Product Description

An in-depth look at the latest innovations in mortgage-backed securities

The largest sector of the fixed-income market is the mortgage market. Understanding this market is critical for portfolio managers, as well as issuers who must be familiar with how these securities are structured. Mortgage-Backed Securities is a timely guide to the investment characteristics, creation, and analysis of residential real estate-backed securities. Each chapter contains cutting-edge information for investors, traders, and other professionals involved in this market, including discussions of structuring mortgage products-such as agency CMOs and new types of mortgages-and an in-depth explanation of the concept of option-adjusted spreads and other analytical concepts used to assess relative value.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #323335 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From the Inside Flap
Over the past quarter of a century, the market for mortgage-related securities has become the largest cash financial market in the world. The growing size and scope of the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market—along with the broad range of products related to it—has forced many financial professionals to become more mindful of developments in MBS markets and the factors driving MBS issuance and performance.

Frank Fabozzi, Anand Bhattacharya, and William Berliner all have many years of experience working in the fixed-income markets, and have witnessed many cycles of change in the mortgage and MBS sectors. And now, with Mortgage-Backed Securities, they share their knowledge and insights on many of the product and structuring innovations that have impacted this financial market.

Written in a straightforward and accessible style, and containing numerous illustrations, this timely guide skillfully addresses the investment characteristics, creation, and analysis of mortgage-backed securities. Each chapter contains cutting-edge concepts that you'll need to understand in order to thrive within this arena—including detailed explanations of how MBS products, such as agency CMOs and mortgage ABS, are structured—as well as in-depth discussions of option-adjusted spreads, a variety of duration measures, and other analytical approaches used to assess relative value.

Divided into four comprehensive parts, this reliable resource:

Part One: provides you with a complete introduction to mortgage and MBS markets

Part Two: highlights the essential elements of prepayment and default behavior and performance metrics

Part Three: illustrates a variety of structuring techniques, with an emphasis on defining both differences and commonalities across various mortgage products and techniques

Part Four: describes the methodologies and techniques used to value MBS products and assess interest-rate risk

An information-filled Appendix rounds out the discussion of mortgage-backed securities. This part of the book will introduce you to a new approach to mortgage valuation—called the option theoretic approach—which has been adopted by a number of Wall Street firms and received a great deal of interest from market professionals.

A proliferation in the types of different loan products; the growth of lending to borrowers with non-traditional financial profiles; and a fluctuation in real estate prices have created the need for a reassessment of the MBS universe. Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, Mortgage-Backed Securities offers you a realistic assessment of this field and outlines the products, structures, and analytical techniques about which any successful investor needs to know.

From the Back Cover
Mortgage-Backed Securities

In the last two decades, the market for mortgage-backed securities (MBS) has quickly grown. In addition to its size, this market has also become increasingly flexible and dynamic.

Frank Fabozzi, Anand Bhattacharya, and William Berliner understand the intricacies of the MBS market, and now, with Mortgage-Backed Securities, they share this essential information with you.

Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, this comprehensive guide skillfully addresses the investment characteristics, creation, and analysis of mortgage-backed securities. Each informative chapter outlines the products, structures, and analytical techniques traders and investors need to be familiar with in order to succeed on a daily basis.

Written for financial professionals by financial professionals, this book covers a variety of MBS-related issues, including:

• An overview of prepayment and default behavior and performance metrics

• Fundamental MBS structuring techniques—such as divisions of principal and interest

• The structuring of private-label CMOs

• Measuring MBS interest-rate risk

• Evaluating senior MBS and CMOs

• An option theoretic approach to valuing MBS

About the Author
Frank J. Fabozzi is Professor in the Practice of Finance in the School of Management at Yale University. Prior to joining the Yale faculty, he was a Visiting Professor of Finance in the Sloan School at MIT. He is a Fellow of the International Center for Finance at Yale University and on the Advisory Council for the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University. Professor Fabozzi is the editor of the Journal of Portfolio Management and an associate editor of the Journal of Fixed Income. He earned a doctorate in economics from the City University of New York in 1972. In 2002 was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society’s Hall of Fame and is the 2007 recipient of the C. Stewart Sheppard Award given by the CFA Institute. He earned the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Public Accountant. He has authored and edited numerous books in finance.

Anand K. Bhattacharya is a Managing Director at Countrywide Securities Corporation (CSC), a wholly owned affiliate of Countrywide Financial Corporation. He joined CSC in 1999, where he is responsible for the management of fixed income research and strategies. Immediately prior to joining Countrywide, he was Managing Director responsible for capital markets, risk management and portfolio management oversight at Imperial Credit Industries Inc (ICII) from March 1998 to January 1999. Prior to his employment at ICII, Dr. Bhattacharya held positions at Prudential Securities Inc. from 1990 to 1998 with the most recent position as Managing Director, Global Head of Fixed Income Research. His prior employment includes positions in fixed income research and product management at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets, Franklin Savings Association and its subsidiaries and Security Pacific Merchant Bank. Dr. Bhattacharya has written extensively in various facets of fixed income analysis and portfolio management. He has authored or coauthored over 65 publications in various academic and professional journals and industry handbooks. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance and Quantitative Methods from Arizona State University.

William S. Berliner is Executive Vice President in charge of the Mortgage Strategies group at Countrywide Securities Corporation. In this capacity, he oversees the generation of relative value analysis and strategies, and writes and edits many of the firm’s reports and publications. He began his career in the Government Operations Department of Bear, Stearns and Co. in 1985. He moved to the Mortgage trading desk in 1987 as a clerk and joined the CMO desk in 1989. He worked on the CMO desk at Bear until 1993, when he left to join Nikko Securities, where he eventually ran CMO trading. He joined Countrywide as a trader in 1996 and moved to the Research Department in early 1998. Mr. Berliner has a BA in Interpersonal Communications from Rutgers College and an MBA in Finance from the Rutgers Graduate School of Business.

Customer Reviews

the gold standard
I think this book is the new gold standard for MBS. Unlike previous MBS books I have read, this one flows well from chapter to chapter and can actually walk someone new to the field through collateral, structuring and valuation in a logical manner. Excellent job!

A must read for those involved in the MBS market
The book provides a very complete overview the residential mortgage-backed securities market and is written by two gentlemen that were arguably at "the center of the storm" at Countrywide Securities.

The book is structured nicely taking the reader from a general overview of the MBS market to a detailed look of the process of securitization through to investing in the end securities.

The chapters dedicated to the structuring and credit enhancement techniques of residential ABS deals a particularly useful to people just entering the current market. The unique perspectives on measuring loan performance and influences on collateral prepayments are also very useful reading.

All in all a must read for those beginning in the industry and a great reference for those of us that might have forgotten a few things.

understand some innovative instruments
If you are a securities analyst wanting to understand recent innovations in financial instruments, Fabozii's topic can be very germane. He describes the myriad ways that bundling together mortgages can produce, in terms of cash flow and risk. Naturally, the book delves heavily into how well both can be modelled.

Specifically, there is a key section on how to measure prepayments and defaults. Both act against the "ideal" nature of a given instrument. Where ideal means that all debtholders will repay the debts in full and on the regular predicated schedule. We see different measures of delinquency - for example - current, 30 days delinquent, 60 days delinquent, and 90+ days delinquent. This is one very common classification, used by the US Office of Thrift Supervision. Other groups has similar measures.

Much other space in the book explains how the cash flow can be divided into tranches. Different ones based on differing yields and risk.

A cynical reader might surmise that the implementation of ideas like those in the book have contributed to the recent turmoil in the mortgage industry. Aiding and abetting.