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Friday, May 08, 2009

Fannie Mae Asks for another $19 Billion

by Calculated Risk on 5/08/2009 01:03:00 PM

From Bloomberg: Fannie Mae to Tap $19 Billion in Treasury Capital

Fannie Mae ... asked the U.S. Treasury for a $19 billion capital investment and raised the possibility that its long-term survival may be dependent on continued government funding.

Fannie Mae, which took $15.2 billion in aid on March 31, cited the “unprecedented” housing market slump and government- mandated programs that are creating “conflicts in strategic and day-to-day decision making,” according to company filings today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Here is the section from the SEC 10-Q filing:
We face a variety of different, and potentially conflicting, objectives, including:

  • providing liquidity, stability and affordability in the mortgage market;

  • immediately providing additional assistance to the mortgage market and to the struggling housing market;

  • limiting the amount of the investment Treasury must make under our senior preferred stock purchase agreement with Treasury in order to eliminate a net worth deficit;

  • returning to long-term profitability; and

  • protecting the interests of the taxpayers.

    These objectives create conflicts in strategic and day-to-day decision-making that could lead to less than optimal outcomes for some or all of these objectives. For example, limiting the amount of funds Treasury must invest in us under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement in order to eliminate a net worth deficit could require us to constrain some of our business activities, including activities targeted at providing liquidity, stability and affordability to the mortgage market. Conversely, to the extent we expand our efforts to assist the mortgage market, our financial results are likely to suffer, at least in the short term, which will increase the amount of funds that Treasury is required to provide to us and further limit our ability to return to long-term profitability. We regularly consult with and receive direction from our conservator on how to balance our objectives.

    Accordingly, we currently are primarily focusing on the first two objectives listed above ...
  • Notice they are concentrating on the first two objectives above, and that does not include "protecting interest of taxpayers", "returning long-term profitability" or "limiting the investment from Treasury".