UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 10-K
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020
OR
For the transition period from
Commission file number: 0-50231
Federal National Mortgage Association
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Fannie Mae
| Federally chartered corporation | |||||||||||||||||||||||
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | (Address of principal executive offices, including zip code) | (Registrant’s telephone number, including area code) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||||||
| None | N/A | N/A | ||||||
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
| Common Stock, without par value | ||
| 8.25% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series T, stated value $25 per share | ||
| Fixed-to-Floating Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series S, stated value $25 per share | ||
| 7.625% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series R, stated value $25 per share | ||
| 6.75% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series Q, stated value $25 per share | ||
| Variable Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series P, stated value $25 per share | ||
| Variable Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series O, stated value $50 per share | ||
| 5.375% Non-Cumulative Convertible Series 2004-1 Preferred Stock, stated value $100,000 per share | ||
| 5.50% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series N, stated value $50 per share | ||
| 4.75% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series M, stated value $50 per share | ||
| 5.125% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series L, stated value $50 per share | ||
| 5.375% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series I, stated value $50 per share | ||
| 5.81% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series H, stated value $50 per share | ||
| Variable Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series G, stated value $50 per share | ||
| Variable Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series F, stated value $50 per share | ||
| 5.10% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series E, stated value $50 per share | ||
| 5.25% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series D, stated value $50 per share | ||
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ¨ No þ
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ¨ No þ
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes þ No ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
| ☑ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | ||||||||||||
| Non-accelerated filer | ☐ | Smaller reporting company | ||||||||||||
| Emerging growth company | ||||||||||||||
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.☑
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No þ
The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant computed by reference to the last reported sale price of the common stock quoted on the OTCQB, operated by OTC Markets Group, Inc., on June 30, 2020 (the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter) was approximately $2.5 billion.
As of February 1, 2021, there were 1,158,087,567 shares of common stock of the registrant outstanding.
| Table of Contents | ||||||||
| Page | ||||||||
| PART I | ||||||||
| Item 1. | Business | |||||||
| Introduction | ||||||||
| Executive Summary | ||||||||
| Summary of Our Financial Performance | ||||||||
| COVID-19 Impact | ||||||||
| Our Mission and Charter | ||||||||
| Mortgage Securitizations | ||||||||
| Managing Mortgage Credit Risk | ||||||||
| Conservatorship, Treasury Agreements and Housing Finance Reform | ||||||||
| Legislation and Regulation | ||||||||
| Human Capital | ||||||||
| Where You Can Find Additional Information | ||||||||
| Forward-Looking Statements | ||||||||
| Item 1A. | Risk Factors | |||||||
| Item 1B. | Unresolved Staff Comments | |||||||
| Item 2. | Properties | |||||||
| Item 3. | Legal Proceedings | |||||||
| Item 4. | Mine Safety Disclosures | |||||||
| PART II | ||||||||
| Item 5. | Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities | |||||||
| Item 6. | Selected Financial Data | |||||||
| Item 7. | Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations | |||||||
| Key Market Economic Indicators | ||||||||
| Consolidated Results of Operations | ||||||||
| Consolidated Balance Sheet Analysis | ||||||||
| Retained Mortgage Portfolio | ||||||||
| Guaranty Book of Business | ||||||||
| Business Segments | ||||||||
| Single-Family Business | ||||||||
| Single-Family Mortgage Market | ||||||||
| Single-Family Market Activity | ||||||||
| Single-Family Business Metrics | ||||||||
| Single-Family Business Financial Results | ||||||||
| Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management | ||||||||
| Multifamily Business | ||||||||
| Multifamily Mortgage Market | ||||||||
| Multifamily Market Activity | ||||||||
| Multifamily Business Metrics | ||||||||
| Multifamily Business Financial Results | ||||||||
| Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk Management | ||||||||
| Liquidity and Capital Management | ||||||||
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | i | |||||||
| Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements | ||||||||
| Risk Management | ||||||||
| Mortgage Credit Risk Management | ||||||||
Institutional Counterparty Credit Risk Management | ||||||||
| Market Risk Management, including Interest-Rate Risk Management | ||||||||
| Liquidity and Funding Risk Management | ||||||||
| Operational Risk Management | ||||||||
| Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates | ||||||||
| Impact of Future Adoption of New Accounting Guidance | ||||||||
| Glossary of Terms Used in This Report | ||||||||
| Item 7A. | Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk | |||||||
| Item 8. | Financial Statements and Supplementary Data | |||||||
| Item 9. | Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure | |||||||
| Item 9A. | Controls and Procedures | |||||||
| Item 9B. | Other Information | |||||||
| PART III | ||||||||
| Item 10. | Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance | |||||||
| Directors | ||||||||
| Corporate Governance | ||||||||
| ESG Matters | ||||||||
| Report of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors | ||||||||
| Executive Officers | ||||||||
| Item 11. | Executive Compensation | |||||||
| Compensation Discussion and Analysis | ||||||||
| Compensation Committee Report | ||||||||
| Compensation Risk Assessment | ||||||||
| Compensation Tables and Other Information | ||||||||
| Item 12. | Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters | |||||||
| Item 13. | Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence | |||||||
| Policies and Procedures Relating to Transactions with Related Persons | ||||||||
| Transactions with Related Persons | ||||||||
| Director Independence | ||||||||
| Item 14. | Principal Accounting Fees and Services | |||||||
| PART IV | ||||||||
| Item 15. | Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules | |||||||
| Item 16. | Form 10-K Summary | |||||||
| INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS | ||||||||
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | ii | |||||||
| Business | Introduction | ||||||||
PART I
| We have been under conservatorship, with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”) acting as conservator, since September 6, 2008. As conservator, FHFA succeeded to all rights, titles, powers and privileges of the company, and of any shareholder, officer or director of the company with respect to the company and its assets. The conservator has since provided for the exercise of certain authorities by our Board of Directors. Our directors do not have any fiduciary duties to any person or entity except to the conservator and, accordingly, are not obligated to consider the interests of the company, the holders of our equity or debt securities, or the holders of Fannie Mae MBS unless specifically directed to do so by the conservator. | ||||||||
We do not know when or how the conservatorship will terminate, what further changes to our business will be made during or following conservatorship, what form we will have and what ownership interest, if any, our current common and preferred stockholders will hold in us after the conservatorship is terminated or whether we will continue to exist following conservatorship. FHFA established 2020 performance objectives for us that included preparing for our eventual exit from conservatorship. Congress and the Administration continue to consider options for reform of the housing finance system, including Fannie Mae. | ||||||||
We are not permitted to pay dividends or other distributions to stockholders other than the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and, if we attain and maintain sufficient capital to meet the capital requirements and buffers recently established by FHFA for two consecutive quarters, we will not be able to retain any additional capital reserves. Our agreements with Treasury include a commitment from Treasury to provide us with funds to maintain a positive net worth under specified conditions; however, the U.S. government does not guarantee our securities or other obligations. Our agreements with Treasury also include covenants that significantly restrict our business activities. For additional information on the conservatorship, the uncertainty of our future, our agreements with Treasury, and recent developments relating to housing finance reform, see “Conservatorship, Treasury Agreements and Housing Finance Reform,” “Legislation and Regulation” and “Risk Factors.” | ||||||||
Forward-looking statements in this report are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to significant uncertainties and changes in circumstances, as we describe in “Business—Forward-Looking Statements.” Future events and our future results may differ materially from those reflected in our forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including those discussed in “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report.
You can find a “Glossary of Terms Used in This Report” in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (‘MD&A’).”
Item 1. Business
Introduction
Fannie Mae is a leading source of financing for mortgages in the United States, with $4.0 trillion in assets as of December 31, 2020. Organized as a government-sponsored entity, Fannie Mae is a shareholder-owned corporation. Our charter is an act of Congress, and we have a mission under that charter to provide liquidity and stability to the residential mortgage market and to promote access to mortgage credit. We were initially established in 1938.
Our revenues are primarily driven by guaranty fees we receive for assuming the credit risk on loans underlying the mortgage-backed securities we issue. We do not originate loans or lend money directly to borrowers. Rather, we primarily work with lenders who originate loans to borrowers. We securitize those loans into Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities that we guarantee (which we refer to as Fannie Mae MBS or our MBS).
Effectively managing credit risk is key to our business. In exchange for assuming credit risk on the loans we acquire, we receive guaranty fees. These fees take into account the credit risk characteristics of the loans we acquire and consist of two primary components:
•Loan-level pricing adjustments, which are upfront fees received when we acquire single-family loans.
•Base guaranty fees, which we receive monthly over the life of the loan.
Guaranty fees are set at the time we acquire loans and do not change over the life of the loan. How long a loan remains in our guaranty book is heavily dependent on interest rates. When interest rates decrease, a larger portion of our book of business turns over as more loans refinance. On the other hand, as interest rates increase, fewer loans refinance and our book turns over more slowly. Since guaranty fees are set at the time a loan is originated, the impact of any change in guaranty fees on future revenues is dependent on the rate at which loans in our book of business turn over and new loans are originated.
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | 1 | |||||||
| Business | Executive Summary | ||||||||
Executive Summary
Please read this summary together with our MD&A, our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2020 and the accompanying notes.
Summary of Our Financial Performance
2020 vs. 2019
•Net revenues increased $3.4 billion compared to 2019, primarily driven by an increase in net amortization income as a result of record levels of refinancing activity in 2020. Interest rates declined to historically low levels in 2020 and remained low throughout the majority of the year. Due to this trend, refinance activity grew, resulting in approximately 38% of the loans in our single-family conventional guaranty book of business as of December 31, 2020 being originated during the year. We expect loans originated in the current environment will be less likely to refinance in the future, slowing the pace at which loans in our book of business turn over in future years. A slower turnover rate would limit the impact that changes in our guaranty fees have on our future revenues as any changes would take longer to meaningfully impact the average charged guaranty fee on our total book of business.
•Net income decreased $2.4 billion compared to 2019, primarily driven by a shift from credit-related income to credit-related expense, driven by the economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and lower redesignation activity, as well as a reduction in investment gains driven by a decrease in the volume of reperforming loan sales. This was partially offset by the increase in net revenues from higher net amortization income discussed above.
•Net worth increased by $10.7 billion to $25.3 billion in 2020. The increase is attributed to $11.8 billion of comprehensive income for the twelve months ended December 31, 2020 offset by a charge of $1.1 billion to retained earnings due to our implementation of Accounting Standards Update 2016-13, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses, Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments and related amendments (the “CECL standard”) on January 1, 2020. See “Note 1, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies—New Accounting Guidance—The Current Expected Credit Loss Standard” for further details on our implementation of the CECL standard. Our future net worth will be impacted by recent changes in our obligation to pay dividends to Treasury, which are described in “Conservatorship, Treasury Agreements and Housing Finance Reform—Treasury Agreements.”
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | 2 | |||||||
| Business | Executive Summary | ||||||||
2019 vs. 2018
•Net revenues remained flat from 2018 to 2019. There was an increase in guaranty fee income due to an increase in the size of our guaranty book of business, as well as an increase in our average guaranty fee charged, offset by a reduction in net interest income from our portfolio as we continued to reduce the size of our legacy assets.
•Net income decreased $1.8 billion compared to 2018, primarily driven by a shift from fair value gains in 2018 to fair value losses in 2019 as a result of decreasing interest rates throughout most of 2019. Additionally, credit enhancement expenses grew as we increased the percentage of our guaranty book of business covered by credit risk transfer transactions. The decrease in net income was partially offset by an increase in investment gains due to an increase in gains on sales of single-family HFS loans and by an increase in credit-related income primarily driven by a decrease in actual and projected interest rates in 2019.
•Net worth increased $8.4 billion in 2019. The increase is attributed to $14.0 billion of comprehensive income offset by $5.6 billion of dividends paid to the Treasury.
Long-term financial performance. Our long-term financial performance will depend on many factors, including:
•the size of and our share of the U.S. mortgage market, which in turn will depend upon population growth, household formation and housing supply;
•borrower performance, the guaranty fees we charge, and changes in macroeconomic factors, including home prices and interest rates; and
•actions by FHFA, the Administration and Congress relating to our business and housing finance reform, including the capital requirements that will be applicable to us, our ongoing financial obligations to Treasury, restrictions on our activities and our business footprint, our competitive environment, and actions we are required to take to support borrowers or the mortgage market.
