Major Funding Swap Leaves Freddie Mac with $6B Mortgage Portfolio

MCLEAN, VA-Freddie Mac has made a deal–a very big deal–with mortgage credit supplier WaMu, the joint entity involving Washington Mutual Bank FA and Washington Mutual Bank. Freddie Mac–a congressionally chartered corporation assigned with the task of providing low-cost credit for the financing of the nation’s single family and multifamily housing–has traded Freddie Mac Participation Certificates in return for WaMu’s multifamily mortgage portfolio, which is valued at a whopping $6 billion. The Participation Certificates, more commonly referred to as Freddie Mac PCs, represent an undivided interest in specified mortgages acquired by Freddie Mac and placed in a pool. According to the company’s definition, “the principal and interest on each loan in the pool is ‘passed through’ to the investor.

Freddie Mac’s Douglas R. Robinson and Eileen B. Fitzpatrick tell GlobeSt.com that the location and number of the properties involved have not been disclosed, as the data is considered proprietary information. However, the company has revealed that the portfolio concerns mortgages on mostly 5- to 50-unit properties. Another facet of the deal involves such Freddie Mac-supplied incentives as $100 million in fees for WaMu upon the issuance of individual Freddie Mac securities over the months of September and October of this year.