-
Freddie Mac is seeking an additional $10.6 billion in government funding after reporting an $8 billion loss in the first quarter.
May 5
Mortgage lenders plagued with requests from Fannie Mae to buy back defective loans can now take comfort in the knowledge that they're far from alone.
Fannie said Monday in its first-quarter securities
Freddie Mac also has been sending more loans back to lenders: $1.3 billion in the first quarter, up 65% from a year earlier, according to its first-quarter
In February Fannie announced a "loan-quality initiative" designed to reduce loan repurchase requests. If lenders do a better job on the front end of making sure the loans they deliver meet the GSE's guidelines, Fannie has said, it would not have to make lenders buy back so many defective mortgages after the fact.
The
But Fannie in its Monday filing described the initiative as a "longer term strategy" that will take time to bear fruit. The GSE reiterated that it expects repurchases to remain high for the rest of this year.
Fannie also said Monday it had asked the Treasury Department for another $8.4 billion of government funding after
Unlike Freddie, which said last week that a new accounting rule was the
But after its eleventh straight quarterly loss, the larger GSE's net worth remained in the red, at negative $8.4 billion, creating the need for an additional infusion on top of the $75 billion Fannie has already received from the government.