As described further in “COVID-19 Impact” and “Risk Factors,” the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected our financial performance and we expect that it will continue to do so. Given the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is difficult to assess or predict the long-term effects of the pandemic on our financial performance.
COVID-19 Impact
In March 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States was declared a national emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in stay-at-home orders, school closures and widespread business shutdowns across the country. Although business activity and community life have resumed to varying degrees, the future path of economic activity remains highly uncertain.
The pandemic continues to have a significant impact on our business and on our financial results. We provide a brief overview below of the economic impact of the pandemic, our response to it, and the pandemic’s impact on our business and financial results.
Economic Impact
The COVID-19 pandemic caused substantial financial market volatility and has significantly adversely affected both the U.S. and global economies. Although the economy has improved significantly since the second quarter of 2020, business activity remains below the level before the onset of the pandemic, and unemployment remains substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels. Continued high levels of new daily cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., combined with concerns about the emergence of new, more infectious variants of the coronavirus, have led to new shut-downs in various locales and reductions in business activity, with increased risk of additional public-health measures. The federal government has taken and continues to take many actions to reduce the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate and increased its purchases of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities, purchased corporate debt securities, and established and expanded liquidity facilities to support the flow of credit to consumers and businesses. In addition, the federal government passed legislation increasing and expanding unemployment benefits, providing direct cash payments to eligible taxpayers, allocating funds to assist businesses, states, and municipalities, and providing rental assistance, as well as mandating forbearance programs and eviction moratoriums.
The disruption caused by the pandemic differs from previous economic downturns because of the high level of uncertainty related to the health and safety of consumers and workers. We expect the path and timing of economic recovery will be impacted by the success of vaccination efforts and fiscal stimulus. We believe that sustained economic recovery depends on continued growth in consumer spending, increased business activity, and an associated reduction in unemployment, all of which impact the ability of borrowers and renters to make their monthly payments. The
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | 3 | |||||||
| Business | Executive Summary | COVID-19 Impact | ||||||||
pandemic resulted in a contraction in U.S. gross domestic product (“GDP”) in the first half of 2020 that was not entirely offset by growth in the second half of the year. See “MD&A—Key Market Economic Indicators” for information on macroeconomic conditions during 2020 and our current forecasts regarding future macroeconomic conditions.
Fannie Mae Response
We are taking a number of actions to help borrowers, renters, lenders and servicers manage the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
•providing payment forbearance (that is, a temporary suspension or reduction of the borrower’s monthly mortgage payments) to single-family and multifamily borrowers with COVID-19-related financial hardships;
•suspending most single-family foreclosures and evictions;
•conducting outreach efforts to provide borrowers and renters with information on the relief options available to them, including our #HeretoHelp media campaign and updating our KnowYourOptions.com website;
•providing lenders and servicers temporary flexibilities for some of our Selling Guide and Servicing Guide requirements; and
•providing liquidity to lenders by purchasing a higher-than-usual volume of single-family loans through our whole loan conduit.
We have also taken steps to mitigate the risk to Fannie Mae from the impacts of the pandemic, including the following:
•Selling Guide Changes. We have temporarily changed some of our Single-Family Selling Guide requirements to help ensure that up-to-date information is being considered to support the borrower’s ability to repay the loan, such as requiring more recent documentation of borrower employment, income and assets.
•Adverse Market Refinance Fee. We implemented a new adverse market refinance fee for single-family loans in light of the increased costs and risk we expect to incur due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This fee, which became effective in December 2020, is a one-time charge of 0.5% of the loan amount that the lender is required to pay at the time we acquire the loan. For every $1 billion in eligible refinance loans we acquire, we will collect $5 million in adverse market refinance fees. To help ensure that the fee does not negatively impact our affordable housing mission, the fee only applies to eligible single-family loan refinances and does not apply to loans for home purchases, refinance loans with an original principal amount of less than or equal to $125,000, or certain HomeReady® refinance loans. The lender may choose whether to pass on all, some or none of the fee to the borrower. The new fee is intended to help us offset some of the higher projected expenses and risk due to COVID-19, including costs associated with the actions we are taking to help borrowers, lenders and servicers impacted by the pandemic, such as providing forbearances, suspending foreclosures and evictions, and offering repayment plans, payment deferrals and loan modifications.
•Additional Reserve Requirements. To address possible fluctuations in multifamily borrower income and expenses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we instituted additional reserve requirements for certain new multifamily loan acquisitions.
See “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management” and “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk Management” for more information on the actions we are taking in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have also taken steps to help protect the safety and resiliency of our workforce. From mid-March through early October 2020, we required nearly all of our workforce to work remotely. In early October we began allowing employees, on a voluntary basis, to request approval to return to work at some of our office locations and have established mandatory COVID-19 safety protocols for these locations. We expect a significant majority of our employees will continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future. To date, our business resiliency plans and technology systems have effectively supported this telework arrangement.
Impact on our Business and Financial Results
The economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was the primary driver of the decline in our net income in 2020, as compared with 2019. We increased our allowance for loan losses to reflect our expected loan losses as a result of the pandemic, which resulted in increased credit-related expenses. We are also incurring other costs associated with the pandemic, such as paying higher fees to servicers to support providing loss mitigation to borrowers and advancing principal and interest payments to MBS investors for loans in forbearance. As a result, we expect the COVID-19 pandemic to continue to negatively affect our financial results and our returns on capital.
We did not enter into new credit risk transfer transactions in the second quarter of 2020 due to adverse market conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Market conditions improved in the second half of 2020, but we have
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | 4 | |||||||
| Business | Executive Summary | COVID-19 Impact | ||||||||
not entered into any new transactions as we evaluate their costs and benefits, including a reduction in the capital relief these transactions provide under FHFA’s enterprise regulatory capital framework. We may engage in credit risk transfer transactions in the future, which could help us manage capital and manage within our risk appetite, particularly given the growth and turnover in our book in 2020. The structure of and extent to which we engage in any additional credit risk transfer transactions will be affected by the enterprise regulatory capital framework, our risk appetite, the strength of future market conditions, including the cost of these transactions, and the review of our overall business and capital plan. For information on these transactions and their benefits and costs, see “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Credit Enhancement and Transfer of Mortgage Credit Risk” and “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Transfer of Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk.” See “Legislation and Regulation—GSE Act and Other Legislative and Regulatory Matters—Capital” for information on the enterprise regulatory capital framework.
Also see “MD&A—Retained Mortgage Portfolio,” “MD&A—Liquidity and Capital Management” and “MD&A—Risk Management” for discussions of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business.
Our Mission and Charter
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide liquidity and stability to the residential mortgage market and to promote access to mortgage credit.
This mission is derived from our corporate charter, which is the Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act, or the Charter Act. The Charter Act establishes the parameters under which we operate and our purposes, which are to:
•provide stability in the secondary market for residential mortgages;
•respond appropriately to the private capital market;
•provide ongoing assistance to the secondary market for residential mortgages (including activities relating to mortgages on housing for low- and moderate-income families involving a reasonable economic return that may be less than the return earned on other activities) by increasing the liquidity of mortgage investments and improving the distribution of investment capital available for residential mortgage financing; and
•promote access to mortgage credit throughout the nation (including central cities, rural areas and underserved areas) by increasing the liquidity of mortgage investments and improving the distribution of investment capital available for residential mortgage financing.
Our Charter
The Charter Act specifies that our operations are to be financed by private capital to the maximum extent feasible. We are expected to earn reasonable economic returns on all our activities. However, we may accept lower returns on certain activities relating to mortgages on housing for low- and moderate-income families in order to support those segments of the market. We expect the lower returns to be offset by activities that yield higher returns.
Principal balance limitations. To meet our purposes, the Charter Act authorizes us to purchase and securitize mortgage loans secured by single-family and multifamily properties. Our acquisitions of single-family conventional mortgage loans are subject to maximum original principal balance limits, known as “conforming loan limits.” The conforming loan limits are adjusted each year based on FHFA’s housing price index. For 2020, the conforming loan limit for mortgages secured by one-family residences was set at $510,400, with higher limits for mortgages secured by two- to four-family residences and in four statutorily-designated states and territories (Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands). For 2021, FHFA increased the national conforming loan limit for one-family residences to $548,250. In addition, higher loan limits of up to 150% of the otherwise applicable loan limit apply in certain high-cost areas. The Charter Act does not impose maximum original principal balance limits on loans we purchase or securitize that are insured by the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”) or guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”).
The Charter Act also includes the following provisions:
•Credit enhancement requirements. The Charter Act generally requires credit enhancement on any single-family conventional mortgage loan that we purchase or securitize that has a loan-to-value (“LTV”) ratio over 80% at the time of purchase. The credit enhancement may take the form of one or more of the following: (1) insurance or a guaranty by a qualified insurer on the portion of the unpaid principal balance of a mortgage loan that exceeds 80% of the property value; (2) a seller’s agreement to repurchase or replace the loan in the event of default; or (3) retention by the seller of at least a 10% participation interest in the loan. Regardless of LTV ratio, the Charter
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | 5 | |||||||
| Business | Our Mission and Charter | ||||||||
Act does not require us to obtain credit enhancement to purchase or securitize loans insured by FHA or guaranteed by the VA.
•Issuances of our securities. We are authorized, upon the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to issue debt obligations and mortgage-related securities. Neither the U.S. government nor any of its agencies guarantees, directly or indirectly, our debt or mortgage-related securities.
•Authority of Treasury to purchase our debt obligations. At the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, Treasury may purchase our debt obligations up to a maximum of $2.25 billion outstanding at any one time.
•Exemption for our securities offerings. Our securities offerings are exempt from registration requirements under the federal securities laws. As a result, we do not file registration statements or prospectuses with the SEC with respect to our securities offerings. However, our equity securities are not treated as exempt securities for purposes of Sections 12, 13, 14 or 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”). Consequently, we are required to file periodic and current reports with the SEC, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K. Our non-equity securities are exempt securities under the Exchange Act.
•Exemption from specified taxes. Fannie Mae is exempt from taxation by states, territories, counties, municipalities and local taxing authorities, except for taxation by those authorities on our real property. We are not exempt from the payment of federal corporate income taxes.
•Limitations. We may not originate mortgage loans or advance funds to a mortgage seller on an interim basis, using mortgage loans as collateral, pending the sale of the mortgages in the secondary market. We may purchase or securitize mortgage loans only on properties located in the United States and its territories.
Liquidity Provided in 2020
We provided over $1.4 trillion in liquidity to the mortgage market in 2020, which enabled the financing of approximately 6 million home purchases, refinancings or rental units. This represents our highest volume of single-family and multifamily acquisitions on record.
Fannie Mae Provided over $1.4 trillion in Liquidity in 2020
| Unpaid Principal Balance | Units | |||||||
| $411B | 1.5M Single-Family Home Purchases | |||||||
| $948B | 3.4M Single-Family Refinancings | |||||||
| $76B | 792K Multifamily Rental Units | |||||||
Mortgage Securitizations
We support market liquidity by issuing Fannie Mae MBS that are readily traded in the capital markets. We create Fannie Mae MBS by placing mortgage loans in a trust and issuing securities that are backed by those mortgage loans. Monthly payments received on the loans are the primary source of payments passed through to Fannie Mae MBS holders. We guarantee to the MBS trust that we will supplement amounts received by the MBS trust as required to permit timely payment of principal and interest on the trust certificates. In return for this guaranty, we receive guaranty fees.
Below we discuss the three broad categories of our securitization transactions and UMBS.
Securitization Transactions
We currently securitize a substantial majority of the single-family and multifamily mortgage loans we acquire. Our securitization transactions primarily fall within three broad categories: lender swap transactions, portfolio securitizations, and structured securitizations.
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | 6 | |||||||
| Business | Mortgage Securitizations | ||||||||
Lender Swap Transactions
Our most common type of securitization transaction is our “lender swap transaction.” In a single-family lender swap transaction, a mortgage lender that operates in the primary mortgage market generally delivers a pool of mortgage loans to us in exchange for Fannie Mae MBS backed by these mortgage loans. Lenders may hold the Fannie Mae MBS they receive from us or sell them to investors. A pool of mortgage loans is a group of mortgage loans with similar characteristics. After receiving the mortgage loans in a lender swap transaction, we place them in a trust for which we serve as trustee. This trust is established for the sole purpose of holding the mortgage loans separate and apart from our corporate assets. We guarantee to each MBS trust that we will supplement amounts received by the MBS trust as required to permit timely payment of principal and interest on the related Fannie Mae MBS. We are entitled to a portion of the interest payment as a fee for providing our guaranty. The mortgage servicer also retains a portion of the interest payment as a fee for servicing the loan. Then, on behalf of the trust, we make monthly distributions to the Fannie Mae MBS certificateholders from the principal and interest payments and other collections on the underlying mortgage loans.
