Freddie Mac [1] has obtained three new insurance policies under its Agency Credit Insurance Structure [2] (ACIS) program, representing the largest aggregate transaction to date, and a new milestone reached.
The new policies provide a combined maximum limit of approximately $788 million of losses on single-family loans and transfer much of the remaining credit risk associated with three of the Structured Agency Credit Risk debt issuances this year. These transactions, aided by Chicago-based risk management firm Aon Benfield [3], transfer “a significant portion of mortgage credit risk on approximately $75 billion of unpaid principal balance on single-family mortgages” Freddie Mac announced Thursday. [4]
All this means that Freddie Mac has now placed $5 billion in insurance coverage through 20 ACIS transactions since the program's inception in 2013.
"We are pleased to have reached another significant issuance milestone in our single-family credit risk transfer program," said Kevin Palmer, senior vice president of single-family credit risk transfer for Freddie Mac. "Our evolving and maturing ACIS program continues to attract a growing amount of capital from domestic and foreign insurers and reinsurers, as evidenced by the record number of counterparties who helped to make today's announcement possible.”
Aon Benfield CEO Eric Andersen said, "After a period of educating insurers and reinsurers on U.S. mortgage credit risk, we have found they have become comfortable and very receptive to this new line of business. We are pleased to have the opportunity to continue to work alongside Freddie Mac to create sustainable re-insurance capacity in this sector, and consequently an ever more stable U.S. housing market environment."
Freddie Mac was the first agency to such types of credit risk transfer transactions as ACIS. Since 2013, through ACIS and other programs such as the Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR) series, Freddie Mac has transferred a substantial portion of credit risk on more than $525 billion of unpaid principal balances on single-family mortgages.