a. What are the pros and cons of asset-backed securities such
as mortgage-backed
securities to the retail or institutional investors?
b. What are the roles played by various financial
institution(s)?
c. Mutual funds have been gaining popularity among investors.
From the investors’ point of view, illustrate why it is usually a
better choice to buy the mutual funds than to buy asset-backed
securities.
Explain how negative convexity impacts the price of amortizing
securities such as mortgage-backed or asset-backed bonds relative
to Treasuries when market yields change.
How do mortgage backed securities work? Why did banks think that
selling mortgage backed securities would relieve them of the risks
involved with mortgage lending? How did the banks indirectly come
to once again be exposed to mortgage lending risk? What happened to
bank reserves during the mortgage debt crisis? How did the Federal
Reserve respond; and, in hindsight, do you consider the Fed's
response to be appropriate and corrective? Explain why or why
not?
5. Mortgage-Backed Securities and Risk Taking by
Financial Institutions:
Do you think that institutional investors that
purchased mortgage backed securities containing subprime mortgages
were following reasonable investment guidelines? Address this issue
for various types of financial institutions such as pension funds,
commercial banks, insurance companies, and mutual funds (your
answer might differ with the type of institutional investor). If
Financial Institution are taking on too much risk, how should
regulations be changed to limit such excessive risk taking?
3. Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs)
(a) are Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) that are based only on
sub-prime mortgage loans in the U.S.
(b) are not usually rated by rating agencies as the underlying
default-free government securities act as collaterals.
(c) are structured in tranches according to the underlying risk
characteristics.
(d) (a) and (b) of the above
(e) (b) and (c) of the above
4. Which of the following was NOT a contributing factor to the
sub-prime debt crisis in the...
explain the general difference(s) between residential
mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and commercial mortgage-backed
securities with respect to the underlying collateral (physical real
estate, not the loans).
You are a mortgage-backed securities investor with a broad
portfolio of bonds backed by home mortgages. In recent times,
interest rates have fallen drastically, and as a result many
homeowners have begun to refinance their mortgages. What does this
refinancing "wave" do for your expected returns? The best answers
will be in terms of both reinvestment risk and the convexity
properties of mortgage backed securities.
Provide a reason why a privately-held firm is valued
higher/lower than comparable publicly-held firms. To get the full
mark, you must discuss both cases.