Lender Swap Transaction
Our Multifamily business generally creates multifamily Fannie Mae MBS in lender swap transactions in a manner similar to our Single-Family business. Our multifamily lender customers typically deliver only one mortgage loan to back each multifamily Fannie Mae MBS. The characteristics of each mortgage loan are used to establish guaranty fees on a risk-adjusted basis. Securitizing a multifamily mortgage loan into a Fannie Mae MBS facilitates its sale into the secondary market.
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Portfolio Securitization Transactions
We also purchase mortgage loans and mortgage-related securities for securitization and sale at a later date through our “portfolio securitization transactions.” Most of our portfolio securitization transactions are driven by our single-family whole loan conduit activities, pursuant to which we purchase single-family whole loans from a large group of typically smaller lenders principally for the purpose of securitizing the loans into Fannie Mae MBS, which may then be sold to dealers and investors.
Portfolio Securitization Transaction
Structured Securitization Transactions
In a “structured securitization transaction,” we create structured Fannie Mae MBS, typically for our lender customers or securities dealer customers, in exchange for a transaction fee. In these transactions, the customer “swaps” a mortgage-related asset that it owns (typically a mortgage security) in exchange for a structured Fannie Mae MBS we issue. The process for issuing Fannie Mae MBS in a structured securitization is similar to the process involved in our lender swap securitizations described above.
We also issue structured transactions backed by multifamily Fannie Mae MBS through the Fannie Mae Guaranteed Multifamily Structures (“Fannie Mae GeMSTM”) program, which provides additional liquidity and stability to the multifamily market, while expanding the investor base for multifamily Fannie Mae MBS.
Uniform Mortgage-Backed Securities, or UMBS
Overview
In May 2019, we began using the common securitization platform operated by Common Securitization Solutions, LLC (“CSS”), a limited liability company we own jointly with Freddie Mac, to perform certain aspects of the securitization process for our single-family Fannie Mae MBS issuances. In June 2019, we and Freddie Mac began issuing UMBS®. The uniform mortgage-backed security is intended to maximize liquidity for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities in the to-be-announced (“TBA”) market.
UMBS and Structured Securities
Each of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issues and guarantees UMBS and structured securities backed by UMBS and other securities, as described below.
•UMBS. Each of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issues and guarantees UMBS that are directly backed by the mortgage loans it has acquired, referred to as “first-level securities.” UMBS issued by Fannie Mae are backed only by mortgage loans that Fannie Mae has acquired, and similarly UMBS issued by Freddie Mac are backed only by mortgage loans that Freddie Mac has acquired. There is no commingling of Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-acquired loans within UMBS.
Mortgage loans backing UMBS are limited to fixed-rate mortgage loans eligible for financing through the TBA market. We continue to issue some types of Fannie Mae MBS that are not TBA-eligible and therefore are not
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issued as UMBS, such as single-family Fannie Mae MBS backed by adjustable-rate mortgages and all multifamily Fannie Mae MBS.
•Structured Securities. Each of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also issues and guarantees structured mortgage-backed securities, referred to as “second-level securities,” that are resecuritizations of UMBS or previously-issued structured securities. In contrast to UMBS, second-level securities can be commingled—that is, they can include both Fannie Mae securities and Freddie Mac securities as the underlying collateral for the security. These structured securities include Supers®, which are single-class resecuritizations, and REMICs, which are multi-class resecuritizations. While Supers are backed only by TBA-eligible securities, REMICs can be backed by TBA-eligible or non-TBA-eligible securities.
The key features of UMBS are the same as those of legacy single-family Fannie Mae MBS. Accordingly, all single-family Fannie Mae MBS that are directly backed by fixed-rate loans and generally eligible for trading in the TBA market are UMBS, whether issued before or after June 3, 2019, when we began issuing UMBS. In this report, we use the term “Fannie Mae-issued UMBS” to refer to single-family Fannie Mae MBS that are directly backed by fixed-rate mortgage loans and generally eligible for trading in the TBA market. We use the term “Fannie Mae MBS” or “our MBS” to refer to any type of mortgage-backed security that we issue, including UMBS, Supers, REMICs and other types of single-family or multifamily mortgage-backed securities. References to our single-family guaranty book of business in this report exclude Freddie Mac-acquired mortgage loans underlying Freddie Mac mortgage-related securities that we have resecuritized.
Common Securitization Platform
The common securitization platform operated by CSS has replaced certain elements of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s proprietary systems for securitizing single-family mortgages and performing associated back-office and administrative functions. The design of the common securitization platform also allows for the potential integration of additional market participants in the future. We no longer use our individual proprietary securitization function for our single-family MBS issuances. In addition to using the common securitization platform for our newly issued UMBS issuances, we are also now using the common securitization platform for certain ongoing administrative functions for our previously issued and outstanding single-family Fannie Mae MBS. We do not use the common securitization platform operated by CSS for securitizing or performing associated administrative functions for our multifamily Fannie Mae MBS.
We discuss risks posed by our reliance on CSS in “Risk Factors—GSE and Conservatorship Risk.”
Managing Mortgage Credit Risk
Effectively pricing and managing credit risk is key to our business. Below we discuss key elements of how we are compensated for and manage the risk of credit losses through the life cycle of our loans and how we measure our credit risk.
Loan Acquisition Policies
Loans we acquire must be underwritten in accordance with our guidelines and standards.
•In Single-family, the vast majority of loans we acquire are assessed by Desktop Underwriter® (DU®), our proprietary single-family automated underwriting system. DU performs a comprehensive evaluation of the primary risk factors of a mortgage. We regularly review DU’s underlying models to determine whether its risk analysis and eligibility assessment appropriately reflect current market conditions and loan performance data to ensure the loans we acquire are consistent with our risk appetite and FHFA guidance. New business restrictions recently added to our senior preferred stock purchase agreement with Treasury impose additional risk criteria on the loans we acquire and will also be considered in future reviews of DU’s underlying models.
•In Multifamily, we acquire the vast majority of our loans through our Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS®) Program. DUS lenders, who must be pre-approved by us, are delegated the authority to underwrite and service loans for delivery to us in accordance with our standards and requirements. Based on a given loan’s unique characteristics and our established delegation criteria, lenders assess whether a loan must be reviewed by us. If review is required, our internal credit team will assess the loan’s risk profile to determine if it meets our risk tolerances. DUS lenders also share with us the risk of loss on our multifamily loans, thereby aligning our
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interests throughout the life of the loan. FHFA has instructed us to limit the volume and nature of multifamily loans we acquire, and the recent amendments to our senior preferred stock purchase agreement with Treasury include new covenants with respect to our multifamily loan acquisition volume. We will continue to closely monitor our multifamily loan acquisitions and market conditions and, as appropriate, make changes to our standards and requirements to ensure the multifamily loans we acquire are consistent with our risk appetite, the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, and FHFA guidance.
For more information about our mortgage acquisition policies and underwriting standards, see “MD&A—Single-family Business—Single-family Mortgage Credit Risk Management” and “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk Management.” For information on the restrictions on our single-family and multifamily loan acquisitions, see “Conservatorship, Treasury Agreements and Housing Finance Reform—Treasury Agreements—Covenants under Treasury Agreements” and “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Business Metrics.”
In exchange for managing credit risk on the loans we acquire, we receive guaranty fees that take into account, among other factors, the credit risk characteristics of the loans we acquire. We provide information about our guaranty fees in MD&A—Single-family Business—Single-family Business Metrics” and in “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Business Metrics.”
Loan Performance Management
We closely monitor the performance of loans in our guaranty book of business and we work to reduce defaults and mitigate the severity of credit losses through our servicing policies and practices.
Single-family Loans
•For single-family loans, the most important loan performance criteria we monitor are (1) serious delinquency rates, which are typically strong indicators of loans that are at a heightened risk of default, and (2) mark-to-market LTV ratios, which affect both the likelihood of losses and the potential severity of any losses we may ultimately realize. While mark-to-market LTV ratios are significantly impacted by changes in home prices, which are outside our control, we have an array of loss mitigation tools to try to reduce defaults on delinquent loans and to minimize the severity of the losses we do incur.
•We consider single-family loans to be seriously delinquent when they are 90 days or more past due or in the foreclosure process. Once a single-family loan becomes 36 days past due, the servicer is required to make weekly attempts, for the next six months, to contact the borrower to try to engage in steps to prevent default. Our loss mitigation tools include payment forbearance, repayment plans, payment deferrals and loan modification options. We describe these tools and discuss them further in “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Single-Family Problem Loan Management—Loan Workout Metrics.” Successful loan reperformance is heavily influenced by the effective use of these tools and the amount of equity the borrower has in their home.
•Some loans that become seriously delinquent subsequently become current or repay in full without a modification or other loan workout. However, we modify a substantial portion of our seriously delinquent loans. For example, of the single-family loans that became seriously delinquent from 2017 to 2019, through December 31, 2020, 33% became current or fully repaid without a loan workout, while we performed loan workouts, including modifications, on 38% of them. Of these loans that received a workout, 70% became current or fully repaid as of December 31, 2020, including loans that became current and were subsequently sold in a reperforming loan sale, and 1% defaulted through foreclosure, a short sale or a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The reperformance of these previously worked-out loans has been negatively impacted in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, with approximately 13% of the population in a forbearance plan as of December 31, 2020 and past due. When a loan does not cure on its own and we are not able to provide a workout for it, the likelihood of default increases. See “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management” for performance statistics on our single-family completed loan modifications during 2019 and 2018.
•In 2020 our loss mitigation pivoted to payment forbearance, providing up to a year to borrowers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For loans already in a COVID-19-related forbearance as of February 28, 2021, forbearance can be extended to a total of up to 15 months, provided that the forbearance does not result in the loan becoming greater than 15 months delinquent. Forbearance is typically used in instances where the duration and impact of a borrower’s hardship are uncertain, such as disasters like hurricanes and flooding, to give the borrower time to understand whether, and to what extent, a loss mitigation solution will be needed to return to paying status. We estimate that, through December 31, 2020, our single-family cumulative forbearance take-up rate was approximately 8%. We discuss this rate in “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Single-Family Problem Loan Management—Single-Family
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Loans in Forbearance.” As of December 31, 2020, 3.4% of our single-family conventional book of business, based on unpaid principal balance, and 3.0% based on loan count, remained in active forbearance, the vast majority of which were related to COVID-19, and 12% of these loans in forbearance, based on loan count, were still current. The majority of our single-family loans that exited forbearance during the year either repaid all missed payments or received a payment deferral solution. We expect the ultimate performance of these loans will be influenced by the success of these payment deferrals as well as our other loss mitigation options. Because payments are not required during forbearance, our serious delinquency rate has increased.
•For delinquent loans that are unable to reperform, we use alternatives to foreclosure where possible, such as short sales, which reduce our credit losses while helping borrowers avoid foreclosure. We provide more information on short sales and our other foreclosure alternatives in “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Single-Family Problem Loan Management—Loan Workout Metrics—Foreclosure Alternatives.” We work to obtain the highest price possible for the properties sold in short sales. When we acquire properties, including through foreclosure, our primary objectives are both to minimize the severity of loss to Fannie Mae by maximizing sales prices and to stabilize neighborhoods by preventing empty homes from depressing home values. The value of the underlying property relative to the loan’s unpaid principal balance has a significant impact on the severity of loss we incur as a result of loan default. As of December 31, 2020, the estimated weighted average mark-to-market LTV ratio of loans in our single-family conventional book of business was 58%, and less than 0.5% of these loans had an estimated mark-to-market LTV ratio above 100%.
