Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte has suggested that privatizing the GSEs was not an immediate priority at his confirmation hearing. However, a proposal floated by the members of the Trump administration indicates that there may be a timeline for privatization after all.
Namely, the administration is considering transferring the government's stakes in Fannie and Freddie to a proposed U.S. sovereign wealth fund, which has garnered industry leaders' attention, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal this weekend.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted this possibility on a podcast last week, though he did not provide specific details. Using these entities to bolster a sovereign wealth fund is intriguing to advocates, as it could generate significant revenue for the government. Estimates suggest that privatized Fannie and Freddie could be valued above $330 billion, with the government's stake exceeding $250 billion.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
