JPMorgan Chase & Co. is trying to sell new securities that would pass along most of the credit risk on $1.9 billion in mortgages, in an attempt to revive a debt market that has been largely left to the government since the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The largest U.S. bank by assets is expected to price the residential mortgage-backed deal over the next two weeks. J.P. Morgan would hold 90 percent of the deal by keeping the safest parts, or the most senior tranches, and plans to sell off the riskier pieces to investors. Banks issued trillions of dollars worth of bonds backed by home loans in the years before the financial crisis but have had trouble winning over investors burned when the market crashed. Financial institutions issued $61.6 billion in private mortgage bonds in 2015, up from $54.1 billion in 2014 but a fraction of the $1.19 trillion issued at the peak of the housing boom in 2005, according to data from trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.
