NOTE 6—VARIABLE INTEREST ENTITIES AND SECURITIZATIONS

In the normal course of business, we enter into various types of transactions with entities that are considered to be VIEs. Our primary involvement with VIEs has been related to our securitization transactions in which we transferred assets from our balance sheet to securitization trusts. We have primarily securitized credit card and home loans, which have provided a source of funding for us and enabled us to transfer a certain portion of the economic risk of the loans or related debt securities to third parties.

The entity that has a controlling financial interest in a VIE is referred to as the primary beneficiary and is required to consolidate the VIE. The majority of the VIEs in which we are involved have been consolidated in our financial statements.

Summary of Consolidated and Unconsolidated VIEs

The assets of our consolidated VIEs primarily consist of cash, credit card loan receivables and the related allowance for loan and lease losses, which we report on our consolidated balance sheets under restricted cash for securitization investors, loans held in consolidated trusts and allowance for loan and lease losses, respectively. The assets of a particular VIE are the primary source of funding to settle its obligations. Creditors of these VIEs typically do not have recourse to our general credit. Liabilities primarily consist of debt securities issued by the VIEs, which we report under securitized debt obligations. For unconsolidated VIEs, we present the carrying amount of assets and liabilities reflected on our consolidated balance sheets and our maximum exposure to loss. Our maximum exposure to loss is estimated based on the unlikely event that all of the assets in the VIEs become worthless and we are required to meet our maximum remaining funding obligations.

The tables below present a summary of certain VIEs in which we had continuing involvement or held a variable interest, aggregated based on VIEs with similar characteristics as of December 31, 2017 and 2016. We separately present information for consolidated and unconsolidated VIEs.

Table 6.1: Carrying Amount of Consolidated and Unconsolidated VIEs



	December 31, 2017
	Consolidated				Unconsolidated
(Dollars in millions)	Carrying Amount of Assets		Carrying Amount of Liabilities		Carrying Amount of Assets		Carrying Amount of Liabilities		Maximum Exposure to Loss
Securitization-Related VIEs:
Credit card loan securitizations⁽¹⁾	$	34,976	$	20,651	$	0	$	0	$	0
Home loan securitizations	0		0		455		390		1,057
Total securitization-related VIEs	34,976		20,651		455		390		1,057
Other VIEs:⁽²⁾
Affordable housing entities	226		10		4,175		1,284		4,175
Entities that provide capital to low-income and rural communities	1,498		129		0		0		0
Other	0		0		318		0		318
Total other VIEs	1,724		139		4,493		1,284		4,493
Total VIEs	$	36,700	$	20,790	$	4,948	$	1,674	$	5,550



	December 31, 2016
	Consolidated				Unconsolidated
(Dollars in millions)	Carrying Amount of Assets		Carrying Amount of Liabilities		Carrying Amount of Assets		Carrying Amount of Liabilities		Maximum Exposure to Loss
Securitization-Related VIEs:
Credit card loan securitizations⁽¹⁾	$	33,550	$	19,662	$	0	$	0	$	0
Home loan securitizations	0		0		201		27		1,276
Total securitization-related VIEs	33,550		19,662		201		27		1,276
Other VIEs:⁽²⁾
Affordable housing entities	174		9		3,862		1,093		3,862
Entities that provide capital to low-income and rural communities	927		127		0		0		0
Other	0		0		187		0		187
Total other VIEs	1,101		136		4,049		1,093		4,049
Total VIEs	$	34,651	$	19,798	$	4,250	$	1,120	$	5,325

__________


⁽¹⁾	Represents the carrying amount of assets and liabilities owned by the VIE, which includes the seller’s interest and repurchased notes held by other related parties.

⁽²⁾

In certain investment structures, we consolidate a VIE which in turn holds as its primary asset an investment in an unconsolidated VIE. In these instances, we disclose the carrying amount of assets and liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets in the unconsolidated VIEs to avoid duplicating our exposure, as the unconsolidated VIEs are generally the operating entities generating the exposure. The carrying amount of assets and liabilities included in the unconsolidated VIE columns above related to these investment structures were $2.2 billion of assets and $901 million of liabilities as of December 31, 2017 and $1.9 billion of assets and $618 million of liabilities as of December 31, 2016.

Securitization-Related VIEs

In a securitization transaction, assets are transferred to a trust, which generally meets the definition of a VIE. Our primary securitization activity is in the form of credit card securitizations, conducted through securitization trusts which we consolidate. Our continuing involvement in these securitization transactions mainly consists of acting as the primary servicer and holding certain retained interests.

