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Regulators lowering capital requirements for mortgage finance firms, could pump hundreds of billions more into mortgage market but raise risks.
March 19, 2008: 9:34 AM EDT

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Federal regulators said Wednesday they would allow mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce the capital they are required to keep on hand, a move that could pump $200 billion into mortgage markets.

The rule change was announced by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, (OFHEO), a normally low-profile agency which sets rules for the two government sponsored companies that between them hold or guarantee nearly $5 trillion in mortgages.

Both firms have been working in recent years to clean up accounting problems. During that process, the agency has been requiring them to keep 30% extra capital in reserve. The rule change allows them to reduce that excess capital to only 20%.

In the meltdown of the market for mortgage-backed securities over the last year, the securities backed by the so-called conforming loans that met Freddie (FRE, Fortune 500) and Fannie (FNM) loan criteria were considered the gold standard. But those loans could not be made to borrowers who had less than top credit scores, those who did not have significant equity in their home or who needed loans for more than $417,000.

Congress recently raised the limits for the loans that Fannie and Freddie can buy or insure, increasing the risks for the firm and the demands on their capital. The new loan rules were seen as a necessary step to end the credit squeeze that has hammered home values across the nation and caused billions in losses and writedowns on Wall Street, raising the risk of a recession.

"It is time to act," OFHEO Director James Lockhart said Wednesday. The new rules would allow Fannie and Freddie to play a larger role in subprime refinancing and loan modifications, as well as in the larger home loans, he added.

James Wheat Escreveu:Esta merd... é de loucos !!! É como curar um viciado em heroína oferecendo-lhe cocaína !
Tá tudo aos papeis, a procurar soluções desesperadas, sem querer atacar os reais problemas. Parece que não importa se não resolve nada, o que interessa é adiar a 'batalha final', comprando o mais tempo possível - mesmo que se enterre cada vez mais as hipóteses de se recompôr o sistema, após uns anos 'de nojo'.
Eu cada vez me convenço mais que a situação é bem mais grave do que o Fed tem deixado transparecer.

Government plans to ease capital requirements on the two firms so they can provide more funding for home loans.

March 19, 2008: 4:45 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is loosening capital restraints on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so that the mortgage-finance companies can expand their roles in the stricken housing market.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which oversees the government-sponsored companies, was announcing the plan Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The agency has reached agreement with the companies on an arrangement in which the cash cushion they are required to maintain against risk - now nearly $20 billion for the two - will be reduced by a third. The freed-up money will go toward buying mortgages of struggling homeowners to enable them to refinance into more affordable loans.

The capital requirement for each company will be reduced from the current 30% to 20%, one person familiar with the discussions said. Under the deal, Fannie and Freddie will commit to raise additional capital. That could be done through special sales of stock or cuts in dividends. Together they will be expected to provide up to $200 billion in new funding for home loans, the person said.

People familiar with the matter spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan hadn't yet been made public.

OFHEO, the federal agency, was holding a news conference with its director, James B. Lockhart, Fannie Mae President and Chief Executive Daniel Mudd, and Freddie Mac Chairman and CEO Richard Syron.

Agency spokeswoman Stefanie Mullin declined to comment, as did Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith. Spokesmen for Freddie Mac couldn't immediately be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

The two companies together hold or guarantee around $4.9 trillion in home-loan debt. As the mortgage crisis and ensuing credit crunch have worsened in recent months, policy makers have increasingly looked to them to step up their participation in the hobbled market for securities backed by mortgages.

It would be the third step the government has taken in recent weeks to allow Washington-based Fannie and McLean, Va.-based Freddie to shoulder larger burdens in the mortgage market despite their multibillion-dollar fourth-quarter losses and expectations of further red ink this year.

The $168 billion economic stimulus package enacted last month included a temporary increase in the cap on mortgages that the companies can purchase or guarantee, from $417,000 to $729,750 in high-cost markets. And, as a reward for filing timely financial statements following multibillion-dollar accounting scandals, Fannie and Freddie were freed on March 1 of a combined $1.5 trillion cap on their mortgage-investment holdings.

Influential Democratic lawmakers have been pushing for a reduction in the companies' capital-holding requirements. Bush administration officials and numerous Republican lawmakers, on the other hand, have long opposed allowing Fannie and Freddie to take on more debt, contending that doing so could threaten the global financial system.