•In recent years, our credit loss mitigation strategy has also involved selling nonperforming and reperforming loans thereby removing them from our guaranty book of business. We suspended new sales of nonperforming and reperforming loans in the second quarter of 2020, as investor interest in purchasing these loans was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, market conditions for the sale of these loans, particularly reperforming loans, improved following the second quarter, and we resumed sales of reperforming loans in the third quarter. FHFA is currently examining issues relating to sales of nonperforming and reperforming loans during the COVID-19 national emergency and has instructed us to refrain from engaging in such sales until at least February 28, 2021, or later if directed by FHFA, while FHFA evaluates what additional loss mitigation requirements will apply to any future sales. For instance, although we already require purchasers to perform workout solutions like modifications to try to avoid foreclosure, we may attach additional terms to these sales that would require purchasers to offer borrowers protections included in existing legislation.
We present information on the credit characteristics and performance of our single-family loans in “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Single-Family Portfolio Diversification and Monitoring” and “Single-Family Problem Loan Management” and “Note 13, Concentrations of Credit Risk—Risk Characteristics of our Guaranty Book of Business.”
Multifamily Loans
•For multifamily loans, key indicators of heightened risk of default are debt service coverage ratios (“DSCRs”), particularly loans with an estimated current DSCR below 1.0, and serious delinquency rates. We consider a multifamily loan seriously delinquent when it is 60 days or more past due.
•For loans with indicators of heightened default risk, our DUS lenders, through their delegated authority, work with us to maintain the credit quality of the multifamily book of business and prevent foreclosures through loss mitigation strategies such as payment forbearance or loan modification.
•For loans that ultimately default, we work to minimize the severity of loss in several ways, including pursuing contractual remedies through our DUS loss-sharing arrangements and with providers of additional credit enhancements where available.
•Similar to single-family, we have relied heavily on payment forbearance, up to six months of which may be provided by lenders under delegated authority. For any forbearance request extending beyond six months, Fannie Mae does not delegate the decision and will determine whether to extend relief. As of December 31, 2020, 0.4% of our Multifamily guaranty book of business based on unpaid principal balance was in an active forbearance, the vast majority of which were related to COVID-19.
•We present information on the credit characteristics and performance of our multifamily loans in “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Multifamily Portfolio Diversification and Monitoring” and “Note 13, Concentrations of Credit Risk—Risk Characteristics of our Guaranty Book of Business.”
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Sharing and Selling Credit Risk
In addition to managing credit risk through our selling and servicing practices, we also share and transfer credit risk to third parties through a variety of credit enhancement products and programs.
•For single-family loans we acquire with an LTV ratio over 80% our charter requires credit enhancement, which we typically meet through third-party primary mortgage insurance.
•Our Multifamily business uses a shared-risk business model that distributes credit risk to the private markets, primarily through our DUS program. Under DUS, our lenders typically share with us approximately one-third of the credit risk on these loans, aligning the interests of lenders and Fannie Mae. DUS lenders receive credit risk-related compensation in exchange for sharing risk. The lender risk-sharing we obtain through our DUS program accompanies our multifamily loans at the time we acquire them.
•We use other types of credit enhancements, including pool mortgage insurance and credit risk transfer transactions. In our credit risk transfer transactions, we use risk-sharing capabilities we have developed to obtain credit enhancement by transferring portions of our single-family and multifamily mortgage credit risk on reference pools of mortgage loans to the private market. In most of our credit risk transfer transactions, investors receive payments, which effectively reduce the guaranty fee income we retain on the loans. In exchange for these payments, our credit risk transfer transactions are designed to transfer to the investors a portion of the losses we expect would be incurred in an economic downturn or a stressed credit environment. We did not enter into new credit risk transfer transactions in the second quarter of 2020 due to adverse market conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Market conditions improved in the second half of 2020, but we have not entered into any new transactions as we evaluate their costs and benefits. We may engage in credit risk transfer transactions in the future.
For more information about our loans with credit enhancement, see “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Single-Family Credit Enhancement and Transfer of Mortgage Credit Risk” and “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Transfer of Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk.”
Measuring Credit Risk and the Impact of Changes on Our Quarterly Results
Our best estimate of future credit losses is reflected in our single-family and multifamily loss reserves, which for periods on or after January 1, 2020 is calculated using a lifetime credit loss methodology under the CECL standard. We update our estimate of credit losses quarterly based on the credit profile of our loans as well as certain actual and forecasted economic data. Changes in our estimate affect our benefit or provision for credit losses, which, combined with foreclosed property expense, comprises our credit-related income or expense each quarter.
We provide information on our loss reserves in “Selected Financial Data” and in “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Single-Family Problem Loan Management—Other Single-Family Credit information” and “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk Management—Multifamily Problem Loan Management and Foreclosure Prevention—Other Multifamily Credit information.” We provide information on our credit related income or expense in “MD&A—Consolidated Results of Operations—Credit-Related Income (Expense).”
Conservatorship, Treasury Agreements and Housing Finance Reform
Conservatorship
On September 6, 2008, the Director of FHFA appointed FHFA as our conservator, pursuant to authority provided by the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, as amended, including by the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 (together, the “GSE Act”). The conservatorship is a statutory process designed to preserve and conserve our assets and property and put the company in a sound and solvent condition.
The conservatorship has no specified termination date. For more information on the risks to our business relating to the conservatorship and uncertainties regarding the future of our company and business, as well as the adverse effects of the conservatorship on the rights of holders of our common and preferred stock, see “Risk Factors—GSE and Conservatorship Risk.”
Our conservatorship could terminate through a receivership. For information on the circumstances under which FHFA is required or permitted to place us into receivership and the potential consequences of receivership, see “Legislation and
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Regulation—GSE Act and Other Legislative and Regulatory Matters—Receivership and Resolution Planning” and “Risk Factors—GSE and Conservatorship Risk.”
Management of the Company during Conservatorship
Upon its appointment, the conservator immediately succeeded to (1) all rights, titles, powers and privileges of Fannie Mae, and of any shareholder, officer or director of Fannie Mae with respect to Fannie Mae and its assets, and (2) title to the books, records and assets of any other legal custodian of Fannie Mae. The conservator subsequently issued an order that provided for our Board of Directors to exercise specified authorities. The conservator also provided instructions regarding matters for which conservator decision or notification is required. The conservator retains the authority to amend or withdraw its order and instructions at any time. For more information on the authorities of our Board of Directors during conservatorship, see “Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance—Corporate Governance—Conservatorship and Board Authorities.”
Our directors serve on behalf of the conservator and exercise their authority as directed by and with the approval, where required, of the conservator. Our directors have no fiduciary duties to any person or entity except to the conservator. Accordingly, our directors are not obligated to consider the interests of the company, the holders of our equity or debt securities, or the holders of Fannie Mae MBS unless specifically directed to do so by the conservator.
Because we are in conservatorship, our common stockholders currently do not have the ability to elect directors or to vote on other matters. The conservator eliminated common and preferred stock dividends (other than dividends on the senior preferred stock issued to Treasury) during the conservatorship.
Powers of the Conservator under the GSE Act
FHFA has broad powers when acting as our conservator. As conservator, FHFA can direct us to enter into contracts or enter into contracts on our behalf. Further, FHFA may transfer or sell any of our assets or liabilities (subject to limitations and post-transfer notice provisions for transfers of certain types of financial contracts), without any approval, assignment of rights or consent of any party. However, mortgage loans and mortgage-related assets that have been transferred to a Fannie Mae MBS trust must be held by the conservator for the beneficial owners of the Fannie Mae MBS and cannot be used to satisfy the general creditors of the company. Neither the conservatorship nor the terms of our agreements with Treasury change our obligation to make required payments on our debt securities or perform under our mortgage guaranty obligations.
Treasury Agreements
On September 7, 2008, we, through FHFA in its capacity as conservator, and Treasury entered into a senior preferred stock purchase agreement, pursuant to which we issued to Treasury one million shares of Variable Liquidation Preference Senior Preferred Stock, Series 2008-2, which we refer to as the “senior preferred stock,” and a warrant to purchase shares of common stock equal to 79.9% of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding on a fully diluted basis at the time the warrant is exercised for a nominal price.
The senior preferred stock purchase agreement and the dividend and liquidation provisions of the senior preferred stock were amended in January 2021 pursuant to a letter agreement between us, through FHFA in its capacity as conservator, and Treasury. The terms of the agreement, including Treasury’s funding commitment, and the dividend and liquidation provisions of the senior preferred stock are described more fully below.
The January 2021 letter agreement made a number of significant changes to the covenants in the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, as well as to the terms of the senior preferred stock, including the following:
•The dividend provisions of the senior preferred stock were amended to permit us to retain increases in our net worth until our net worth exceeds the amount of adjusted total capital necessary for us to meet the capital requirements and buffers under the enterprise regulatory capital framework discussed in “Legislation and Regulation—GSE Act and Other Legislative and Regulatory Matters—Capital.” We estimate that, had the enterprise regulatory capital framework been applicable to us as of December 31, 2020, we would have been required to hold approximately $185 billion in adjusted total capital, of which approximately $135 billion must be in the form of common equity tier 1 capital. After the “capital reserve end date,” which is defined as the last day of the second consecutive fiscal quarter during which we have maintained capital equal to, or in excess of, all of the capital requirements and buffers under the enterprise regulatory capital framework, the amount of quarterly dividends to Treasury will be equal to the lesser of any quarterly increase in our net worth and a 10% annual rate on the then-current liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock. As a result of these changes, our ability to retain earnings in excess of the capital requirements and buffers set forth in the enterprise regulatory capital framework will be limited.
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•At the end of each fiscal quarter, through and including the capital reserve end date, the liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock will be increased by an amount equal to the increase in our net worth, if any, during the immediately prior fiscal quarter.
•We may issue and retain up to $70 billion in proceeds from the sale of common stock without Treasury’s prior consent, provided that (1) Treasury has already exercised its warrant in full, and (2) all currently pending significant litigation relating to the conservatorship and to an amendment to the senior preferred stock purchase agreement made in August 2012 has been resolved, which may require Treasury’s assent.
•FHFA may release us from conservatorship without Treasury’s consent after (1) all currently pending significant litigation relating to our conservatorship and the August 2012 amendment to the senior preferred stock purchase agreement has been resolved, and (2) our common equity tier 1 capital, together with any other common stock that we may issue in a public offering, equals or exceeds 3% of our “adjusted total assets” under our enterprise regulatory capital framework. We estimate that, had the new framework been applicable to us as of December 31, 2020, 3% of our adjusted total assets would have been approximately $124 billion.
•New restrictive covenants were added that will impact both our single-family and multifamily business activities.
See “Risk Factors” for a description of the risks to our business relating to the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, as well as the adverse effects of the senior preferred stock and the warrant on the rights of holders of our common stock and other series of preferred stock.
Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement
The senior preferred stock purchase agreement provides that, on a quarterly basis, we may draw funds up to the amount, if any, by which our total liabilities exceed our total assets, as reflected in our consolidated balance sheet, prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“GAAP”), for the applicable fiscal quarter (referred to as the “deficiency amount”), up to the maximum amount of remaining funding under the agreement. As of the date of this filing, the maximum amount of remaining funding under the agreement is $113.9 billion. If we were to draw additional funds from Treasury under the agreement with respect to a future period, the amount of remaining funding under the agreement would be reduced by the amount of our draw. The senior preferred stock purchase agreement provides that the deficiency amount will be calculated differently if we become subject to receivership or other liquidation process.
The senior preferred stock purchase agreement provides for the payment of an unspecified quarterly commitment fee to Treasury to compensate Treasury for its ongoing support under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement. As amended by the January 2021 letter agreement, the agreement provides that (1) through and continuing until the capital reserve end date, the periodic commitment fee will not be set, accrue, or be payable, and (2) not later than the capital reserve end date, we and Treasury, in consultation with the Chair of the Federal Reserve, will agree to set the periodic commitment fee. Treasury’s funding commitment under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement has no expiration date. The agreement provides that Treasury’s funding commitment will terminate under any of the following circumstances: (1) the completion of our liquidation and fulfillment of Treasury’s obligations under its funding commitment at that time; (2) the payment in full of, or reasonable provision for, all of our liabilities (whether or not contingent, including mortgage guaranty obligations); or (3) the funding by Treasury of the maximum amount that may be funded under the agreement. In addition, Treasury may terminate its funding commitment and declare the agreement null and void if a court vacates, modifies, amends, conditions, enjoins, stays or otherwise affects the appointment of the conservator or otherwise curtails the conservator’s powers.
