Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's Financial Status: Frequently Asked Questions, September 27, 2012.

摘要

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are charted by Congress as government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to provide liquidity in the mortgage market and promote homeownership for underserved groups and locations. They purchase mortgages, guarantee them, and package them in mortgagebacked securities (MBSs), which they either keep as investments or sell to institutional investors. In addition to the GSEs guarantees, investors widely believe that MBSs are implicitly guaranteed by the federal government. In 2008, the GSEs financial condition had weakened and there were concerns over their ability to meet their obligations on $1.2 trillion in bonds and $3.7 trillion in MBSs that they had guaranteed. In response to the financial risks, the federal government took control of these GSEs in a process known as conservatorship as a means to stabilize the mortgage credit market.