WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An Obama administration summit of housing industry leaders next week may yield clues on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , the two mortgage heavyweights that so far have sucked up close to $150 billion in taxpayer bailout funds.
The administration has vowed to produce a plan by January to change the role the two government-controlled firms play in supporting the housing market. The conference on Tuesday is aimed at soliciting views from top industry officials on how to the companies should be restructured.
The Bush administration seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008 as the financial crisis was reaching fever pitch. The two companies were heavily saddled with mortgage losses after the implosion of the U.S. housing market.
A consensus has since emerged that their former status as shareholder-owned but congressionally chartered entities, which fostered a belief in financial markets that the government would not let them fail, should not be resurrected.
Still, the debate over how much support the government should provide to foster homeownership is likely to prove messy given the diversity of views along the political spectrum. Any decision on what to do could take years to resolve.