In the event of our default on payments with respect to our debt securities or guaranteed Fannie Mae MBS, if Treasury fails to perform its obligations under its funding commitment and if we and/or the conservator are not diligently pursuing remedies with respect to that failure, the agreement provides that any holder of such defaulted debt securities or Fannie Mae MBS may file a claim in the United States Court of Federal Claims for relief requiring Treasury to fund us up to (1) the amount necessary to cure the payment defaults on our debt and Fannie Mae MBS, (2) the deficiency amount, or (3) the amount of remaining funding under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, whichever is the least. Any payment that Treasury makes under those circumstances will be treated for all purposes as a draw under the agreement that will increase the liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock.
Most provisions of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement may be waived or amended by mutual agreement of the parties; however, no waiver or amendment of the agreement is permitted that would decrease Treasury’s aggregate funding commitment or add conditions to Treasury’s funding commitment if the waiver or amendment would adversely affect in any material respect the holders of our debt securities or guaranteed Fannie Mae MBS.
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Senior Preferred Stock
Shares of the senior preferred stock have no par value and have a stated value and initial liquidation preference equal to $1,000 per share, for an aggregate initial liquidation preference of $1 billion. As a result of the January 2021 letter agreement, the dividend rate and liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock depend on whether we have reached the capital reserve end date.
Treasury, as the holder of the senior preferred stock, is entitled to receive, when, as and if declared, out of legally available funds, cumulative quarterly cash dividends. The dividends we have paid to Treasury on the senior preferred stock during conservatorship have been declared by, and paid at the direction of, our conservator, acting as successor to the rights, titles, powers and privileges of the Board of Directors. Dividend payments we make to Treasury do not restore or increase the amount of funding available to us under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement.
Dividend amount prior to capital reserve end date. The terms of the senior preferred stock provide for dividends each quarter in the amount, if any, by which our net worth as of the end of the immediately preceding fiscal quarter exceeds an applicable capital reserve amount. The January 2021 letter agreement increased the applicable capital reserve amount, starting with the quarterly dividend period ending on December 31, 2020, from $25 billion to the amount of adjusted total capital necessary for us to meet the capital requirements and buffers set forth in enterprise regulatory capital framework. If our net worth does not exceed this amount as of the end of the immediately preceding fiscal quarter, then dividends will neither accumulate nor be payable for such period. Our net worth is defined as the amount, if any, by which our total assets (excluding Treasury’s funding commitment and any unfunded amounts related to the commitment) exceed our total liabilities (excluding any obligation with respect to capital stock), in each case as reflected on our balance sheet prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Dividend amount following capital reserve end date. Beginning on the first dividend period following the capital reserve end date, the applicable quarterly dividend amount on the senior preferred stock will be the lesser of:
(1) a 10% annual rate on the then-current liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock; and
(2) an amount equal to the incremental increase in our net worth during the immediately prior fiscal quarter.
However, the applicable quarterly dividend amount will immediately increase to a 12% annual rate on the then-current liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock if we fail to timely pay dividends in cash to Treasury. This increased dividend amount will continue until the dividend period following the date we have paid, in cash, full cumulative dividends to Treasury (including any unpaid dividends), at which point the applicable quarterly dividend amount will revert to the prior calculation method.
Liquidation preference. Under the terms governing the senior preferred stock, the aggregate liquidation preference is increased by the following:
•any amounts Treasury pays to us pursuant to its funding commitment under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement (a total of $119.8 billion as of the date of this filing),
•any quarterly commitment fees that are payable but not paid in cash (no such fees have become payable, nor will they under the current terms of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement and the senior preferred stock); and
•any dividends that are payable but not paid in cash to Treasury, regardless of whether or not they are declared.
In addition:
•amendments to the terms of the senior preferred stock made in December 2017 increased the aggregate liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock by $3 billion as of December 31, 2017;
•amendments to the terms of the senior preferred stock made in September 2019 letter agreement provides that, beginning on September 30, 2019, and at the end of each fiscal quarter thereafter, the liquidation preference shall be increased by an amount equal to the increase in our net worth, if any, during the immediately prior fiscal quarter, until such time as the liquidation preference has increased by $22 billion pursuant to this provision; and
•the January 2021 letter agreement revised these terms to provide that, at the end of each fiscal quarter through and including the capital reserve end date, the liquidation preference shall be increased by an amount equal to the increase in our net worth, if any, during the immediately prior fiscal quarter.
The senior preferred stock ranks ahead of our common stock and all other outstanding series of our preferred stock, as well as any capital stock we issue in the future, as to both dividends and rights upon liquidation. As a result, if we are liquidated, the holder of the senior preferred stock is entitled to its then current liquidation preference before any distribution is made to the holders of our common stock or other preferred stock. The aggregate liquidation preference
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of the senior preferred stock was $142.2 billion as of December 31, 2020. It will increase to $146.8 billion as of March 31, 2021 due to the increase in our net worth during the fourth quarter of 2020.
The senior preferred stock provides that we may not, at any time, declare or pay dividends on, make distributions with respect to, or redeem, purchase or acquire, or make a liquidation payment with respect to, any common stock or other securities ranking junior to the senior preferred stock unless (1) full cumulative dividends on the outstanding senior preferred stock (including any unpaid dividends added to the liquidation preference) have been declared and paid in cash, and (2) all amounts required to be paid with the net proceeds of any issuance of capital stock for cash (as described in the following paragraph) have been paid in cash. Shares of the senior preferred stock are not convertible. Shares of the senior preferred stock have no general or special voting rights, other than those set forth in the certificate of designation for the senior preferred stock or otherwise required by law. The consent of holders of at least two-thirds of all outstanding shares of senior preferred stock is generally required to amend the terms of the senior preferred stock or to create any class or series of stock that ranks prior to or on parity with the senior preferred stock.
We are not permitted to redeem the senior preferred stock prior to the termination of Treasury’s funding commitment under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement. Moreover, we are not permitted to pay down the liquidation preference of the outstanding shares of senior preferred stock except to the extent of (1) accumulated and unpaid dividends previously added to the liquidation preference and not previously paid down; and (2) quarterly commitment fees previously added to the liquidation preference and not previously paid down. In addition to these exceptions, if we issue any shares of capital stock for cash while the senior preferred stock is outstanding, the net proceeds of the issuance, with the exception of up to $70 billion in aggregate gross cash proceeds from the issuance of common stock, must be used to pay down the liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock. The liquidation preference of each share of senior preferred stock may not be paid down below $1,000 per share prior to the termination of Treasury’s funding commitment. Following the termination of Treasury’s funding commitment, we may pay down the liquidation preference of all outstanding shares of senior preferred stock at any time, in whole or in part.
Net Worth, Treasury Funding and Senior Preferred Stock Dividends
The charts below show information about our net worth, the remaining amount of Treasury’s funding commitment to us, senior preferred stock dividends we have paid Treasury and funds we have drawn from Treasury pursuant to its funding commitment.
(1)Aggregate amount of dividends we have paid to Treasury on the senior preferred stock from 2008 through December 31, 2020. Under the terms of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, dividend payments we make to Treasury do not offset our draws of funds from Treasury.
(2)Aggregate amount of funds we have drawn from Treasury pursuant to the senior preferred stock purchase agreement from 2008 through December 31, 2020.
Common Stock Warrant
Pursuant to the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, on September 7, 2008, we, through FHFA in its capacity as conservator, issued to Treasury a warrant to purchase shares of our common stock equal to 79.9% of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding on a fully diluted basis on the date the warrant is exercised, for an exercise
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price of $0.00001 per share. The warrant may be exercised in whole or in part at any time on or before September 7, 2028.
Covenants under Treasury Agreements
The senior preferred stock purchase agreement contains covenants that prohibit us from taking a number of actions without the prior written consent of Treasury, including:
•paying dividends or other distributions on or repurchasing our equity securities (other than the senior preferred stock or warrant);
•issuing equity securities, except for stock issuances made (1) to Treasury, (2) pursuant to obligations that existed at the time we entered conservatorship, and (3) as amended by the January 2021 letter agreement, for common stock ranking pari passu or junior to the common stock issued to Treasury in connection with the exercise of its warrant, provided that (i) Treasury has already exercised its warrant in full, and (ii) all currently pending significant litigation relating to the conservatorship and the August 2012 amendment to the senior preferred stock purchase agreement has been resolved, which may require Treasury’s assent. Net proceeds of the issuance of any shares of capital stock for cash while the senior preferred stock is outstanding, except for up to $70 billion in aggregate gross cash proceeds from the issuance of common stock, must be used to pay down the liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock;
•terminating or seeking to terminate our conservatorship, other than through a receivership, except that, as revised by the January 2021 letter agreement, FHFA can terminate our conservatorship without the prior consent of Treasury if several conditions are met, including (1) all currently pending significant litigation relating to the conservatorship and the August 2012 amendment to the senior preferred stock purchase agreement has been resolved, and (2) for two or more consecutive quarters, our common equity tier 1 capital (as defined in the enterprise regulatory capital framework), together with any stockholder equity that would result from a firm commitment public underwritten offering of common stock which is fully consummated concurrent with the termination of conservatorship, equals or exceeds at least 3% of our adjusted total assets (as defined in the enterprise regulatory capital framework);
•selling, transferring, leasing or otherwise disposing of any assets, except for dispositions for fair market value in limited circumstances including if (a) the transaction is in the ordinary course of business and consistent with past practice or (b) the assets have a fair market value individually or in the aggregate of less than $250 million; and
•issuing subordinated debt.
Covenants in the senior preferred stock purchase agreement also subject us to limits on the amount of mortgage assets that we may own and the total amount of our indebtedness.
•Mortgage Asset Limit. The amount of mortgage assets we are permitted to own is $250 billion and, as a result of the January 2021 letter agreement, will decrease to $225 billion on December 31, 2022. We are currently managing our business to a $225 billion cap pursuant to instructions from FHFA. Our mortgage assets as of December 31, 2020 were $165.0 billion. Our mortgage asset calculation also includes 10% of the notional value of interest-only securities we hold. We disclose the amount of our mortgage assets each month in the “Endnotes” to our Monthly Summaries, which are available on our website and announced in a press release.
•Debt Limit. Our debt limit under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement is set at 120% of the amount of mortgage assets we were allowed to own under the agreement on December 31 of the immediately preceding calendar year. This debt limit is currently $300 billion, and it will decrease to $270 billion as of December 31, 2022. As calculated for this purpose, our indebtedness as of December 31, 2020 was $290.0 billion. We disclose the amount of our indebtedness on a monthly basis under the caption “Total Debt Outstanding” in our Monthly Summaries, which are available on our website and announced in a press release.
Another covenant prohibits us from entering into any new compensation arrangements or increasing amounts or benefits payable under existing compensation arrangements with any of our executive officers (as defined by Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) rules) without the consent of the Director of FHFA, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury.
In addition to the changes described above to covenants already in the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, the January 2021 letter agreement added additional covenants:
•We are required to comply with the terms of the enterprise regulatory capital framework as published by FHFA in the Federal Register on December 17, 2020, disregarding any subsequent amendments or modifications.
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•New Business Restrictions. New restrictive covenants impact both our single-family and multifamily business activities:
◦Limit on Multifamily Volume. We may not acquire more than $80 billion in multifamily mortgage assets in any 52-week period. FHFA will adjust the dollar amount of this limitation on multifamily mortgage purchase activity up or down at the end of each calendar year based on changes to the consumer price index. Additionally, at least 50% of our multifamily acquisitions in any calendar year must, at the time of acquisition, be classified as mission-driven, consistent with FHFA guidelines. In the fourth quarter of 2020, FHFA established a 2021 multifamily volume cap of $70 billion in new business volume over the four-quarter period from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021. FHFA also announced the requirement that at least 50% of our 2021 multifamily business volume must be mission-driven, focused on certain affordable and underserved market segments. For more information about our multifamily new business volume, see “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Business Metrics.” We understand that the $70 billion multifamily volume cap and related requirements established by FHFA in the fourth quarter of 2020 remain in effect for calendar year 2021, and that the $80 billion limit on multifamily mortgage purchase activity established under the January 2021 letter agreement operates as an independent limit on our prospective multifamily loan acquisitions.