We transfer residential home loans and multifamily commercial loans that we originate to the government-sponsored enterprises (“GSEs”) and retain the right to service the transferred loans pursuant to the guidelines set forth by the GSEs. Subsequent to such transfers, these loans are commonly securitized into RMBS or CMBS by the GSEs. We also hold RMBS, CMBS and ABS in our investment portfolio, which represent an interest in the respective securitization trusts employed in the transactions under which those securities were issued. We do not consolidate the securitization trusts employed in these transactions as we do not have the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of these securitization trusts. Our maximum exposure to loss as a result of our involvement with these VIEs is the carrying value of MSRs and investment securities on our consolidated balance sheets. See “Note 7—Goodwill and Intangible Assets” for information related to our MSRs associated with these residential home loan and multifamily commercial loan securitizations and “Note 3—Investment Securities” for more information on the securities held in our investment securities portfolio. We exclude these VIEs from the tables within this note because we do not consider our continuing involvement with these VIEs to be significant; we either invest in securities issued by the VIE and were not involved in the design of the VIE or no transfers have occurred between the VIE and us. In addition, where we have certain lending arrangements in the normal course of business with entities that could be VIEs, we have also excluded these VIEs from the tables presented in this note. See “Note 4—Loans” for additional information regarding our lending arrangements in the normal course of business.

We also may have exposure associated with contractual obligations to repurchase previously transferred loans due to breaches of representations and warranties. See “Note 19—Commitments, Contingencies, Guarantees and Others” for information related to our mortgage representation and warranty exposure.

The table below presents our continuing involvement in certain securitization-related VIEs as of December 31, 2017 and 2016.

Table 6.2: Continuing Involvement in Securitization-Related VIEs



			Mortgage
(Dollars in millions)	Credit Card		Option- ARM		GreenPoint HELOCs		GreenPoint Manufactured Housing
December 31, 2017:
Securities held by third-party investors	$	20,010	$	1,224	$	42	$	508
Receivables in the trust	35,667		1,266		35		511
Cash balance of spread or reserve accounts	0		8		N/A		116
Retained interests	Yes		Yes		Yes		Yes
Servicing retained	Yes		Yes		No		No
December 31, 2016:
Securities held by third-party investors	$	18,826	$	1,499	$	56	$	697
Receivables in the trust	31,762		1,549		50		702
Cash balance of spread or reserve accounts	0		8		N/A		130
Retained interests	Yes		Yes		Yes		Yes
Servicing retained	Yes		Yes		No		No

Credit Card Securitizations

We hold certain retained interests in our credit card securitizations and continue to service the receivables in these trusts. As of both December 31, 2017 and 2016, we were deemed to be the primary beneficiary, and accordingly, all of these trusts have been consolidated in our financial statements.

Mortgage Securitizations

Option-ARM Loans

We had previously securitized option-ARM loans by transferring these loans to securitization trusts that had issued mortgage-backed securities to investors. The outstanding balance of debt securities held by third-party investors related to these mortgage loan securitization trusts was $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

We continue to service a portion of the remaining mortgage loans in these securitizations. We also retain rights to future cash flows arising from these securitizations, the most significant being certificated interest-only bonds issued by the trusts. We generally estimate the fair value of these retained interests based on the estimated present value of expected future cash flows, using our best estimates of the key assumptions which include credit losses, prepayment speeds and discount rates commensurate with the risks involved. For the mortgage loans that we continue to service, we do not consolidate the related trusts because we do not have the right to receive benefits nor the obligation to absorb losses that could potentially be significant to the trusts. For the remaining trusts, for which we no longer service the underlying mortgage loans, we do not consolidate these entities since we do not have the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the trusts.

In connection with the securitization of certain option-ARM loans, a third party is obligated to advance a portion of any “negative amortization” resulting from monthly payments that are less than the interest accrued for that payment period. We have an agreement in place with the third party that mirrors this advance requirement. The amount advanced is tracked through mortgage-backed securities retained as part of the securitization transaction. As advances occur, we record an asset in the form of negative amortization bonds, which are held at fair value in other assets on our consolidated balance sheets. Our maximum exposure is affected by rate caps and monthly payment change caps, but the funding obligation cannot exceed the difference between the original loan balance multiplied by a preset negative amortization cap and the current unpaid principal balance. For the transactions where the negative amortization funding agreements have been terminated, incremental negative amortization is funded through the available cash flow in each transaction.

We have also entered into certain derivative contracts related to the securitization activities. These are classified as free-standing derivatives, with fair value adjustments recorded in non-interest income in our consolidated statements of income. See “Note 10—Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities” for further details on these derivatives.

