Speculation about the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is reaching a fever pitch as the new head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has quickly moved to replace senior staff and board members at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
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President Donald Trump’s administration is considering issuing an executive order that would direct agencies to study the impact of the privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.
In one proposal circulating at the White House, the government would raise $20B to $30B from new investors through something like an initial public offering for the agency’s stock. It estimates that Fannie and Freddie would have a combined value above $330B, with the government’s stake valued at more than $250B, per the WSJ.
The cash the government could raise through the ending of conservatorship — government oversight of the secondary mortgage market lenders that underpin the U.S. housing market — could be used as seed funding for a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested on a podcast earlier last week.
The rumors are swirling as Bill Pulte, who was confirmed by the Senate to lead the FHFA on March 13, cleans house across the agencies.
Pulte appointed himself as the chairman of the board at both Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac less than a week after his confirmation. At the same time, he moved to replace eight Fannie board members with four new appointees while ousting six Freddie board members and replacing them with three new members. Freddie Mac CEO Diana Reid was fired the same week.
One of the appointments to Fannie’s board was Christopher Stanley, a cybersecurity engineer at SpaceX and X, two companies owned by billionaire Elon Musk, who is tearing through Washington, D.C., with his Department of Government Efficiency. Stanley resigned the next day without citing a reason and none has been offered by the government.
Dozens of the FHFA's more than 700 employees have been placed on indefinite administrative leave since Pulte took over, according to the National Treasury Employees Union, the WSJ reported. They include employees who oversee the enforcement of fair housing rules and a group of researchers focused on housing financing.
The FHFA declined to comment when reached by Bisnow Monday. Pulte has praised employees at the agencies he oversees in his most recent post to social media platform X, where he has amassed more than 3 million followers.
“I spent the weekend speaking with some great leaders at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” he wrote on March 16. “There are some really great people inside of these businesses, and the good news for them is there is a lot of upward mobility, to earn and grow MORE!”
Releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from government oversight has been a goal of Republicans for more than a decade.
Trump began to explore ending conservatorship during his first term before the pandemic struck, his allies began to plot the agencies’ release even before Trump won a second term, and Pulte faced questions about conservatorship during his confirmation hearings.
The two agencies buy up mortgages on the secondary market to boost lending liquidity, and their guarantee that the debt will perform is widely considered the reason the U.S. has the 30-year mortgage that underpins the housing market.
After his confirmation, Pulte told CNN he was in favor of ending conservatorship, but added that “it’s critical to ensure any discussion about exiting conservatorship needs not only to ensure safety and soundness but how it would affect mortgage rates.”
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