UPDATE 1-Fannie, Freddie regulator looks to end govt control before Trump’s exit- WSJ
Nov 20- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator is pushing to speed uent con exit from government control, but is yet to reach an agreement with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. U.S. housing finance regulator Mark Calabria is focused on the exit plan for the home mortgage companies, but…
Nov 20 (Reuters) – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator is
pushing to speed uent con exit from government control, but is
yet to reach an agreement with Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people
familiar with the matter.
U.S. housing finance regulator Mark Calabria is focused onthe exit plan for the home mortgage companies, but completingthe procedure before U.S. President Donald Trump’s term ends onJan. 20 is a long shot, and President-elect Joe Biden will mostlikely not continue the effort, according to the report. (https://on.wsj.com/3nAGqcO)
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) did notimmediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Mnuchin is “supportive of locking in a path to privateownership”, but mindful of steps that could disrupt thehousing-finance market, the report said, citing one personfamiliar with the effort.
It also said Mnuchin must agree to any move to alter theterms of either Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s bailout agreementor the government’s stakes.
The companies have operated under government conservatorshipsince they were bailed out during the 2008 subprime mortgagecrisis. But for years now, Washington has struggled to devise aplan to safely return the guarantors of over half of thenation’s mortgages to the private sector.
Calabria has outlined an ambitious course for removing thetwo firms from government control, which includes reviewingtheir business activities, shoring up their accounting, andraising billions in capital.
FHFA has finalized a capital rule for the pair that willrequire them to raise more than $200 billion.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and MichellePrice in Washington; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)