Freddie Mac Seeks To Raise Capital

Freddie Mac was all over the headlines this morning, as recent news revealed the mortgage giant’s weaknesses. It is believed that the company may have insufficient capital to cover potential home-loan losses and there’s talk that both GSEs may be insolvent at some point in the near future, should more mortgages go bad. Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s downgraded Freddie’s outlook to “negative” from “stable”, though its debt is still rated AAA. Fannie and Freddie are required to hold 30% more capital than the minimum for other companies, and Freddie Mac found itself short of money, so it is now issuing securities to raise capital. Currently the company has $600 million above the minimum reserve level, much less than its $1-2 billion comfort level. It revealed plans to sell $5 billion of preferred stock in the very near term, probably this week. If losses in the fourth quarter are comparable to those in the previous three months, the mortgage giant will need to raise even more capital. James Lockhart, the director of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator, OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight), refused to suspend the extra capital requirement when asked to.