President Donald Trump’s administration faces a growing list of hurdles that could scuttle its ambitions to remove U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from their government lifeline, Reuters reported. Fannie and Freddie have been in conservatorship since they were bailed out during the 2008 financial crisis. In March, the administration said it was devising a plan to put them back on their feet, raising market hopes that the pair might seek a jumbo initial public offering as early as next year. But as the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the U.S. Treasury begin to dig into the details, reality is starting to bite. From securing a federal guarantee to extricating the Treasury from its holdings, there is too much to do before the 2020 presidential election, analysts and housing experts said. The U.S. Treasury Department is already stretched by the trade war with China and sanctions issues, they noted. Mark Calabria, director of the FHFA which controls Fannie and Freddie, told Reuters last week he hoped the pair would be ready to exit conservatorship within five years, offering the clearest signal yet a speedy overhaul is unlikely.
