Former Treasury official Jim Millstein argues that taxpayers “stand to make an enormous profit” if the two are allowed to recapitalize, restructure and eventually are sold to “back to private investors.”
Bank and thrift MBS holdings were up a modest 1.0 percent from the previous quarter, but it marked the first increase since the third quarter of 2012, when the Federal Reserve began aggressively buying agency MBS and Treasury securities.
In order for the GSEs to exit conservatorship with the full faith and credit of the U.S., they would have to pay the Treasury a fee equal to the value of the government’s backing under the terms of their preferred stock purchase agreements.
Commercial banks and savings institutions held $1.521 trillion of single-family MBS in their retained portfolios as of the end of the first quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis of call report data. Bank and thrift MBS holdings were up a modest 1.0 percent from the previous quarter, but it marked the first increase since the third quarter of 2012, when the Federal Reserve began aggressively buying agency MBS and Treasury securities. Significantly, the increase in bank MBS holdings came at a time when new issuance was plummeting. MBS purchases...[Includes two data charts]