◦Requirement to Provide Equitable Access for Single-Family Acquisitions. We:
▪may not vary our pricing or acquisition terms for single-family loans based on the business characteristics of the seller, including the seller’s size, charter type, or volume of business with us; and
▪must offer to purchase at all times, for equivalent cash consideration and on substantially the same terms, any single-family mortgage loan that (1) is of a class of loans that we then offer to acquire for inclusion in our mortgage-backed securities or for other non-cash consideration, (2) is offered by a seller that has been approved to do business with us, and (3) has been originated and sold in compliance with our underwriting standards.
◦Single Counterparty Volume Cap on Single-Family Acquisitions for Cash. Beginning on January 1, 2022, and thereafter, we may not acquire more than $1.5 billion in single-family loans for cash consideration from any single seller (including its affiliates) during any period comprising four calendar quarters.
◦Limit on Specified Higher-Risk Single-Family Acquisitions. We may not acquire a single-family mortgage loan if, following the acquisition, more than 3% of our single-family loans that result from a refinancing, or 6% of our single family loans that do not result from a refinancing, in each case, that we have acquired during the preceding 52-week period, would have two or more of the following higher-risk characteristics at origination:
▪a combined loan-to-value ratio greater than 90%;
▪a debt-to-income ratio greater than 45%; and
▪a FICO credit score (or equivalent credit score) less than 680.
◦Limit on Acquisitions of Single-Family Mortgage Loans Backed by Second Homes and Investment Properties. We must limit our acquisitions of single-family mortgage loans secured by either second homes or investment properties to not more than 7% of the single-family mortgage loans we have acquired during the preceding 52-week period.
◦Single-Family Loan Eligibility Requirements Program. Beginning on or prior to July 1, 2021, we must implement a program reasonably designed to ensure that the single-family loans we acquire are limited to:
▪qualified mortgages, except government-backed loans;
▪loans exempt from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (the “CFPB’s”) ability-to-repay and qualified mortgage rule, except timeshares and home equity lines of credit;
▪loans secured by an investment property;
▪refinancing loans with streamlined underwriting originated in accordance with our eligibility criteria for high loan-to-value refinancings;
▪loans originated with temporary underwriting flexibilities during times of exigent circumstances, as determined in consultation with FHFA;
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▪loans secured by manufactured housing; and
▪such other loans that FHFA may designate that were eligible for purchase by us as of the date of the January 2021 letter agreement.
We are assessing the operational and business impacts of these new covenants and our compliance with them, including how these new limitations will impact, and may require changes to, our underwriting standards and requirements for acquisitions of single-family and multifamily loans. These changes may impact the overall volume and types of loans we acquire in 2021. As of the date of this filing, based on interpretive guidance we have received from FHFA to date and an initial assessment of our acquisition activities, we are not currently in compliance with the new covenants that restrict our acquisitions of purchase money single-family loans with higher-risk characteristics and our acquisitions of single-family loans backed by investment properties and second homes, measured during the preceding 52-week period. We are working with FHFA on resolving any remaining interpretive issues and discussing a timetable to be fully compliant with these covenants.
Annual Risk Management Plan Covenant. Each year we remain in conservatorship we are required to provide Treasury a risk management plan that sets out our strategy for reducing our risk profile, describes the actions we will take to reduce the financial and operational risk associated with each of our business segments, and includes an assessment of our performance against the planned actions described in the prior year’s plan. We submitted our most recent annual risk management plan to Treasury in December 2020.
Although the senior preferred stock purchase agreement does not specify penalties for failure to comply with the covenants in the agreement, FHFA, as our conservator and regulator, has the authority to direct compliance and to impose consequences for noncompliance.
Housing Finance Reform
Policymakers and others have focused significant attention in recent years on how to reform the nation’s housing finance system, including what role, if any, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should play in that system. Congress may consider proposed housing finance reform legislation that could result in significant changes in our structure and role in the future, including proposals that would result in Fannie Mae’s liquidation or dissolution. The January 2021 letter agreement includes a commitment for us and Treasury to work toward developing a proposal to restructure Treasury’s interests in us in a manner that meets three goals: (1) facilitating an orderly exit from conservatorship, (2) ensuring that Treasury is appropriately compensated, and (3) permitting us to raise third-party capital and make distributions as appropriate. The January 2021 letter agreement states that Treasury, in consultation with FHFA, should endeavor to transmit this proposal to both Houses of Congress by September 30, 2021. At the same time the January 2021 letter agreement was announced, Treasury issued a Blueprint on Next Steps for GSE Reform. Indicating that “Congress is best positioned to adopt comprehensive housing finance reform,” Treasury addressed five key considerations in the blueprint that should inform Treasury’s continued work with FHFA to meet the goals described above: build GSE equity capital, determine GSE capital structure, set commitment fee for ongoing government support, establish appropriate pricing oversight, and assess appropriate market concentration. In the blueprint, Treasury indicated that, among other things, consideration should be given to whether consolidating our and Freddie Mac’s operations into a single entity would more efficiently fulfill our mission and promote the interests of stakeholders, including taxpayers. It is unclear how or whether Treasury in the current Administration will prioritize or act on the commitments set forth in the letter agreement or the considerations set forth in the Blueprint. There continues to be significant uncertainty regarding the timing, content and impact of future legislative and regulatory actions affecting us, including the enactment of housing finance reform legislation. See “Risk Factors—GSE and Conservatorship Risk” for a description of risks associated with our future and potential housing finance reform.
Legislation and Regulation
U.S. Government Response to COVID-19
Congress has passed several pieces of legislation to address the economic dislocation and other burdens resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic:
•The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, referred to as the CARES Act, was enacted in March 2020.
•The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 was enacted in December 2020.
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Relief for Individuals and Businesses; Federal Eviction Moratoriums
The CARES Act included a number of provisions aimed at providing relief for individuals and businesses that applied to the loans we guarantee, including provisions requiring that our servicers:
•provide forbearance (that is, a temporary suspension of the borrower’s monthly mortgage payments) for up to 360 days upon the request of any single-family borrower experiencing a financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of the borrower’s delinquency status and with no additional documentation required other than the borrower’s attestation to a financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic;
•through December 31, 2020, provide forbearance for up to 90 days upon the request of any multifamily borrower experiencing a documented financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic that was current on its payments as of February 1, 2020; during the forbearance period, multifamily borrowers may not evict tenants for nonpayment, issue notices to vacate, or charge fees for late payment of rent; and
•suspend foreclosures and foreclosure-related evictions for single-family properties through May 17, 2020, other than for vacant or abandoned properties.
The CARES Act instituted a temporary moratorium, through July 25, 2020, on tenant evictions for nonpayment of rent that applied to any single-family or multifamily property that secures a mortgage loan we own or guarantee. To prevent the further spread of COVID-19 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the “CDC”) issued an order in September 2020 prohibiting the eviction of any tenant, lessee or resident of a residential property for nonpayment of rent, if such person provides a specified declaration attesting that they meet the requirements to obtain the protection of the order. The CDC’s moratorium’s initially expired on December 31, 2020, but it was subsequently extended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 through January 31, 2021. In January 2021, the CDC extended the eviction moratorium through March 31, 2021. The requirements to obtain the protection of the order include a specified income cap and an inability to pay full rent. The CDC order does not apply in any jurisdiction with a moratorium on residential evictions that provides the same or greater level of public-health protection. While the CDC order does not impose any obligations on Fannie Mae or its servicers to ensure compliance by borrowers, a borrower’s income may be impacted by tenants who do not pay their rent while under the protection of the CDC order. As a result and as described in “Risk Factors,” these eviction moratoriums could adversely affect the ability of some of our borrowers to make payments on their loans.
See “MD&A—Single-Family Business—Single-Family Mortgage Credit Risk Management” and “MD&A—Multifamily Business—Multifamily Mortgage Credit Risk Management” for more information on the actions we have taken and are taking to provide forbearance and suspend foreclosures and evictions, including beyond the requirements under the CARES Act.
Accounting for Troubled Debt Restructurings
The CARES Act also allows financial institutions to elect temporary relief relating to the accounting for troubled debt restructurings (“TDRs”). The CARES Act provides that a financial institution may elect to suspend the TDR requirements under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for certain loss mitigation activities, including forbearance and loan modifications, related to the COVID-19 pandemic that occur between March 1, 2020 through the earlier of December 31, 2020 or 60 days after the date on which the COVID-19 outbreak national emergency terminates, as long as the loan was not more than 30 days delinquent as of December 31, 2019. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 extended the period of the TDR relief until the earlier of January 1, 2022 or 60 days after the date on which the COVID-19 outbreak national emergency terminates. As described in “Note 1, Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” we have elected this option for temporary TDR relief for COVID-19-related loss mitigation activities.
Economic Stimulus
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and the CARES Act also contain many provisions designed to mitigate the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including direct cash payments to eligible taxpayers below specified income limits, expanded unemployment insurance benefits and eligibility, and relief designed to prevent layoffs and business closures at small businesses. While these provisions mostly expired by December 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which was signed into law in December 2020, replaced many of these with similar provisions. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 also included $25 billion in rental assistance funds for eligible households living in single-family or multifamily properties. We believe these payments, expanded benefits, and other relief have increased the ability of impacted borrowers to pay their mortgage loans and renters to pay their rent.
State and Local Government Responses to COVID-19
In 2020, many states and localities issued executive orders or enacted legislation requiring mortgage forbearance, foreclosure and eviction moratoriums, and rent flexibilities. As the pandemic continues into 2021, some states have
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taken action or are considering actions to extend foreclosure and eviction protections further into 2021. The terms of these new and proposed requirements vary significantly in duration and scope. Actions taken by federal, state or local lawmakers to provide additional relief to borrowers and renters during the COVID-19 pandemic, depending on their scope and whether and to what extent they apply to our business, could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.
GSE Act and Other Legislative and Regulatory Matters
As a federally chartered corporation, we are subject to government regulation and oversight. FHFA, our primary regulator, regulates our safety and soundness and our mission. FHFA is an independent agency of the federal government with general supervisory and regulatory authority over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks (“FHLBs”). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) is our regulator with respect to fair lending matters. Our regulators also include the SEC and Treasury.
We describe below regulations applicable to us pursuant to the GSE Act, other legislation and related regulatory matters. We also describe some regulations applicable to the mortgage industry and the securities markets that may indirectly affect us.
Capital
The GSE Act sets forth minimum and critical capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and provides that the Director of FHFA shall establish risk-based capital requirements and may establish higher minimum capital requirements. FHFA has suspended the statute’s capital classifications during conservatorship. Although existing statutory and regulatory capital requirements are not binding during conservatorship, we continue to submit capital reports to FHFA and FHFA monitors our capital levels. See “Note 12, Regulatory Capital Requirements” for information on the amount of regulatory capital we held as of December 31, 2020.
Conservatorship Capital Framework
In 2017, FHFA directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to implement an aligned risk measurement framework for evaluating business decisions and performance during conservatorship. The conservatorship capital framework includes specific requirements relating to risk on our book of business and modeled returns on our new acquisitions. We are required to submit quarterly reports to FHFA relating to the framework’s requirements. We discuss below our transition from the conservatorship capital framework to our new enterprise regulatory capital framework.
Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework
In November 2020, FHFA adopted a final rule establishing a new regulatory capital framework for the GSEs, which was published in the Federal Register on December 17, 2020. The new regulatory capital framework implements the statutory capital requirements and establishes supplemental risk-based and leverage-based capital requirements beyond what is expressly required in the GSE Act. The framework provides a granular assessment of credit risk specific to different mortgage loan categories, as well as components for market risk and operational risk. The regulatory capital framework set forth in the final rule includes the following:
•Supplemental capital requirements relating to the amount and form of the capital we hold, based largely on definitions of capital used in U.S. banking regulators’ regulatory capital framework. The final rule specifies complementary leverage-based and risk-based requirements, which together determine the requirements for each tier of capital;
•A requirement that we hold prescribed capital buffers that can be drawn down in periods of financial stress and then rebuilt over time as economic conditions improve. If we fall below the prescribed buffer amounts, we must restrict capital distributions such as stock repurchases and dividends, as well as discretionary bonus payments to executives, until the buffer amounts are restored;
•A requirement to file quarterly public capital reports starting in 2022, regardless of our status in conservatorship;
•Specific minimum percentages, or “floors,” on the risk-weights applicable to single-family and multifamily exposures, which has the effect of increasing the capital required to be held for loans otherwise subject to lower risk weights;
•Specific floors on the risk-weights applicable to retained portions of credit risk transfer transactions, which has the effect of decreasing the capital relief obtained from these transactions; and
•Additional elements based on U.S. banking regulators’ regulatory capital framework, including the planned eventual introduction of an advanced approach to complement the standardized approach for measuring risk-weighted assets.
