Non-consolidated variable interest entities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Disclosure Text Block

Non-consolidated Variable Interest Entities

Note 24 – Non-consolidated variable interest entities

The Corporation is involved with three statutory trusts which it established to issue trust preferred securities to the public. These trusts are deemed to be variable interest entities (“VIEs”) since the equity investors at risk have no substantial decision-making rights. The Corporation does not hold any variable interest in the trusts, and therefore, cannot be the trusts’ primary beneficiary. Furthermore, the Corporation concluded that it did not hold a controlling financial interest in these trusts since the decisions of the trusts are predetermined through the trust documents and the guarantee of the trust preferred securities is irrelevant since in substance the sponsor is guaranteeing its own debt.

Also, the Corporation is involved with various special purpose entities mainly in guaranteed mortgage securitization transactions, including GNMA and FNMA. These special purpose entities are deemed to be VIEs since they lack equity investments at risk. The Corporation’s continuing involvement in these guaranteed loan securitizations includes owning certain beneficial interests in the form of securities as well as the servicing rights retained. The Corporation is not required to provide additional financial support to any of the variable interest entities to which it has transferred the financial assets. The mortgage-backed securities, to the extent retained, are classified in the Corporation’s Consolidated Statements of Financial Condition as available-for-sale or trading securities. The Corporation concluded that, essentially, these entities (FNMA and GNMA) control the design of their respective VIEs, dictate the quality and nature of the collateral, require the underlying insurance, set the servicing standards via the servicing guides and can change them at will, and can remove a primary servicer with cause, and without cause in the case of FNMA. Moreover, through their guarantee obligations, agencies (FNMA and GNMA) have the obligation to absorb losses that could be potentially significant to the VIE.

The Corporation holds variable interests in these VIEs in the form of agency mortgage-backed securities and collateralized mortgage obligations, including those securities originated by the Corporation and those acquired from third parties. Additionally, the Corporation holds agency mortgage-backed securities and agency collateralized mortgage obligations issued by third party VIEs in which it has no other form of continuing involvement. Refer to Note 27 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information on the debt securities outstanding at December 31, 2020 and 2019, which are classified as available-for-sale and trading securities in the Corporation’s Consolidated Statements of Financial Condition. In addition, the Corporation holds variable interests in the form of servicing fees, since it retains the right to service the transferred loans in those government-sponsored special purpose entities (“SPEs”) and may also purchase the right to service loans in other government-sponsored SPEs that were transferred to those SPEs by a third-party.

The following table presents the carrying amount and classification of the assets related to the Corporation’s variable interests in non-consolidated VIEs and the maximum exposure to loss as a result of the Corporation’s involvement as servicer of GNMA and FNMA loans at December 31, 2020 and 2019.

(In thousands)		December 31, 2020		December 31, 2019
Assets
Servicing assets:
	Mortgage servicing rights	$	90,273	$	115,718
Total servicing assets		$	90,273	$	115,718
Other assets:
	Servicing advances	$	8,769	$	29,212
Total other assets		$	8,769	$	29,212
Total assets		$	99,042	$	144,930
Maximum exposure to loss		$	99,042	$	144,930

The size of the non-consolidated VIEs, in which the Corporation has a variable interest in the form of servicing fees, measured as the total unpaid principal balance of the loans, amounted to $8.7 billion at December 31, 2020 (December 31, 2019 - $9.9 billion).

The Corporation determined that the maximum exposure to loss includes the fair value of the MSRs and the assumption that the servicing advances at December 31, 2020 and 2019 will not be recovered. The agency debt securities are not included as part of the maximum exposure to loss since they are guaranteed by the related agencies.

ASU 2009-17 requires that an ongoing primary beneficiary assessment should be made to determine whether the Corporation is the primary beneficiary of any of the VIEs it is involved with. The conclusion on the assessment of these non-consolidated VIEs has not changed since their initial evaluation. The Corporation concluded that it is still not the primary beneficiary of these VIEs, and therefore, these VIEs are not required to be consolidated in the Corporation’s financial statements at December 31, 2020.