What benefit do banks get by selling/transferring your mortgage to a different institution?

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As long as I’ve owned a home, I’ve had a mortgage. The mortgage I generally have had is usually through whatever lender came through at the time of my home purchase, but isn’t necessarily one of my choosing – it hasn’t mattered much on the company though, because as long as the mortgage rate was what I agreed to, it didn’t matter to me. Within a year or so of buying the home and establishing the mortgage, it always seems that the initial lender “sells” off the mortgage to another institution or bank. When/if that happens, the new company assumes the same terms and my mortgage remains unchanged. Same thing when I have refinance the home – the refinance company comes in with a better rate (used to, at least) and within a short time frame, sells the mortgage off to another company. To make things even stranger, this has happened to me even with an established mortgage of several years with the same company/bank. I can’t fathom why/any benefit the banks get from doing this.

TL;DR: why do banks sell/transfer mortgages around if there is no change to your term? How does it benefit them?

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22 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

No different than buying/selling stocks, bonds, commodity futures or any other financial instrument. They’re making bets on the value of that instrument increasing, diversifying their portfolio, adjusting their risk levels or whatever else.

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