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FHFA Director Mark Calabria Discusses GSE Capital Retention

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury [1]) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA [2]) recently announced that they had agreed to modifications to the Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements (PSPAs) that will permit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to retain additional earnings in excess of the $3 billion capital reserves currently permitted by their PSPAs.

These modifications are an important step toward implementing Treasury’s recommended reforms that will define a limited role for the Federal Government in the housing finance system and protect taxpayers against future bailouts,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.

FHFA Director Mark Calabria released a statement recently regarding the letter agreement with the Treasury to increase Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac capital retention.

“The Enterprises are leveraged nearly 1,000-to-one, ensuring they would fail during an economic downturn – exposing taxpayers once again. This letter agreement between Treasury and FHFA, which allows the Enterprises to retain capital of up to $45 billion combined, is an important milestone on the path to reform,” said FHFA Director Calabria. “FHFA commits to working with Treasury in the coming months to amend the share agreements and further advance broader housing finance reform. These reform goals include limiting the government’s role in housing finance, increasing marketplace competition, focusing on affordable housing, and sustainable homeownership. The status quo is not an option. Now is the time to act.”

To compensate Treasury for the dividends that it would have received absent these modifications, Treasury’s liquidation preferences for its Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock will gradually increase by the amount of the additional capital reserves until the liquidation preferences increase by $22 billion for Fannie Mae and $17 billion for Freddie Mac.

Treasury and each of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also agreed to negotiate an additional amendment to the PSPAs that would further enhance taxpayer protections by adopting covenants that are broadly consistent with the recommendations for administrative reforms contained in the Plan.