The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims it “significantly increased transparency” in the To-Be-Announced market for agency pass-through mortgage-backed securities. This includes mortgage bond issuers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
FINRA said its Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine is now releasing the TBA transaction information, which includes the CUSIP, time of transaction, price, size and other related information.
The TBA market conducts around $270 billion worth of transactions based on an average of 8,400 daily MBS trades. FINRA said it will continue to study the market for improvements. The TBA market represents more than 93% of par value traded in all asset-backed securities.
“As we look to increase transparency in Collateralized Mortgage Obligations and asset-backed securities, we will seek an approach that takes into account their complex nature and different market dynamics,” said FINRA Vice President Ola Persson.
TRACE was established in July 2002 to create a regulatory database for corporate bonds. FINRA started collecting transaction information in all asset- and mortgage-backed securities in May 2011 and now includes it on TRACE.
