Following years of planning, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Thursday that the Uniform Mortgage-Backed Security is almost here.

The FHFA announced its final rule for the single mortgage-backed security that will be issued by both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The GSEs will officially begin issuing the single security, called the Uniform Mortgage-Backed Security, on June 3, 2019. The FHFA noted in its press release that the requirements in the final rule apply to the GSEs' current offerings of TBA-eligible MBS and to the new Uniform Mortgage-Backed Security. 

“This rule demonstrates FHFA's commitment to the success of the UMBS, which will promote liquidity and efficiency in the secondary mortgage market," said FHFA Acting Director Joseph Otting in a statement. 

The final rule (found here) will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. 

So, what is the single security? It’s been awhile since we’ve discussed this. Let’s recap:

The single security is a joint initiative from Fannie and Freddie to develop a single mortgage-backed security that will be issued by the GSEs to finance fixed-rate mortgage loans backed by one- to four-unit single-family properties.

The security will be issued through the Common Securitization Platform, which is a technology and operational platform that was developed by Common Securitization Solutions, the company formed in 2014 by Fannie and Freddie to facilitate the design and implementation of the single GSE bond.

As part of the first phase of the single security rollout, Freddie Mac began using the Common Securitization Platform back in 2016 for certain functions such as data acceptance, issuance support, and bond administration activities related to its current single-class, fixed-rate, mortgage-backed securities.