Freddie Mac said the collapse of the lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. may cause it "significant" losses.
Taylor Bean, the 12th-largest U.S. mortgage originator, shuttered its lending business last week after being suspended by U.S. agencies and Freddie Mac. The Federal Housing Administration cited possible financial-statement fraud.
The Ocala, Fla., lender accounted for about 5.2% of Freddie Mac's single-family mortgage purchases last year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by the McLean, Va., company on Aug. 7. Freddie Mac can force lenders to repurchase defaulted loans that weren't of the credit quality they represented, a use of its contracts already made harder by the collapses of IndyMac Bancorp., Washington Mutual Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the company said.
"We are in the process of determining our total exposure to TBW in the event it cannot perform its contractual obligations to us," Freddie Mac said in the filing. "The amount of our losses in such event could be significant."
Brad German, a Freddie Mac spokesman, declined to comment. Brian Faith, a spokesman for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac's Washington-based rival, said last week his company hasn't done business with Taylor Bean "for some time."
