Fannie Mae’s single-family whole loan conduit is designed to provide liquidity to the mortgage market.

The government-sponsored enterprise’s whole loan conduit, also known as the Cash Commitment Window, allowed nearly 1,100 small and mid-sized lenders to deliver loans to the enterprise in exchange for cash in 2012, according to a blog from Fannie Mae executive Renee Schultz, who serves as senior vice president of capital markets single-family products and business initiatives.

By offering competitive pricing and flexibility in committing, Fannie Mae makes such an execution easy to lenders, while also providing lenders with an opportunity to retain servicing rights for the loans they have delivered, Schultz explained in her post.

The program also offers investors a chance to obtain diversified pools of mortgages.

In recent years,  a larger percentage of Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities issuance has come from the whole loan conduit, particularly following the housing meltdown.

Overall, the whole loan conduit offers benefits to small and mid-sized lenders—namely immediate funding and flexible commitments, Schultz explained.