WASHINGTON (WKOW) - The federal government is changing
its bailout deal with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The Treasury Department says this will shrink the holdings
of the two mortgage giants more quickly and will require the agencies to pay the
government when it earns quarterly profits.
The government says this is an effort to deal with
concerns the companies could at some point exhaust the federal support they were
guaranteed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government in
September 2008 during the financial crisis.
With this change, the two firms will have to hand over all
profits they earn every quarter. They will also have to accelerate the reduction
of their mortgage holdings to hit a cap of $250 million by 2018, four years
earlier than planned.