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FHFA’s adoption of the enterprise regulatory capital framework followed an announcement by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (the “FSOC”) in September 2020 that it had completed an activities-based review of the secondary mortgage market. The FSOC’s review focused in particular on the activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the “GSEs”), including an analysis of the extent to which FHFA’s regulatory framework would adequately mitigate potential stability risks. The FSOC indicated that much of its analysis centered on FHFA’s then recently proposed capital rule. The FSOC also referenced FHFA’s implementation of other significant enhancements to the GSEs’ regulatory framework that would help mitigate the potential risk to financial stability, including efforts to strengthen GSE liquidity regulation, stress testing, supervision and resolution planning. The FSOC’s announcement stated, “Should these reforms be implemented appropriately, they will lead to a more durable secondary mortgage market that helps provide sustainable access to mortgage credit across the economic cycle and is more resistant to shocks that could impair financial intermediation or financial market functioning to a degree that would be sufficient to inflict significant damage on the broader economy.” The FSOC indicated that it will continue to monitor the secondary mortgage market activities of the GSEs and FHFA’s implementation of the GSEs’ regulatory framework to ensure potential risks to financial stability are adequately addressed. If the FSOC determines that such risks to financial stability are not adequately addressed by FHFA’s capital and other regulatory requirements or other risk mitigants, the FSOC may consider more formal recommendations or other actions.
The enterprise regulatory capital framework goes into effect in February 2021, but the dates on which we must comply with the requirements of the capital framework are staggered and largely dependent on whether we remain in conservatorship. Under the final rule, our compliance with the capital buffers will be required upon exit from conservatorship, and our compliance with the base regulatory requirements will be required by the later of our exit from conservatorship or such later date as may be specified by FHFA. Further, the compliance date for advanced approaches of the final rule will be January 1, 2025, or such later date as may be specified by FHFA. Reporting requirements under the enterprise regulatory capital framework take effect on January 1, 2022, including public reporting of our calculations of regulatory capital levels, buffers, adjusted total assets, and total risk-weighted assets. See “Note 12, Regulatory Capital Requirements” for information on existing reporting requirements relating to our regulatory capital as of December 31, 2020.
As amended by the January 2021 letter agreement, our senior preferred stock purchase agreement includes a covenant requiring us to comply with the terms of the enterprise regulatory capital framework as published by FHFA in the Federal Register on December 17, 2020, disregarding any subsequent amendments or modifications. In addition, the dividend provisions as amended by the January 2021 letter agreement provide that, after the capital reserve end date, the amount of quarterly dividends on the senior preferred stock will be equal to the lesser of any quarterly increase in our net worth and a 10% annual rate on the then-current liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock. As a result of this change, our ability to retain earnings in excess of the capital requirements and buffers set forth in the enterprise regulatory capital framework, including to build management buffers, will be limited.
When it is fully applicable to Fannie Mae, this framework will require us to hold significantly more capital than the statutory requirement and prior FHFA proposed capital rules. See “MD&A—Liquidity and Capital Management—Regulatory Capital” for information on the amount of regulatory capital we held as of December 31, 2020.
Currently, we review our business decisions continuously as they relate to the new capital requirements and the conservatorship capital framework, because we measure our risk and returns on our current business against the conservatorship capital framework, but the loans we acquire now and any credit-risk sharing transactions we enter into will also impact our future capital requirements. We expect to cease using the conservatorship capital framework to make business and risk decisions sometime in 2021 and to use instead the new enterprise capital regulatory framework and certain risk measures. Managing our business to take into account our new capital requirements and measures of risk requires balancing potentially competing business objectives, including furthering our mission objectives, prudently managing risk, and earning a competitive return. We expect that the enterprise regulatory capital framework will have a significant impact on our business, but we cannot measure the impact at this time because we do not know when many of the provisions of the new framework will become applicable. We are developing our ongoing business strategy to align our business activities with our new capital requirements and measures of risk.
Portfolio Standards
The GSE Act requires FHFA to establish standards governing our portfolio holdings, to ensure that they are backed by sufficient capital and consistent with our mission and safe and sound operations. FHFA is also required to monitor our portfolio and, in some circumstances, may require us to dispose of or acquire assets. In 2010, FHFA adopted, as the standard for our portfolio holdings, the portfolio limits specified in the senior preferred stock purchase agreement described under “Conservatorship, Treasury Agreements and Housing Finance Reform—Treasury Agreements—Covenants under Treasury Agreements,” as it may be amended from time to time. The rule is effective for as long as we remain subject to the terms and obligations of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement.
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New Products and Activities
The GSE Act requires us to obtain prior approval from FHFA before initially offering new products and to provide advance notice to FHFA of new activities, subject to certain exceptions. FHFA adopted an interim final rule implementing these provisions in July 2009, but subsequently concluded that permitting us to engage in new products was inconsistent with the goals of the conservatorship and instructed us not to submit new product requests under the rule. In October 2020, FHFA issued a proposed rule that, if adopted as final, would replace the interim final rule. The proposed rule establishes a process for the review of new products and activities by FHFA, including providing for a public notice and comment period with respect to new products. The proposed rule also establishes revised criteria for determining what constitutes a new activity that requires notice to FHFA and describes the activities that are excluded from the requirements of the proposed rule. The proposed rule, if adopted as a final rule, would apply to Fannie Mae, and any affiliates of Fannie Mae, both during and after a transition from conservatorship. In January 2021, we submitted a comment letter recommending various modifications to the proposed rule to streamline FHFA’s review of new products and activities.
Receivership and Resolution Planning
Under the GSE Act, FHFA must place us into receivership if the Director of FHFA makes a written determination that our assets are less than our obligations (that is, we have a net worth deficit) or if we have not been paying our debts as they become due, in either case, for a period of 60 days. FHFA has notified us that the measurement period for any mandatory receivership determination with respect to our assets and liabilities would commence no earlier than the SEC public filing deadline for our quarterly or annual financial statements and would continue for 60 calendar days thereafter. FHFA has advised us that if, during that 60-day period, we receive funds from Treasury in an amount at least equal to the deficiency amount under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, the Director of FHFA will not make a mandatory receivership determination.
In addition, we could be put into receivership at the discretion of the Director of FHFA at any time for other reasons set forth in the GSE Act. The statutory grounds for discretionary appointment of a receiver include: a substantial dissipation of assets or earnings due to unsafe or unsound practices; the existence of an unsafe or unsound condition to transact business; an inability to meet our obligations in the ordinary course of business; a weakening of our condition due to unsafe or unsound practices or conditions; critical undercapitalization; undercapitalization and no reasonable prospect of becoming adequately capitalized; the likelihood of losses that will deplete substantially all of our capital; or by consent.
In December 2020, FHFA issued a directive and a proposed rule requiring us to develop a plan to facilitate a rapid and orderly resolution in the event FHFA is appointed as our receiver. The stated goals of our resolution planning are to minimize disruption in the national housing finance markets, preserve the value of our franchise and assets, facilitate the division of assets and liabilities between the limited-life regulated entity and the receivership estate, ensure that creditors bear losses in the order of their priority under the GSE Act, and foster market discipline by making clear that no extraordinary government support will be available to indemnify investors against losses or fund the resolution.
The appointment of FHFA as receiver would immediately terminate the conservatorship. In the event of receivership, the GSE Act requires FHFA, as the receiver, to organize a limited-life regulated entity with respect to Fannie Mae. Among other requirements, the GSE Act provides that this limited-life regulated entity:
•would succeed to Fannie Mae’s charter and thereafter operate in accordance with and subject to such charter;
•would assume, acquire or succeed to our assets and liabilities to the extent that such assets and liabilities are transferred by FHFA to the entity; and
•would not be permitted to assume, acquire or succeed to any of our obligations to shareholders.
Placement into receivership would likely have a material adverse effect on holders of our common stock and preferred stock, and could have a material adverse effect on holders of our debt securities and Fannie Mae MBS. Should we be placed into receivership, different assumptions would be required to determine the carrying value of our assets, which could lead to substantially different financial results. For more information on the risks to our business relating to receivership and uncertainties regarding the future of our business, see “Risk Factors—GSE and Conservatorship Risk.”
Affordable Housing Allocations
The GSE Act requires us to set aside in each fiscal year an amount equal to 4.2 basis points for each dollar of the unpaid principal balance of our new business purchases and to pay this amount to specified HUD and Treasury funds in support of affordable housing. New business purchases consist of single-family and multifamily whole mortgage loans purchased during the period and single-family and multifamily mortgage loans underlying Fannie Mae MBS issued
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during the period pursuant to lender swaps, which we describe in “Mortgage Securitizations.” We are prohibited from passing through the cost of these allocations to the originators of the mortgage loans that we purchase or securitize. For each year’s new business purchases since 2015, we have set aside amounts for these contributions and transferred the funds when directed by FHFA to do so. See “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence—Transactions with Related Persons—Treasury Interest in Affordable Housing Allocations” for information on our contribution for 2020 new business purchases.
Executive Compensation
The amount of compensation we may pay our executives is subject to a number of legal and regulatory restrictions, particularly while we are in conservatorship. For a description of our executive compensation program and legal and regulatory requirements that affect our executive compensation, see “Executive Compensation.”
Fair Lending
The GSE Act requires the Secretary of HUD to assure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac meet their fair lending obligations. Among other things, HUD periodically reviews and comments on our underwriting and appraisal guidelines to ensure consistency with the Fair Housing Act.
Stress Testing
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) requires certain financial companies to conduct annual stress tests to determine whether the companies have the capital necessary to absorb losses as a result of adverse economic conditions. Under FHFA regulations implementing this requirement, each year we are required to conduct a stress test using two different scenarios of financial conditions provided by FHFA—baseline and severely adverse—and to publish a summary of our stress test results for the severely adverse scenario by August 15.
FHFA regulation requires that the scenarios provided by FHFA be generally consistent with and comparable to those established by the Federal Reserve Board. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve Board considered alternative scenarios that were not included among the scenarios initially issued by FHFA. Accordingly, on August 13, 2020, FHFA issued a waiver to delay publication of our stress test results for 2020 so that we may include the alternative scenarios considered by the Federal Reserve Board in the summary of our results, with such other supporting analysis that the Director of FHFA may deem necessary. In September 2020, in light of the continued uncertainty posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve Board published alternative hypothetical scenarios featuring severe recessions. We will publish our 2020 stress test results after FHFA provides us with a revised publication timeframe.
FHFA Proposed Liquidity Requirements
In June 2020, FHFA instructed us to meet prescriptive liquidity requirements. In December 2020, those requirements became effective and FHFA issued a proposed rule in line with the updated requirements. The proposed rule, if adopted as a final rule, will be effective as of September 2021. Under the requirements, we must hold more liquid assets than under our previous framework, which negatively impacts our net interest income.
The proposed rule and our current liquidity requirements have four components we must meet:
•a short-term cash flow metric that requires us to meet our expected cash outflows and continue to provide liquidity to the market over a 30-day period of stress, plus an additional $10 billion buffer;
•an intermediate cash flow metric that requires us to meet our expected cash outflows and continue to provide liquidity to the market over a 365-day period of stress;
•a specified minimum long-term debt to less-liquid asset ratio. Less-liquid assets are those that are not eligible to be pledged as collateral to the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation; and
•a requirement that we fund our assets with liabilities that have a specified minimum term relative to the term of the assets.
As of December 31, 2020, we were in compliance with these requirements.
Guaranty Fees and Pricing
Our guaranty fees and pricing are subject to regulatory, legislative and conservatorship requirements:
•FHFA, in its capacity as conservator, has provided guidance relating to our guaranty fee pricing for new single-family acquisitions. FHFA’s guidance requires that we meet a specified minimum return on equity target based on the conservatorship capital framework.
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•In 2016, FHFA in its regulatory capacity, established minimum base guaranty fees that generally apply to our acquisitions of 30-year and 15-year single-family fixed-rate loans in lender swap transactions.
