Financial stocks can’t seem to hold onto gains made earlier. Indeed, today, the stock market opened higher. However, early gains have been erased as concerns about the health of financial companies continue to loom large. Right now, these financial companies rely a great deal on a housing market recovery. While the first time home buyer tax credit was a major player in the housing market recovery, confidence in financial companies was higher.
However, now that it appears that things are snagging with regard to an extension of the first time home buyer tax credit, there are concerns about the cash flow …read more

Borrowers from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that purchase foreclosed homes owned by these two lenders will soon receive special incentives on the part of these companies that will help homebuyers to cover closing costs. These two companies, both of which buy mortgages in bulk from lenders, will offer these incentives at a time when many potential homebuyers are struggling.
Freddie Mac’s SmartBuy program began and July and gives homebuyers until October 30 to apply to take advantage of the offer, which allows the buyer to use up to 3.5 percent of the home’s sale price to cover closing costs. To qualify, …read more

Troubled mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac has announced that it will soon count Fifth Third Bancorp chief financial officer Ross Kari among its ranks. Kari’s transition will be complete by October 12, with Fifth Third appointing Daniel Poston, its executive vice president, as chief financial officer effective immediately.
 
Kari, who only served as Fifth Third’s CFO for less than a year, will be in charge of Freddie Mac’s accounting, financial planning, and investor relations, reporting to Freddie Mac CEO Charles Haldeman Jr. Both Fifth Third and Freddie Mac have been hit hard by the credit crisis, with Freddie Mac’s notorious collapse leading …read more

Fannie and Freddie may see some changes.

On Tuesday, Freddie Mac announced that the company will have a new COO as of September 14th. Bruce M. Witherell will be the new COO and will report to Charles E. Haldeman, Jr. — the CEO of Freddie Mac.
When you think of Freddie Mac, you probably think of federal bailout money. The mortgage company has received billions upon billions of dollars in bailout capital from the feds. Many experts believe that it may never be possible for Freddie Mac to pay back the government.
With that type of pressure, Witherell won’t have an easy job. However, Haldeman thinks he is up …read more

Freddie Mac, one of the companies that is most commonly blamed for the current sour economic condition of the United States, showed signs of improvement in the second quarter. While the company remains a long way from being able to repay the $51 billion in federal government bailout money it has received since September of 2008, Freddie Mac finally has some numbers to be moderately happy about.
Last year in the second quarter, Freddie Mac last more than a billion dollars. This year, they lost $374 million. However, that includes dividends payments to the federal government. Prior to those payments, Freddie …read more

Although some parts of the United States economy appears to be recovering, the housing crisis looks like its alive and kicking. Fannie Mae, which along with Freddie Mac has already received approximately $60 billion in federal government bailout funding, said on Friday that they need $19 billion more to stay afloat.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were earlier taken over by federal regulators but continue to struggle. In the first quarter of 2009, Fannie Mae posted a loss of more than $23 billion. Freddie Mac’s numbers are expected to be released next week and those numbers are expected to also be …read more

Freddie Mac’s acting CFO, David Kellermann, was found dead in his home this morning in what police are calling an apparent suicide. They responded to a 911 call around 5:00 this morning and found Kellermann in the Fairfax County home he shared with his wife and one daughter.
Kellermann was a University of Michigan graduate and attended George Washington University for business school. He worked for Freddie Mac for 16 years before being named CFO last September. Authorities say that Kellermann was not a target of the federal investigation, though friends say that he was under an extreme amount of pressure.
Police …read more

A recent report by the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the financial sector will require much more bailout money than initially estimated. In fact, the report says that the initial estimates were short by more than $165 billion.
The new number for the bailout of the financial sector is at approximately $365 billion. In January, that same estimate was less than $190 billion. The Congressional Budget Office blames the increased cost of the bailout on the securities in question now having larger yields.
Two companies that will be eating a lot of federal bailout money are Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. These …read more

The two largest mortgage finance companies in the United States are planning to hand out $210 million in bonuses to their employees despite taking a combined $60 billion in federal bailout money. This revelation likely won’t sit well with the general public, especially consider the outcry that was heard after it came to light that AIG gave more than $160 million in bonuses.
The two companies, Freddie Mac and Frannie Mae, combine to finance approximately half of all mortgages in the United States. After massive financial troubles, each company is now run by the federal government. In recent months, they have …read more