GreenPoint Mortgage Home Equity Lines of Credit (“HELOCs”)

Our discontinued wholesale mortgage banking unit, GreenPoint Mortgage Funding, Inc. (“GreenPoint”), previously sold HELOCs in whole loan sales that were subsequently securitized by third parties. GreenPoint acquired residual interests in certain of those securitization trusts. We do not consolidate these trusts because we either lack the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the trusts or because we do not have the right to receive benefits or the obligation to absorb losses that could potentially be significant to the trusts. As the residual interest holder, GreenPoint is required to fund advances on the HELOCs when certain performance triggers are met due to deterioration in asset performance. On behalf of GreenPoint, we have funded cumulative advances of $30 million as of both December 31, 2017 and 2016. We also have unfunded commitments of $4 million and $5 million related to those interests for our non-consolidated VIEs as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

GreenPoint Credit Manufactured Housing

Prior to October 2017, we had certain retained interests and obligations related to the discontinued manufactured housing operations of GreenPoint Credit, LLC, a subsidiary of GreenPoint. Such discontinued operations, including the related recourse obligations, servicing rights and the primary obligation to execute mandatory clean-up calls in certain securitization transactions were sold to a third party in 2004. These securitization trusts were not consolidated because we did not have the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the trusts as we did not service the loans.

The unpaid principal receivables balances of these manufactured housing securitization transactions were $511 million and $702 million as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. On October 10, 2017, we entered into an agreement with the third-party servicer under which we assumed the mandatory obligation to exercise the remaining clean-up calls as they become due on certain securitization transactions. As a result of this agreement, we recognized the loan receivables and a corresponding liability on our consolidated balance sheets. During November 2017, we entered into a forward sale agreement pursuant to which we will sell the underlying loans to a third-party purchaser as the clean-up calls are exercised. Accordingly, we classified these loan receivables as loans held for sale on our consolidated balance sheets. As of December 31, 2017, we had $283 million of these loan receivables on our consolidated balance sheets, along with a corresponding liability, which is included as a component of other debt.

We were required to fund letters of credit to cover losses on certain manufactured housing securitizations. We have the right to receive any funds remaining in the letters of credit after the securities are released. The fair value of these letters of credit are included in other assets on our consolidated balance sheets and totaled $75 million and $85 million as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. We also have credit exposure on an agreement that we entered into to absorb a portion of the risk of loss on certain manufactured housing securitizations not subject to the funded letters of credit. Our expected future obligation under this agreement included in other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets was $10 million and $8 million as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Other VIEs

Affordable Housing Entities

As part of our community reinvestment initiatives, we invest in private investment funds that make equity investments in multi-family affordable housing properties. We receive affordable housing tax credits for these investments. The activities of these entities are financed with a combination of invested equity capital and debt. We account for certain of our investments in qualified affordable housing projects using the proportional amortization method if certain criteria are met. The proportional amortization method amortizes the cost of the investment over the period in which the investor expects to receive tax credits and other tax benefits, and the resulting amortization is recognized as a component of income tax expense attributable to continuing operations. For the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, we recognized amortization of $582 million and $393 million, respectively, and tax credits of $504 million and $444 million, respectively, associated with these investments within income tax provision. The carrying value of our equity investments in these qualified affordable housing projects was $3.9 billion and $3.8 billion as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. We are periodically required to provide additional financial or other support during the period of the investments. Our liability for these unfunded commitments was $1.4 billion and $1.2 billion as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. Predominantly all of this liability is expected to be paid from 2018 to 2020.

For those investment funds considered to be VIEs, we are not required to consolidate them if we do not have the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of those entities. We record our interests in these unconsolidated VIEs in loans held for investment, other assets and other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets. Our maximum exposure to these entities is limited to our variable interests in the entities which consisted of assets of approximately $4.2 billion and $3.9 billion as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. The creditors of the VIEs have no recourse to our general credit and we do not provide additional financial or other support other than during the period that we are contractually required to provide it. The total assets of the unconsolidated VIE investment funds were approximately $11.5 billion as of both December 31, 2017 and 2016.

Entities that Provide Capital to Low-Income and Rural Communities

We hold variable interests in entities (“Investor Entities”) that invest in community development entities (“CDEs”) that provide debt financing to businesses and non-profit entities in low-income and rural communities. Variable interests in the CDEs held by the consolidated Investor Entities are also our variable interests. The activities of the Investor Entities are financed with a combination of invested equity capital and debt. The activities of the CDEs are financed solely with invested equity capital. We receive federal and state tax credits for these investments. We consolidate the VIEs in which we have the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the VIE’s economic performance and where we have the obligation to absorb losses or right to receive benefits that could be potentially significant to the VIE. We have also consolidated other investments and CDEs that are not considered to be VIEs, but where we hold a controlling financial interest. The assets of the VIEs that we consolidated, which totaled approximately $1.5 billion and $927 million as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively, are reflected on our consolidated balance sheets in cash, loans held for investment, and other assets. The liabilities are reflected in other liabilities. The creditors of the VIEs have no recourse to our general credit. We have not provided additional financial or other support other than during the period that we are contractually required to provide it.

Other

Other VIEs include variable interests that we hold in companies that promote renewable energy sources and other equity method investments. We were not required to consolidate these entities because we do not have the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact their economic performance. Our maximum exposure to these entities is limited to the investment on our consolidated balance sheets of $318 million and $187 million as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. The creditors of the other VIEs have no recourse to our general credit. We have not provided additional financial or other support other than during the period that we are contractually required to provide it.