The Credit Risk Transfer (CRT) program, part of Freddie Mac‘s Single-Family business, reports a 2021 CRT issuance of nearly $20 billion, protecting $828.5 billion in unpaid principal balance of single-family mortgages. In the fourth quarter, CRT issuance of $5.4 billion provided credit protection on $242.9 billion of single-family mortgages. The issuances included STACR (Structured Agency Credit Risk), ACIS (Agency Credit Insurance Structure), other insurance issuances, subordination and certain lender risk sharing transactions.
“Freddie Mac’s Single-Family CRT program continued to innovate and evolve in 2021 while achieving record issuance,” says Freddie Mac’s Mike Reynolds, vice president of Single-Family CRT. “The year saw our first 30-year standalone ACIS transaction and first-ever STACR transaction with a 20-year maturity and a 5-year call option. Our first-ever tender offer for STACR notes in 2021 set the stage for additional opportunities to manage Freddie Mac’s CRT portfolio.”
Through its flagship offerings alone, Freddie Mac issued approximately $18.7 billion across 10 STACR and 11 ACIS transactions in 2021. Among the notable transactions in the fourth quarter was October’s STACR 2021-DNA6. At nearly $1.5 billion, it was at that time Freddie Mac’s largest-ever CRT securities transaction. Since the first CRT transaction in 2013, Freddie Mac’s Single-Family CRT program has cumulatively transferred approximately $85.3 billion in credit risk on approximately $2.7 trillion in mortgages through STACR and ACIS. As of December 31, 2021, approximately 53% of the Single-Family mortgage portfolio was covered by credit enhancement.
