The Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), or Ginnie Mae, is a government-owned corporation of the United States Federal Government within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It was founded in 1968 and works to expand affordable housing by guaranteeing housing loans (mortgages) thereby lowering financing costs such as interest rates for those loans. It does that by guaranteeing investors the on-time payment of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) even if homeowners default on the underlying mortgages and the homes are foreclosed upon.
Ginnie Mae guarantees only securities backed by single-family and multifamily loans insured by government agencies, including the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Public and Indian Housing, and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development. Ginnie Mae neither originates nor purchases mortgage loans nor buys, sells or issues securities. The credit risk on the mortgage collateral underlying its mortgage-backed securities primarily resides with other insuring government agencies.
