Fannie Balks At FinancialReporting

WASHINGTON - (10/18/04) -- Secondary mortgage market giantFannie Mae, defending itself through a growing accounting scandal,said it will delay the release of its third quarter financials,which the company traditionally release to investors this week, thethird week following the end of the quarter. The company said itplans to release the third quarter results to the public when itfiles them with the Securities and Exchange Commission, 45 daysafter the end of the quarter. Fannie's secondary market sister,Freddie Mac, also mopping up a major accounting scandal, has yet toresume filing its financial results regularly, almost two yearsafter suspending regular filing because of doubts to the accuracyof the numbers. Separately, the Office of Federal HousingEnterprise Oversight, which oversees the two secondary mortgagegiants, said Friday the two companies just met their mandatoryaffordable housing goals last year, but only because of financiallyengineering the purchase of loans from Washington Mutual andCitibank, with recourse.