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Lawmakers Propose Treasury Oversight of Freddie, Fannie

Published July 21, 2003, 1:00 a.m. EDT
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Updated July 21, 2003, 1:00 a.m. EDT
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The regulator for Freddie Mac spread the blame around, saying "a breakdown in integrity" at the mortgage buyer and an outside law firm lead to misleading the government in regards to its recent accounting woes, according to Reuters.

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The Senators raised their loudest concerns yet regarding supervision of Freddie Mac on Thursday and some avidly endorsed U.S. Treasury oversight of the two companies, which, according to the Reuters report, "owned or had guaranteed 44% of the $6.7 trillion in U.S. mortgage debt as of late last year."

"None of us are very happy on either side of the aisle with what has happened with oversight," said Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), according to the Reuters account.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are chartered by Congress and owned by shareholders. Their purpose is to help expand U.S. homeownership. To do this, the companies purchase mortgages from lenders and package them as securities or hold them in their portfolios.

However, a bipartisan panel of Senators asserted that the regulator should have detected wrong doings at Freddie Mac much earlier. Now, it is being proposed that that Treasury Department should take over responsibility for the oversight of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

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