Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
As the largest sources of home financing in the U.S., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as regulated by HUD, are charged by Congress with "providing stability and liquidity in the secondary mortgage market, providing secondary market assistance relating to mortgages for low- and moderate-income families, and promoting access to mortgage credit throughout the Nation, including underserved areas." Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fund residential mortgages by purchasing loans directly from lenders, such as mortgage bankers and depository institutions, and holding these loans in portfolio or by issuing mortgage-backed securities that are sold to a wide variety of investors in the capital markets.
While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are privately owned corporations, their status as congressionally authorized, government sponsored enterprises, empowers them with certain privileges including being exempt from paying state and local taxes (except property taxes) and enjoying access to a $2.25 billion standing line of credit from the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury Department, at the urging of the Federal Reserve may now temporarily increase this line of credit, in order to help Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through their current economic problems.
The other two government sponsored enterprises are the Institutions of the Farm Credit System, which include the Agricultural Credit Bank and Farm Credit Banks, and the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac). Both of these GSEs provide agricultural real estate interests with the essentially the same services Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide to the home mortgage industry.
Also See:
How Hud Regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
FHA Acts to Rescue Defaulted Subprime Borrowers
Will Subprime Mortgage Mess Capsize Fannie Mae? (US Economy)
Comments
Why is there never an explanation of why there are two organizations? why do we have both FNMA and Freddie Mac? One was chartered (taken off the books) in 1968 - the other was chartered in 1970. why was the second one created? What was Fannie Mae not doing that needed doing by Freddie Mac?
Jesse: Basically, Congress created Freddie Mac in 1970 in order to prevent Fannie Mae from monopolizing the secondary mortgage industry. From 1938, when created by FDR’s New Deal, until 1970, Fannie may DID hold a virtual monopoly. Today, the two together control about 90 percent of the market.