Prepayment speed

Prepayment speed

Also called speed, the estimated rate at which mortgagors pay off their loans ahead of schedule, critical in assessing the value of mortgage pass-through securities.

Prepayment Speed

In mortgage-backed securities, the estimated rate at which mortgage borrowers will pay off the mortgages that underlie an MBS. The equivalent of the coupon on a mortgage-backed security is a percentage of the interest and principal paid on the mortgages backing the security. A risk associated with mortgage-backed securities is that too many homeowners will pay off their mortgages with too much prepayment speed, depriving the holders of the MBS from future coupon payments.