Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) are debt obligations that represent claims to the cash flows from pools of mortgage loans. Generally, a Mortgage-Backed Security is associated with residential property. When a person wishes to purchase property, he/she usually must secure a loan from a local bank. These loans for mortgages are then purchased from banks, and then assembled into pools by a governmental or private entity. It is here that the process known as securitization begins: the entity, which purchased the mortgage loans, issues securities that represent claims on the principal and interest payments made by borrowers on the loans in the pool. Mortgage-Backed Securities are often issued by one of three government-created agencies: the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). While the latter two are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, they nonetheless have special authority to borrow from the U.S. Treasury.