Pursuits
U.S. Mortgage-Bond Proposal to Melt 8-Year Freeze Advances
- Bond funds call for independent `deal agent' as overseer
- Working with Treasury to boost market that sparked crisis
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The market for U.S. mortgage securities without government backing, virtually frozen since the financial crisis that it helped trigger, may get a boost from some of the biggest bond funds on Wall Street.
Heeding calls from the U.S. Treasury Department to help fix the market for the bonds, the funds issued a set of "key principles" on Monday designed to add transparency to the securities. The main initiative calls for an independent firm to act as a "deal agent," likened to a board of directors, with oversight over the other parties in each transaction.