One of the key strategies that several Putnam fixed-income funds have successfully employed is the use of non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). As the name would imply, these securities are backed by residential mortgages and have been securitized not by a government agency — such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac — but by a
Under the Dodd-Frank Act, many derivatives will move from over-the-counter trading to exchanges or electronic trading systems. What will this mean for Putnam funds? The Act sets the broad outlines for regulation, which will be implemented through the new powers of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in greater detail
On the heels of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in late 2008, the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Board (the “Fed”) rolled out a number of unprecedented programs designed to inject liquidity into the financial system. The mortgage purchase program began in conjunction with the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or “TARP,” and both were designed to