MBS Question

Hi there,

What is the answer to this question?

VPS holds a pool of commercial interest-only mortgages. The annual independent default probability for each mortgage is 8%. VPS intends to pool 4 mortgages into a collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) vehicle, which then issues securities structured into three tranches, a senior Tranche A (50% of issue), a mezzanine Tranche B (25% of issue) and a junior Tranche C (25% of issue). C holds the first, B the second and A the third loss position. VPS expects that tranches with a default risk of not more than 1% can be sold to institutional investors. If a mortgage defaults, there will be zero recovery of capital.

a. What are the default probabilities for each tranche? Annotate all calculations?

b. Assume that the B tranche can be split into 4 equally sized securities which again are pooled and structured exactly in the same way as the CMO described above. After both securitisation steps, which percentage of the commercial mortgage values has been transformed into investment grade securities?

Many thanks,

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