Government

Fannie Mae will need as much as $16 billion from the Treasury Department to avoid posting a loss in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to an Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The announcement comes just days after Freddie Mac filed a similar report indicating it would as for as much as $35 billion to keep it solvent.

Freddie Mac will need $30 to $35 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department to avoid posting a loss for the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report filed Friday.

The city of Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, is taking a unique approach to helping find new buyers for foreclosed homes, according to a report in the Minneapolis- St. Paul Star Tribune.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) new home valuation code of conduct was created to promote transparency and put distance between lenders and appraisers to encourage more accurate property appraisals, but some question whether it will be effective.

Indiana lawmakers are considering a variety of options to help homeowners and lenders in the Hoosier state overcome the mortgage crisis, according to a report in The Indianapolis Star. According to the report, Indiana is one of nine states with a higher rate of loans in foreclosure than the national average of 3 percent, and lawmakers are looking for ways to stem that tide, including extending the foreclosure process, financial assistance, and a state-wide moratorium on foreclosures.

Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) Chairman Ronald Rosenfeld resigned from his post on December 31. The Federal Housing Finance Board was responsible for the supervision of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks until the enactment of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 merged it with the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) mission team, to create the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in July, 2008.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a notice late last week, advising lenders of the termination of the Federal Housing Administration’s FHASecure program, under which FHA was able to insure refinance transactions for borrowers delinquent on their mortgages.

According to a report released last week by the New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com, an independent investigator of the U.S. Treasury Department has uncovered evidence that officials from the nation’s banking supervisory body, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), helped the failing IndyMac Bancorp paper over its financial difficulties.

This year has proved to be one of the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) best yet in terms of loan originations – during FY 2008, which officially ended for the agency on September 30, lenders originated a record $171.

According to a recent study by the Associated Press:http://www.associatedpress.com, banks that are now receiving bailout money from taxpayers, awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year.