Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., of Spokane, has raised more than $293 million through a recent offering, called a securitization, that involved the sale of about 3,500 adjustable-rate and fixed-rate mortgage loans.


The latest securitization, completed late last month, was by far the largest of 13 such offerings held by the Spokane company over the last four and a half years. Eleven of those offerings involved the sale of real estate mortgage loans, and the other two involved the sale of other cash-flow instruments. The total amount the company has raised through those offerings is nearly $1.8 billion.


Securitizations allow the sellers to receive upfront, lump-sum payments from institutional investors by issuing securities that pledge a future cash flow. In Metropolitans case, most of that cash flow comes from mortgages that it and some of its subsidiaries sell. One of its subsidiaries, Metwest Mortgage Services Inc., also receives fees for continuing to service the loans after the sale.


In the latest transaction, Metropolitan and a subsidiary, Western United Life Assurance Co., sold $300 million worth of loans to a special-purpose affiliate, called Metropolitan Mortgage Funding Inc. That affiliate then sold the loans to a trust that Metropolitan created to issue the securities. In this case, the securities were mortgage pass-through certificates, which represent ownership interests in the trust. The difference between the $300 million worth of loans sold into the trust and the $293 million worth of loans bought by investors is a 2.25 percent over-collateralization that is retained in the trust as added security for investors.


Lynn A. Ciani, associate corporate counsel at Metropolitan, says investor response to the offering was excellent.


About 88 percent of the certificates received an AAA rating from rating agencies Moodys and Fitch Inc. and the remaining 12 percent received an investment-grade rating of BBB or better.


The securities were underwritten by Banc of America Securities LLC, of Charlotte, N.C.