Officials announced that the executives and board of directors of both institutions
had been replaced. Herb Allison, a former vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, was selected
to head Fannie Mae, and David Moffett, a former vice chairman of US Bancorp, was
picked to head Freddie Mac.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the historic actions were being taken because
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and so interwoven in our financial system
that a failure of either of them would cause great turmoil in our financial markets
here at home and around the globe."
The huge potential liabilities facing each company, as a result of soaring mortgage
defaults, could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, but Paulson stressed that
the financial impacts if the two companies had been allowed to fail would be far more
serious.
"A failure would affect the ability of Americans to get home loans, auto loans and
other consumer credit and business finance," Paulson said.
Both companies were placed into a government conservatorship that will be run by the
Federal Housing Finance Agency, the new agency created by Congress this summer to
regulate Fannie and Freddie.
The Federal Reserve and other federal banking regulators said in a joint statement
Sunday that "a limited number of smaller institutions" have significant holdings of
common or preferred stock shares in Fannie and Freddie, and that regulators were
"prepared to work with these institutions to develop capital-restoration plans."
The two companies had nearly $36 billion in preferred shares outstanding as of June
30, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Paulson said that it would be up to Congress and the next president to figure out the
two companies' ultimate structure.
"There is a consensus today ... that they cannot continue in their current form," he
said.
Paulson and James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, stressed
that their actions were designed to strengthen the role of the two mortgage giants in
supporting the nation's housing market. Both companies do that by buying mortgage
loans from banks and packaging those loans into securities that they either hold or
sell to U.S. and foreign investors.
The companies own or guarantee about $5 trillion in home loans, about half the
nation's total.
Lockhart said that both Fannie and Freddie would be allowed to increase the size of
their holdings of mortgage-backed securities to bolster the housing industry as it
undergoes its worst downturn in decades.
Lockhart said in order to conserve about $2 billion in capital the dividend payments
on both common and preferred stock would be eliminated. He said that all lobbying
activities of both companies would stop immediately. Both companies over the years
made extensive efforts to lobby members of Congress in an effort to keep the benefits
they enjoyed as government-sponsored enterprises.
Both Paulson and Lockhart were careful not to blame Daniel Mudd, the CEO of Fannie
Mae, or Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron for the companies' current problems. While both
men are being removed as the top executives, they have been asked to remain for an
unspecified period to help with the transition.
