Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be returned to the private market at different times, especially if the government moves to float them on the public markets, the head of the U.S. housing finance regulator told Reuters. It may be preferable to stagger that process due to the complexities involved in getting the government-backed firms, which have different business models, ready for private ownership, said Mark Calabria, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the U.S. housing finance system. “I’m open to seeing what makes sense...that kind of sequencing hasn’t been decided, but obviously if you tried to engineer them both at the same time, you’re depending on more things going right at the same time,” he said. “One may be ready before the other, it just depends.” Fannie and Freddie have operated under government conservatorship since they were bailed out during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Washington has struggled for years to devise a plan to safely return the companies, which guarantee over half of the nation’s mortgages, to the private sector. The prospect of a phased privatization could present fresh challenges and risks for some shareholders in the firms, since the enterprises could enter the public markets under different economic conditions. The Trump administration, which is eager to make progress on housing finance reform, last month appointed Calabria, a libertarian economist who previously worked for Vice President Mike Pence, to lead the effort.
