Fannie Mae Selling Pool of Distressed Loans Totaling More Than $200M

On the heels of firing 100 employees amid allegations of mortgage fraud, Fannie Mae (FNMA) is set to undergo a sale of more than $200 million of nonperforming loans, the government-sponsored enterprise announced Tuesday.

Fannie, which along with Freddie Mac has faced added scrutiny under new Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) chair Bill Pulte, is selling 1,119 “deeply delinquent” loans with a total unpaid principal balance of $198.6 million. The sale also involved 490 loans encompassing a $7.2 million unpaid principal balance in Fannie’s 26th Community Impact Pool (CIP) located in Florida. 

Bids for the two larger pools are due May 15 with the CIP bids due May 27.

Terms of the sale require that the buyer “offer loss-mitigation options designed to be sustainable for borrowers,” according to the Fannie announcement.

The loan sale is proceeding in the aftermath of Pulte naming himself chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last month, days after his approval by the U.S. Senate to be President Donald Trump’s FHFA director. Pulte has sought to overhaul the GSEs since taking over the FHFA.

Pulte’s arrival appears to have led to the sudden departures of longtime Fannie Mae executives Dan Dresser, vice president of multifamily capital markets, and Rob Levin, head of multifamily customer engagement, The Real Deal first reported. 

Pulte, the head of private equity firm Pulte Partners, is also expected to push privatization of Fannie and Freddie 17 years after they were placed in conservatorship following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. 

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com