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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

FHFA to sue banks over flawed mortgages

Fri, 09/02/2011 - 16:39 by Jaspreet Virk

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is preparing to drag more than dozen of banks to court over mortgage-backed securities.

Fate of Fannie and Freddie in limbo

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 21:59 by Inderjit Singh

Washington -- Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary Michael Barr said the housing market was still too fragile for a retreat from federal support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"We're just beginning to see some positive signs in the housing market, but we're not out of the woods yet and so we want to be careful," Barr said.

That recovery is at such a nascent stage that discussions include polar opposites, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Fully nationalizing the two huge mortgage brokers that now own or insure more than half the mortgages in the United States is one option. Fully privatizing the firms that represent a $125 billion bailout investment is another option.

House eyes abolishing Fannie, Freddie

Sat, 01/23/2010 - 21:32 by Inderjit Singh

Washington -- A House panel is preparing to recommend that troubled quasi-public U.S. mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be abolished, its chairman says.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Friday that the House Financial Services Committee is seriously considering scrapping the giant mortgage guarantors and establishing alternative forms of home financing, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"The remedy here is ... as I believe this committee will be recommending, abolishing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form and coming up with a whole new system of housing finance," Frank said, without elaborating.

FBOP Corp. bought by U.S. Bancorp

Sun, 11/01/2009 - 10:35 by shalini.bahadur

Chicago -- The Chicago area's third-largest locally based bank holding company was seized by federal regulators and purchased by Minnesota-based U.S. Bancorp.

Oak Park-based FBOP Corp. was shut down Friday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., after failing in the wake of the federal government's seizure more than a year ago of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

At the time, FBOP had seen more than $800 million of the preferred stock it held in Fannie and Freddie wiped out.
With the acquisition of the failed bank, U.S. Bank becomes the 11th-largest bank in the Chicago area, growing from 57 to 87 branches and increasing its deposits from $2.4 billion to $5.8 billion, Crain's reported.

Qualified 'niche' borrowers frozen out

Mon, 09/07/2009 - 21:54 by surajdogra

Washington -- Tough U.S. government home lending standards in the wake of the mortgage crisis are making it harder for some qualified borrowers to get funding, analysts say.

With the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the reluctance of banks to issue new mortgages, nearly 90 percent of all new home loans are now either funded or guaranteed by taxpayers. And the standards embraced by the government have resulted in some prospective "niche" borrowers -- who would have gotten loans in past years even under strict standards -- being frozen out of the market, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Fannie, Freddie see share price run-up

Tue, 08/25/2009 - 03:04 by surajdogra

Washington -- Investors flocked to bailed-out mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Monday, pushing their share prices much higher, exchange data indicates.

The New York Stock Exchange listed Fannie Mae's closing price Monday at $1.70, up 41.7 percent, while Freddie Mac finished at $2.05 per share, up 32 cents, or 18.5 percent higher.

Analysts told CNNMoney.com that the U.S. government-backed mortgage giants benefited from run-ups in the share prices of financial companies such as AIG and Citigroup.

Head of FHFA plans to step down

Thu, 08/06/2009 - 02:21 by surajdogra

Washington -- James B. Lockhart III plans to resign as director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, sources told The Washington Post.

Lockhart helped coordinate the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
last year. The FHFA now controls the two lenders.

The Post said its sources did not give a date for Lockhart's departure.

An old friend of former President George W. Bush from prep school, college and the Harvard School of Business Administration, Lockhart served in the administrations of both Bush and his father. He headed the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. in the first Bush administration and was named head of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which became the FHFA, by the younger Bush.