IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fednsr/91312.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Defragmenting Markets: Evidence from Agency MBS

Author

Abstract

Agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have historically traded in separate forward markets. We study the consequences of this fragmentation, showing that market liquidity endogenously concentrated in Fannie Mae MBS, leading to higher issuance and trading volume, lower transaction costs, higher security prices, and a lower primary market cost of capital for Fannie Mae. We then analyze a change in market design—the Single Security Initiative—which consolidated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS trading into a single market in June 2019. We find that consolidation increased the liquidity and prices of Freddie Mac MBS without measurably reducing liquidity for Fannie Mae; this was in part achieved by aligning characteristics of the underlying MBS pools issued by the two agencies. Prices partially converged prior to the consolidation event, in anticipation of future liquidity. Consolidation increased Freddie Mac’s fee income by enabling it to remove discounts that previously compensated loan sellers for lower liquidity.

Suggested Citation

  • Haoyang Liu & Zhaogang Song & James Vickery, 2021. "Defragmenting Markets: Evidence from Agency MBS," Staff Reports 965, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:91312
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr965.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr965.html
    File Function: Summary
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael J. Barclay & Terrence Hendershott, 2004. "Liquidity Externalities and Adverse Selection: Evidence from Trading after Hours," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(2), pages 681-710, April.
    2. Chris Downing & Dwight Jaffee, 2009. "Is the Market for Mortgage-Backed Securities a Market for Lemons?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2257-2294, July.
    3. Pasquariello, Paolo & Vega, Clara, 2009. "The on-the-run liquidity phenomenon," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-24, April.
    4. Battalio, Robert H, 1997. "Third Market Broker-Dealers: Cost Competitors or Cream Skimmers?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 341-352, March.
    5. Dimitri Vayanos & Pierre‐Olivier Weill, 2008. "A Search‐Based Theory of the On‐the‐Run Phenomenon," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1361-1398, June.
    6. Terrence Hendershott & Haim Mendelson, 2000. "Crossing Networks and Dealer Markets: Competition and Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 2071-2115, October.
    7. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    8. W. Scott Frame & Lawrence J. White, 2005. "Fussing and Fuming over Fannie and Freddie: How Much Smoke, How Much Fire?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 159-184, Spring.
    9. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Tan, 2007. "Search and endogenous concentration of liquidity in asset markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 66-104, September.
    10. Thierry Foucault & Albert J. Menkveld, 2008. "Competition for Order Flow and Smart Order Routing Systems," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(1), pages 119-158, February.
    11. Nina Boyarchenko & Andreas Fuster & David O Lucca, 2019. "Understanding Mortgage Spreads," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(10), pages 3799-3850.
    12. Xavier Gabaix & Arvind Krishnamurthy & Olivier Vigneron, 2007. "Limits of Arbitrage: Theory and Evidence from the Mortgage‐Backed Securities Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 557-595, April.
    13. Huang, Ming, 2003. "Liquidity shocks and equilibrium liquidity premia," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 104-129, March.
    14. Adrian, Tobias & Boyarchenko, Nina & Shachar, Or, 2017. "Dealer balance sheets and bond liquidity provision," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 92-109.
    15. Marco Pagano, 1989. "Trading Volume and Asset Liquidity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 255-274.
    16. Nicholas Economides, 1997. "The Economics of Networks," Brazilian Electronic Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, vol. 1(0), December.
    17. Zhiguo He & Wei Xiong, 2012. "Dynamic Debt Runs," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(6), pages 1799-1843.
    18. Jason Allen & Milena Wittwer, 2023. "Centralizing Over-the-Counter Markets?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(12), pages 3310-3351.
    19. Mikhail Chernov & Brett R. Dunn & Francis A. Longstaff, 2018. "Macroeconomic-Driven Prepayment Risk and the Valuation of Mortgage-Backed Securities," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 1132-1183.
    20. Barclay, Michael J. & Hendershott, Terrence & Jones, Charles M., 2008. "Order Consolidation, Price Efficiency, and Extreme Liquidity Shocks," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 93-121, March.
    21. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    22. Terrence Hendershott & Charles M. Jones, 2005. "Island Goes Dark: Transparency, Fragmentation, and Regulation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 743-793.
    23. Pengjie Gao & Paul Schultz & Zhaogang Song, 2017. "Liquidity in a Market for Unique Assets: Specified Pool and To-Be-Announced Trading in the Mortgage-Backed Securities Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 1119-1170, June.
    24. Viral V. Acharya & Matthew Richardson & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Lawrence J. White, 2011. "Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9400.
    25. Boehmer, Beatrice & Boehmer, Ekkehart, 2003. "Trading your neighbor's ETFs: Competition or fragmentation?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(9), pages 1667-1703, September.
    26. Weill, Pierre-Olivier, 2008. "Liquidity premia in dynamic bargaining markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 66-96, May.
    27. Bennett, Paul & Wei, Li, 2006. "Market structure, fragmentation, and market quality," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 49-78, February.
    28. Vayanos, Dimitri, 1998. "Transaction Costs and Asset Prices: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(1), pages 1-58.
