Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s federal regulator took new steps to privatize the mortgage-finance companies on Monday, telling the firms to help lay the groundwork for their own transitions out of an 11-year government conservatorship, the Wall Street Journal reported. In new policy goals, the Federal Housing Finance Agency for the first time released formal objectives calling for Fannie’s and Freddie’s return to the private sector. The companies have been in government conservatorship since the 2008 financial crisis. FHFA Director Mark Calabria, who took over the agency in April, is pressing to privatize the mortgage-finance companies, which back around half the nation’s mortgage market. Many specific policy details remain to be ironed out over the coming weeks and months, such as how much capital the firms must raise once they eventually leave government control. Monday’s policy goals, contained in a strategic plan as well as a document known as a scorecard, included instructions for the companies to work with regulators as they revamp a post-crisis regulation that has transformed the mortgage market by allowing more deeply indebted borrowers to obtain home financing. Calabria and other Washington policy makers want to curtail the provision to ensure the companies operate competitively with other market players, “with no special advantages for anyone,” Calabria said.
