Plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac IPO Remain Unclear After White House Push

Six months after President Trump urged major banks to prepare an initial public offering for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, there is still no firm plan for taking the government-controlled mortgage firms public, several people briefed on the process said. The government has retained the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to advise on a potential offering, but it has not appointed a major Wall Street bank to assemble and sell the deal, the people said.

Fannie and Freddie, taken into federal conservatorship in 2008, remain central to the nation’s roughly $12 trillion mortgage market by buying loans from lenders and packaging them into bonds sold to institutional investors. Some officials in the Trump administration and housing experts see the firms increasingly being treated as instruments of affordability after an announcement that the White House ordered Fannie and Freddie to buy up to $200 billion in mortgage-backed bonds, a move some experts said suggested the administration was not ready to end conservatorship.

Proponents of a swift offering include Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, F.H.F.A. director Bill Pulte and some longtime investors; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has taken a more cautious approach, according to people briefed on the matter. Key decisions remain unresolved, including whether any stock sale would end government control and how to satisfy exchange rules requiring predominantly independent boards after Mr.

Key Topics

Business, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Fhfa, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick