Treasury Begins Process To Unwind Fannie, Freddie Oversight
Donald Trump’s election in November renewed hopes among some investors that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would once again be privatized.
It turns out they didn’t have to wait for the next administration to get the ball rolling.
The U.S. Department of Treasury announced late Thursday it was amending its agreement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency to begin unwinding its oversight over the mortgage lenders that was put in place after the Great Recession.
The changes to the preferred stock purchase agreements, or PSPAs, between the Treasury Department and the government-sponsored enterprises of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are bureaucratic and byzantine but essential to the lenders’ eventual release from government oversight.
“Conservatorship was never intended to be perpetual, and we support efforts toward the GSEs' release,” Mortgage Bankers Association CEO Bob Broeksmit said in a statement following Treasury’s announcement.
“We appreciate the rationale behind today’s changes to the PSPAs, which are designed to foster transparency across government agencies, share market impact analysis, and give appropriate time for market participants to provide feedback on proposed reforms,” he said.
The new agreement terms restore Treasury’s ability to consent to the release of the GSEs from conservatorship for the first time since 2021. They also outline how public input would be requested and considered prior to any GSE’s release from oversight, call for a public comment period and ask the FHFA to provide Treasury with a plan to end its conservatorship.
The amended agreement does not extend the September 2028 expiration date for warrants for GSE shares held by the Treasury. But the department said in a statement that it expects that date will ultimately be extended “to the extent appropriate in order to avoid any possibility of a disorderly or disruptive exit from conservatorship.”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were moved into conservatorship and propped up with a massive government purchase of stock shares in 2008 as the collapse of the subprime mortgage market helped kick off the Global Financial Crisis.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are by far the most active participants in the $11T mortgage-backed securities market, with $310B in average daily trading volume as of November, according to trader-broker trade organization Sifma.
Before Treasury’s announcement Monday, activist investor and GSE stockholder Bill Ackman said in a long social media post that he was optimistic the incoming president would fully privatize the lenders during his second term.
“Trump likes big deals and this would be the biggest deal in history,” he wrote, estimating that the government would make roughly $300B. “I am confident he will get it done.”
