OREANDA-NEWS. Freddie Mac's first two risk-sharing transactions are a sign that U.S. RMBS investors are willing to buy more risk, with more of these deals likely to come from the GSEs in the coming months, according to Fitch Ratings in its latest GSE Risk-Sharing Trends report.

As per Freddie Mac's first two STACR DNA transactions, losses are passed to investors based on actual recoveries at loan liquidation. All previous risk-sharing transactions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had used pre-set loss severity schedules that were tied to cumulative credit events. 'The significance of the actual loss deals is that they increase the amount of risk that the GSEs are able to offload,' said Director Sean Nelson. 'We expect actual-loss transactions to become more common in the future as they provide this type of risk-offload for the GSEs and are likely more sustainable over the long-run.'

In addition to the change in loss calculation, the first two STACR DNA transactions also have a different definition of a credit event and a longer legal maturity than previous risk sharing transactions. The new actual loss transactions define credit events as loan liquidations through real-estate owned (REO) dispositions, short sales or note sales occurring within 12.5 years of the closing date. In previous risk-sharing transactions, credit events were defined as a loan becoming 180 or more days delinquent or liquidating before becoming 180-days past due, and the legal maturity window was 10 years.

In addition to increased activity from Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae is expected to issue their first actual loss risk-sharing transaction later this year. The GSE risk-sharing transactions are expected to contribute a consistent supply to the market for the foreseeable future. The first half of 2015 started off strong, with Fannie and Freddie issuing roughly \\$6.8 billion, on pace to surpass 2014's total issuance of roughly \\$10.8 billion.

'U.S. GSE Risk-Sharing Trends' is available at www.fitchratings.com or by clicking on the above link.