    29. Haoyang Liu & Zhaogang Song & James Vickery, 2021. "Defragmenting Markets: Evidence from Agency MBS," Working Papers 21-25, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    30. Nils Friewald & Rainer Jankowitsch & Marti G. Subrahmanyam, 2017. "Transparency and Liquidity in the Structured Product Market," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(2), pages 316-348.
    31. Zhiguo He & Arvind Krishnamurthy, 2018. "Intermediary Asset Pricing and the Financial Crisis," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 173-197, November.
    32. Yong Chao & Chen Yao & Mao Ye, 2019. "Why Discrete Price Fragments U.S. Stock Exchanges and Disperses Their Fee Structures," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 1068-1101.
    33. Mendelson, Haim, 1982. "Market Behavior in a Clearing House," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1505-1524, November.
    34. Chowdhry, Bhagwan & Nanda, Vikram, 1991. "Multimarket Trading and Market Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(3), pages 483-511.
    35. Schultz, Paul & Song, Zhaogang, 2019. "Transparency and dealer networks: Evidence from the initiation of post-trade reporting in the mortgage backed security market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 113-133.
    36. Roll, Richard, 1984. "A Simple Implicit Measure of the Effective Bid-Ask Spread in an Efficient Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1127-1139, September.
    37. Amihud, Yakov & Lauterbach, Beni & Mendelson, Haim, 2003. "The Value of Trading Consolidation: Evidence from the Exercise of Warrants," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(4), pages 829-846, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huh, Yesol & Kim, You Suk, 2023. "Cheapest-to-deliver pricing, optimal MBS securitization, and welfare implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 68-93.
    2. Andreas Fuster & David Lucca & James Vickery, 2023. "Mortgage-backed securities," Chapters, in: Refet S. Gürkaynak & Jonathan H. Wright (ed.), Research Handbook of Financial Markets, chapter 15, pages 331-357, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Haoyang Liu & Zhaogang Song & James Vickery, 2021. "Defragmenting Markets: Evidence from Agency MBS," Working Papers 21-25, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    4. Michael J. Fleming & Haoyang Liu & Rich Podjasek & Jake Schurmeier, 2022. "The Federal Reserve’s Market Functioning Purchases," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 28(1), pages 210-241, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2013. "Market Liquidity—Theory and Empirical Evidence ," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1289-1361, Elsevier.
    2. Markus Baldauf & Joshua Mollner, 2015. "Trading in Fragmented Markets," Discussion Papers 15-018, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    3. O'Hara, Maureen & Ye, Mao, 2011. "Is market fragmentation harming market quality?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 459-474, June.
    4. Peter Gomber & Satchit Sagade & Erik Theissen & Moritz Christian Weber & Christian Westheide, 2017. "Competition Between Equity Markets: A Review Of The Consolidation Versus Fragmentation Debate," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 792-814, July.
    5. Emiliano S. Pagnotta & Thomas Philippon, 2018. "Competing on Speed," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(3), pages 1067-1115, May.
    6. Paolo Pasquariello & Clara Vega, 2015. "Strategic Cross-Trading in the U.S. Stock Market," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(1), pages 229-282.
    7. Carole Gresse, 2017. "Effects of Lit and Dark Market Fragmentation on Liquidity," Post-Print hal-01631771, HAL.
    8. Chen, Jing & Dong, Yizhe & Hou, Wenxuan & McMillan, David G., 2018. "Does feedback trading drive returns of cross-listed shares?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 179-199.
    9. Anton Tsoy, 2016. "Liquidity and Prices in Decentralized Markets with Almost Public Information," 2016 Meeting Papers 8, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Suchismita Mishra & Le Zhao, 2021. "Order Routing Decisions for a Fragmented Market: A Review," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-32, November.
    11. Bernales, Alejandro & Ladley, Daniel & Litos, Evangelos & Valenzuela, Marcela, 2021. "Dark trading and alternative execution priority rules," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118866, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Clapham, Benjamin & Gomber, Peter & Panz, Sven, 2017. "Coordination of circuit breakers? Volume migration and volatility spillover in fagmented markets," SAFE Working Paper Series 196, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    13. Carole Gresse, 2011. "Effects of Lit and Dark Market Fragmentation on Liquidity," Post-Print halshs-00641122, HAL.
    14. Jurich, Stephen N., 2021. "Does off-exchange trading decrease in the presence of uncertainty?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 201-213.
    15. Dimitri Vayanos & Pierre‐Olivier Weill, 2008. "A Search‐Based Theory of the On‐the‐Run Phenomenon," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1361-1398, June.
    16. Goldstein, Michael A. & Namin, Elmira Shekari, 2023. "Corporate bond liquidity and yield spreads: A review," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Dirk Schiereck & Christian Voigt, 2010. "With or without you: market quality of floor trading when screen trading closes early," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 179-197, February.
    18. Aitken, Michael & Chen, Haoming & Foley, Sean, 2017. "The impact of fragmentation, exchange fees and liquidity provision on market quality," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 140-160.
    19. Lewis, Kurt F. & Longstaff, Francis A. & Petrasek, Lubomir, 2021. "Asset mispricing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(3), pages 981-1006.
    20. Vayanos, Dimitri & Wang, Jiang, 2009. "Liquidity and asset prices: a united framework," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 29303, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    MBS; TBA; Single Security Initiative; UMBS; liquidity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:91312. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gabriella Bucciarelli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbnyus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.