Securitization

Basically, "securitization" refers to the process of turning something into a financial security. That process sounds sinister (and painful)...like, an evil genius would kidnap you and connect you to a machine that would squish and squeeze you and mix you with a fluid made of pure distilled contract language...until you came out the other side as a newly-pressed security.

It doesn't quite happen that way. Instead, the process involves pooling assets, and then issuing a security based on those assets.

Probably the most famous version of this system comes from mortgage-backed securities. It might count as a bad example to use the type of securitization that almost tanked the economy back in '08...but it still counts as a well-known example. In that instance, bundles of similar mortgages were put together. Then securities were issued based on those mortgages, which could be bought and sold on exchanges, like stocks or bonds.

Mortgage-backed securities aren't the only examples, though. Securitization can happen with pretty much any assets. You could use auto loans, or commercial mortgages, or debt based on receivables.

The general process involves bundling the similar items together and then issuing securities based on that asset pool. Those steps define securitization. Injecting gallons of liquified contract language is completely optional.

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Finance: What does securitized mean?1 Views

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Finance allah shmoop What does securitized mean Well it happens

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when you make a security out of clay or mortgage

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bonds or debt backing two hundred thirty nine airplanes Well

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basically when you securitize something you're creating one large thing

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out of many small things to create liquidity and broader

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investment interest and flexibility and given category So think about

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the most famous securitisation in history Collateralized mortgage obligations or

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c M o's Where in a bunch of clever wall

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street people securitized subprime or high risk mortgages created that

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cmo security and then sold the crap out of it

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to investors And then bad things happened when an investor

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reviews one mortgage investment like a manny here Great guy

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Excellent golfer manny here is a gardener He makes forty

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five grand a year and now well meet His wife

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has moral The substitute school teacher She makes thirty grand

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a year Well they have three kids and for somehow

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able to get a loan for seven hundred fifty thousand

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dollars to buy this freaking amazing mansion Had one investor

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looked at this transaction while they would have realized that

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something was off Like how can a total family household

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income of seventy five grand be able to pay ten

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times that number in a mortgage Well a fudge here

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Ah fudge there a teaser rate for six months a

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sickly old uncle who promised to die soon and and

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yeah so when loans get securitized and it usually is

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loans are debt that gets securitized like this The theory

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was that there'd be less volatility less risk when lots

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of them were pooled together in one package But in

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fact there was on ly perversely extreme incentive to write

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loans from the various lending institutions writing those loans And

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there was poor management and poor governance in new well

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poor math and also porsche moving So the subprime mortgage

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securitized behemoth blew up famously and almost destroyed the american

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financial system Other things get securitized as well For example

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real estate holdings get securitized and what's called a reet

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or real estate investment trust which puts in tow one

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investing vehicle a whole bunch of usually aligned buildings like

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think a package of old age homes or a package

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of shopping malls or of office buildings or massage parlors

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or whatever floats your boat well the process simply makes

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one easily investable security out of lots of disconnected individual

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investments and usually that's good for everyone Everyone but this 00:02:23.908 --> [endTime] guy

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