The country?s two biggest lenders are not providing enough information about how they invest their assets, officials from the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and the Treasury announced this week.
“Financial transparency is in the best interests of all Americans. The lack of transparency as it relates to the [enterprises?] financial dealings is a regulatory concern,” HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson told Congress Tuesday. He said vague notations such as “other assets/other liabilities,” on financial statements the two government-sponsored mortgage companies have filed raise concerns.
The departments will review Fannie Mae?s and Freddie Mac?s investments and holdings, including equity and debt investments, Jackson said.
HUD officials are concerned about whether the lenders? investment activities are consistent with their federal charters and public purposes and whether each they use their profits for those purposes.
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were charted by the federal government to ensure private lenders don?t run out of money to make loans, but have become privately held companies. The two giants have loaned or invested $1.5 trillion combined.
