Sharpening Focus on a ‘Peek-a-Boo’ Recovery
In this Issue
In this Summer Issue of Perspectives, we take a close look at a market still in turmoil, while examining some of the excellent tools available to help you survive in a rapidly evolving market. Whether or not and how fast the market is improving seems to depend more on one’s personal outlook than the churning statistics and peaks and valleys of the recovery. In short, ‘now you see it, now you don’t.’
As Congress works its magic on reconciling House and Senate versions of financial legislation reform, promised for Presidential signature within a few weeks, federal agencies form and collapse on paper almost instantly, while banking impacts large and small weigh in the balance. What lies ahead is a murky picture at best. But as always, MIAC offers a sound synopsis and expert opinions on where we are NOW and where we are headed.
In our first article, MIAC’s Software Suite: Significantly Expanded and Enhanced, Lisa Malie, Senior Vice President, Product Management, provides an explanation of how MIAC has enhanced its suite of essential software to accommodate a volatile market. As always, our focus has been on providing you, our customers, with expanded capabilities, improved integration and, of course, transparency and control. Find out how we’ve improved these already critical tools and how they can help you in an ever changing market.
In State of the Commercial Real Estate Lending Markets, Dean Hurley, Senior Vice President, Capital Markets, examines the conflicting perspectives on the commercial real estate lending recovery in the offing and provides an insider’s view to what really lies ahead.
Making Sure You Have the Right Model – And That Your Model is Right, by Alexander Samuel, Vice President, Capital Markets, provides an insightful and easily understood guide to determining how best to evaluate your models and their performance. In his insightful article, Alex explains, among other topics: the purpose of model testing; the difference between model verification and model validation; industry best practices; and how MIAC goes about the verification and validation process to ensure our tools are reliable, accurate and up-to-date.
Dan Thomas, Managing Director, provides a very current and transaction rich look at the commercial servicing market in his article: Commercial Servicing Market Update. In this article, Dan profiles both current deals and market values for those who need to know how this market is performing, complete with an outlook for 2010 and beyond.
For those who keep a finger on the residential MSR market, Mike Carnes, Vice President of Capital Markets, provides a compelling look at the current residential market in his Residential MSR Market Update. Find out why firms should be cautious about trying to support particular values before taking into consideration often overlooked performance matrices, and also why we currently find ourselves in one of the best buyer markets in history.
Finally, we round out this issue with an in depth, insightful look at MIAC’s Constant Maturity Mortgage Calculator by Edmund Li, Vice President, Financial Engineering. During the past decade, CMM products (constant maturity mortgage forward and constant maturity mortgage swap) have emerged in the mortgage market as very effective hedging instruments, especially in the servicing hedging area. Edmund’s article explains in detail how these instruments work and how MIAC has integrated the Constant Maturity Mortgage Calculator into our ALM Suite to benefit our customers.
Providing our clients with the best tools and comprehensive market knowledge they require to be successful is MIAC’s mandate. This issue of Perspectives continues that commitment. We trust this selection of articles provides needed focus on a clouded economic horizon.
We welcome your feedback. For each article, we’ve included a Comments feature to capture any remarks and questions you may have. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this issue as well as any suggestions for future topics of interest.
David McCraw, Perspectives Editor
www.MIACAnalytics.com
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 1401,
New York, NY 10038
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