Capital Briefs: Ginnie Chief Tapped to Oversee Fannie, Freddie

President Clinton will nominate Government National Mortgage Association president Kevin G. Chavers as director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the White House said Friday.

The oversight office regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and has been without a director since February when Aida Alvarez left to head the Small Business Administration.

If confirmed, Mr. Chavers' first challenge will be to issue long-overdue risk-based capital standards for the mortgage agencies. Almost three years in the making, the rules are technically complex and politically sensitive. They are slated to be published for comment next year.

A Harvard-trained lawyer, Mr. Chavers, 34, was briefly chief of staff to Ms. Alvarez at the oversight office in 1993.

From 1989 to 1993, he was counsel to the Senate Banking Committee, where he helped draft the law that created the oversight agency. He worked for the New York law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy for two years before that.

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