October 11, 2011
I am an individual investor. I am retired. A portion of my portfolio is invested in mREITS. As I interpret the 1940 investment act, these entities are clearly exempt from the leverage cap imposed upon many business investment vehicles. Exchange traded mREITS such as NLY and AGNC do not issue securities with a promised rate of return but rather declare dividends quarterly based on their results for that time period. Their results can vary, depending upon the steepness of the yield curve, the availability of short term funding as well as other factors. As an individual non-professional investor,I am still aware of these risks,and realize that there may be no dividend in times of an inverted yield curve,a disruption of the repo market or other factors. A loss of principal may also occur. That being said, I urge you not to impose additional regulation on these entities, since they not only provide investors like myself with the chance for additional income, but let agencies like FNMA and FMAC sell more securitized mortgages,and thus take on new or refi mortgages, which goes to the root of our country's current financial problems, without an additional burden on taxpayers