SEC Will Investigate Raines' Retirement Package

WASHINGTON, DC-Fannie Mae officials have revealed in a report filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 27 that recently retired chairman and CEO Franklin D. Raines is owed an annual pension of $1.3 million for as long as he lives, as well as $8.7 million in deferred compensation to be issued in payments until year’s end 2020. Last week, Raines retired and vice chairman and CFO J. Timothy Howard resigned from the lender.

It is Raines’s retirement–as opposed to what would have been an outright dismissal–that has led federal regulators to temporarily halt any payments until they can investigate the legality of Fannie Mae allowing Raines to retire instead of simply firing him. Regardless, it is unlikely that Raines will be seen in the unemployment line; he holds $5.5 million in Fannie Mae stock.