• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.147-179
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• 2005

It is frequently said that mortgage-backed securities (MBS) of different security designs are issued in an attempt to meet the varying needs and expectations of investors. If this is true indeed, MBS of complicated risk-return characteristics are likely to be priced higher than MBS of simple risk-return characteristics we. We test this implication by establishing a recombining binomial interest rate prepayment model with a burnout effect embedded. More specifically, we compare the relative values (utilities) of a pass-through and a PAC- Support collateralized mortgage obligation(CMO), and theoretically show why and how the CMO is more highly valued than is the pass-through. The model is established such that mortgage prepayment is a function of the current value of, and the past path of, the mort-gage market rate. Since we work on not the total value of the two MBS but the value of each tranche of either MBS, the test results could be robust to slightly different versions of similar tests, which may be done in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.29-62
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• 2007

We examine the methods to increase MBS values given parameters of default risks of individual mortgages and their correlation, and analyze the effects of these parameters on the efficiency of the methods. First, the values of MBS can be improved when they are comprised of low-correlation mortgages regardless of specific forms of investors' utility functions. Second, the values of MBS can also be raised even after their components mortgages are determined. More specifically, when investors' utilities are heterogeneous, CMO's of a less risky tranche and a riskier tranche are highly valued compared with pass-through securities of two identical tranches. When investors' utilities are homogeneous(risk averse), however, the latter meets the needs of investors better than the former does. Third, it can be shown that the efficiency of the methods in this paper is an increasing function of default risks of mortgage loans or of the correlation between them, and a decreasing function of the amount of the price fall of MBS when in default.