4.3 THE UNITED STATES MORTGAGE FINANCE INDUSTRY
The traditional mortgage model involved a bank financing a loan to the borrower/homeowner
through the deposits they received from customers and retaining the credit (default) risk. With
the advent of securitisation, the traditional model gave way to a new model of “originate to
transfer” in which the investment banks essentially sold the mortgages and transferred the
credit risk to investors through mortgage-backed securities. Since 2002 the private sector had
dramatically expanded its role in the mortgage market which had previously been dominated
by the government sponsored agencies6 such as Freddie Mac.