation sold to investors who paid the rating agency to evaluate the CDO's. The home buyers were now paying investors through this

In relation to the increase in house’s price, the rise of financial agreements such as mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO) encouraged investors to invest in the U.S housing market (Krugman, 2009). When housing price declined in the U.S, many financial institutions that borrowed and invested in subprime mortgage reported losses. In addition, the fall of housing price resulted in default and foreclosure and that began to exhaust consumer’s wealth and

Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) refers to a kind of innovative derivative securities product which simply bundling mortgage debt, bonds, loans and other assets together and then rearranging these assets into different tranches with different credit ratings, interest rate payments, risks, and priority of repayment to meet the needs of different investors. As borrowers began to default, investors in the inferior tranche of the CDOs took the first hit, so the owner of this tranche of CDOs may be riskier. In order to compensate for the higher risk, the subordinate tranche receives higher rate of return while the superior tranche receives lower rate but still nice return. To make the top even safer, the banks ensured it small fee called the credit default swap (CDS). The banks do all of the works so that creating rating agencies will stamp the top tranche since as a safe, triple A rated

Capital Trust Mortgage Corp. is a mortgage brokerage firm that is located in Miami, Florida. Capital Trust Mortgage Corp. was established in 1995. Their loan programs include conventional, FHA, VA, jumbo, foreign national, and alternative and subprime loans. Capital Trust Mortgage Corp. is a proud member of the Florida Association of Mortgage Professionals, NAMB- The Association of Mortgage Professionals, and NMLS. This mortgage lending agency is an Equal Housing Lender.

Securities: special vehicles issuing securities by mortgage of housing loan backed by a pool of asset.

After the investment bank get those mortgage, they stick them together, and this is called Mortgage Backed Security. They put those Mortgage backed security in to open market,and sell them

In the 1980s, investments banks such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley started selling mortgage bonds. Mortgage bonds were a collection of thousands of home mortgages, purchased from lenders, and their associated income streams (monthly payment). To address the fact that some homeowners often refinance their debt when interest rates are low which prematurely pays off the debt, mortgage bonds were stacked into layers called ‘tranches’. The lowest tranche represented mortgages to be paid off early, and the highest layer was the last mortgages to be paid off.