•In December 2011, Congress enacted the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 (“TCCA”) under which, at the direction of FHFA, we increased the guaranty fee on all single-family residential mortgages delivered to us by 10 basis points effective April 1, 2012. The revenue generated by this fee increase is paid to Treasury and helps offset the cost of a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut in early 2012. In 2012, FHFA and Treasury advised us to remit this fee increase to Treasury with respect to all loans acquired by us on or after April 1, 2012 and before January 1, 2022, and to continue to remit these amounts to Treasury on and after January 1, 2022 with respect to loans we acquired before this date until those loans are paid off or otherwise liquidated.
FHFA Rule on Uniform Mortgage-Backed Securities
We and Freddie Mac are required to align our programs, policies and practices that affect the prepayment rates of TBA-eligible MBS pursuant to an FHFA rule. The rule is intended to ensure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs, policies and practices that individually have a material effect on cash flows (including policies that affect prepayment speeds) are and will remain aligned regardless of whether we and Freddie Mac are in conservatorship. The rule provides a non-exhaustive list of covered programs, policies and practices, including management decisions or actions about: single-family guaranty fees; the spread between the note rate on the mortgage and the pass-through coupon on the MBS; eligibility standards for sellers, servicers, and private mortgage insurers; distressed loan servicing requirements; removal of mortgage loans from securities; servicer compensation; and proposals that could materially change the credit risk profile of the single-family mortgages securitized by a GSE.
Prior to this FHFA rule, we, Freddie Mac and FHFA undertook alignment efforts with the goal of ensuring consistency of prepayment speeds between Fannie Mae-issued and Freddie Mac-issued securities. In response to this rule, we also created a process aimed at ensuring any changes to our programs, policies and practices do not have a material effect on cash flows. Accordingly, we believe that our policies and practices are generally aligned with the requirements specified by FHFA pursuant to the rule. FHFA may mandate further alignment efforts in the future, and the impact of any such efforts on our business or our MBS is uncertain.
Housing Goals
Our housing goals, which are established by FHFA in accordance with the GSE Act, require that a specified amount of mortgage loans we acquire meet standards relating to affordability or location. For single-family goals, our acquisitions are measured against the lower of benchmarks set by FHFA or the level of goals-qualifying originations in the primary mortgage market. Multifamily goals are established as a number of units to be financed.
In October 2020, FHFA determined that we met all of our 2019 single-family and multifamily housing goals. We will report our 2020 housing goals performance to FHFA in March 2021, and FHFA will make a final determination regarding our 2020 performance later in the year, after data regarding the share of goals-qualifying originations in the primary mortgage market, reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, becomes available. The tables below display information about our housing goals and performance against our goals.
Single-Family Housing Goals(1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2019 | 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FHFA Benchmark | Single-Family Market Level | Result | FHFA Benchmark | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Low-income (≤80% of area median income) families home purchases | 24 | % | 26.6 | % | 27.8 | % | 24 | % | ||||||||||||||||||
Very low-income (≤50% of area median income) families home purchases | 6 | 6.6 | 6.5 | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Low-income areas home purchases(2) | 19 | 22.9 | 24.5 | 19 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Low-income and high-minority areas home purchases(3) | 14 | 18.1 | 19.5 | 14 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Low-income families refinances | 21 | 24.0 | 23.8 | 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
(1) The FHFA benchmarks and our results are expressed as a percentage of the total number of eligible single-family mortgages acquired during the period. The Single-Family Market level is the percentage of eligible single-family mortgages originated in the primary mortgage market.
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(2) These mortgage loans must be secured by a property that is (a) in a low-income census tract, (b) in a high-minority census tract and affordable to moderate-income families (those with incomes less than or equal to 100% of area median income), or (c) in a designated disaster area and affordable to moderate-income families.
(3) These mortgage loans must be secured by a property that is (a) in a low-income census tract or (b) in a high-minority census tract and affordable to moderate-income families.
| Multifamily Housing Goals | |||||||||||||||||
| 2019 | 2020 | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal | Result | Goal | |||||||||||||||
| (in units) | |||||||||||||||||
Low-income families | 315,000 | 385,763 | 315,000 | ||||||||||||||
Very low-income families | 60,000 | 79,649 | 60,000 | ||||||||||||||
Small affordable multifamily properties(1) | 10,000 | 17,832 | 10,000 | ||||||||||||||
(1) Small affordable multifamily properties are those with 5 to 50 units that are affordable to low-income families.
In December 2020, FHFA established single-family and multifamily housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for 2021. In the past, FHFA has established housing goals for a three-year period, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic uncertainty, FHFA established benchmark levels for only the 2021 calendar year. The benchmark levels for our single-family and multifamily housing goals remain the same as those applicable for 2020. As described in “Risk Factors—GSE and Conservatorship Risk,” actions we may take to meet our housing goals and duty to serve requirements described below may increase our credit losses and credit-related expense.
Duty to Serve Underserved Markets
The GSE Act requires that we serve very low-, low-, and moderate-income families in three specified underserved markets: manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation and rural housing. In December 2016, FHFA published a final rule implementing our duty to serve these underserved markets. Under the rule, we are required to adopt an underserved markets plan for each underserved market covering a three-year period that sets forth the activities and objectives we will undertake to meet our duty to serve that market. Our underserved markets plans, which are effective for 2018 to 2020, received non-objections from FHFA, were initially finalized and published in December 2017 and have been updated since that time.
The types of activities that are eligible for duty to serve credit in each underserved market are summarized below:
•Manufactured housing market. For the manufactured housing market, duty to serve credit is available for eligible activities relating to manufactured homes (whether titled as real property or personal property (known as chattel)) and loans for specified categories of manufactured housing communities.
•Affordable housing preservation market. For the affordable housing preservation market, duty to serve credit is available for eligible activities relating to preserving the affordability of housing for renters and buyers under specified programs enumerated in the GSE Act and other comparable affordable housing programs administered by state and local governments, subject to FHFA approval. Duty to serve credit also is available for activities related to small multifamily rental properties, energy efficiency improvements on existing multifamily rental and single-family first lien properties, certain shared equity homeownership programs, the purchase or rehabilitation of certain distressed properties, and activities under HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative and Rental Assistance Demonstration programs.
•Rural housing market. For the rural housing market, duty to serve credit is available for eligible activities related to housing in rural areas, including activities related to housing in high-needs rural regions and for high-needs rural populations.
FHFA’s evaluation guidance communicates FHFA’s expectations regarding the development of the underserved markets plans and describes the annual process by which FHFA will evaluate our achievements under the plans, with performance results to be reported to Congress annually. If FHFA determines that we failed to meet the requirements of an underserved markets plan, it may result in the imposition of a housing plan that could require us to take additional steps. In October 2020, FHFA reported its determination that we complied with our 2019 duty to serve requirements and its finding that we performed a satisfactory job of increasing the liquidity and distribution of available capital in each of the three underserved markets. FHFA will determine in 2021 our performance with respect to our 2020 duty to serve obligations.
In December 2020, FHFA advised us that it has no objection to our 2021 duty-to-serve plan.
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Swap Transactions; Minimum Capital and Margin Requirements
As a result of the Dodd-Frank Act, we are required to submit new swap transactions for clearing to a derivatives clearing organization. Additionally, in October 2015, an inter-agency body of regulators issued a final rule under the act governing margin and capital requirements applicable to entities that are subject to their oversight. The rule is effective in two phases and each phase requires that we implement operational changes and changes relating to the collateral we collect and provide for swap transactions. The first phase of the rule became effective in 2017. Effectiveness of the second phase of the rule was scheduled for September 2020, but was delayed to September 2021 in light of exigent circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This phase will require additional operational changes and changes to collateral requirements, which may increase the costs associated with hedging our retained mortgage portfolio.
Risk Retention
In 2014, an inter-agency body of regulators issued a final rule implementing the Dodd-Frank Act’s credit risk retention requirement. The final rule generally requires sponsors of securitization transactions to retain a 5% economic interest in the credit risk of the securitized assets. The rule offers several compliance options, one of which is to have either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (so long as they remain in conservatorship or receivership with capital support from the United States) securitize and fully guarantee the assets, in which case no further retention of credit risk is required. A potential exit from conservatorship, or changes we make in our business upon any potential exit from conservatorship to comply with the rule, could reduce our market share or adversely impact our business. Securities backed solely by mortgage loans meeting the definition of a “qualified residential mortgage” are exempt from the risk retention requirements of the rule. The rule currently defines “qualified residential mortgage” to have the same meaning as the term “qualified mortgage” as defined by the CFPB in connection with its ability-to-repay rule discussed below.
Ability-to-Repay Rule and the Qualified Mortgage Patch
The Dodd-Frank Act amended the Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”) to require creditors to determine that borrowers have a “reasonable ability to repay” most mortgage loans prior to making such loans. If a creditor fails to comply, a borrower may be able to offset a portion of the amount owed in a foreclosure proceeding or recoup monetary damages. The rule offers several options for complying with the ability-to-repay requirement, including making loans that meet certain terms and characteristics (referred to as “qualified mortgages”), which may provide creditors and their assignees with special protection from liability. A loan will be a standard qualified mortgage under the rule if, among other things, (1) the points and fees paid in connection with the loan do not exceed 3% of the total loan amount, (2) the loan term does not exceed 30 years, (3) the loan is fully amortizing with no negative amortization, interest-only or balloon features and (4) the debt-to-income (“DTI”) ratio on the loan does not exceed 43% at origination and is underwritten according to Appendix Q in the rule. The CFPB also created the qualified mortgage “patch,” pursuant to which a special class of conventional mortgage loans are considered qualified mortgages if they (1) meet the points and fees, term and amortization requirements of qualified mortgages generally and (2) are eligible for sale to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In 2013, FHFA directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to limit our acquisition of single-family loans to those loans that meet the points and fees, term and amortization requirements for qualified mortgages, or to loans that are exempt from the ability-to-repay rule, such as loans made to investors.
In December 2020, the CFPB published a final rule that eliminates the qualified mortgage patch and replaces the current 43% DTI ratio limit and Appendix Q requirements for a standard qualified mortgage with a pricing and underwriting framework. The pricing framework hinges on the difference between a loan’s annual percentage rate (“APR”) and the average prime offer rate (“APOR”) for comparable transactions. A loan will receive a conclusive presumption—a safe harbor for lenders—that the consumer had the ability to repay if the APR does not exceed the APOR by 1.50 percentage points. A loan will receive a rebuttable presumption that the consumer had the ability to repay if the APR exceeds the APOR by 1.50 percentage points but by less than 2.25 percentage points. Higher pricing thresholds exist for smaller loan amounts and manufactured housing loans. The underwriting framework requires lenders to consider and verify the borrower’s current or reasonably expected income, assets, debt obligations, alimony, child support, and monthly DTI ratio or residual income before originating a loan.
The final rule is scheduled to go into effect in March 2021, with lenders required to comply beginning in July 2021. Between March and July 1, 2021 lenders can choose to comply with either the qualified mortgage patch or the new qualified mortgage rule. On February 4, 2021, the Acting Director of the CFPB indicated that he may seek to delay implementation of the new rule to preserve flexibility for President Biden’s nominee for CFPB Director, once confirmed. If the rule’s implementation is delayed, the qualified mortgage patch will continue in place until the mandatory compliance date of the final rule or a replacement rule. We do not expect the final rule, as published, to impact our business significantly, but it may increase competition. We cannot predict the impact of any replacement rule that may be adopted in its stead. See “Risk Factors—GSE and Conservatorship Risk” and “—Legal, Regulatory and Other Risks” for more information on risks presented by regulatory changes in the financial services industry.
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TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (“TRID”)
The Dodd-Frank Act required the CFPB to streamline and simplify the disclosures required under TILA and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. In October 2015, the CFPB’s final rule implementing these changes went into effect. Although this rule applies to mortgage originators and is not directly applicable to us, we could face potential liability for certain errors in the required disclosures in connection with the loans we acquire from lenders. It remains unclear what sorts of errors will give rise to liability. Also in October 2015, FHFA directed us and Freddie Mac not to conduct post-purchase loan file reviews for technical compliance with TRID. Consistent with FHFA’s directive, we currently do not intend to exercise our contractual remedies, including requiring the lender to repurchase the loan, for noncompliance with the provisions of TRID, except in two limited circumstances: if the required form is not used; or if a particular practice would impair enforcement of the note or mortgage or would result in assignee liability, and a court of law, regulator or other authoritative body has determined that such practice violates TRID.
FHFA Rule on Credit Score Models
Under an FHFA rule that became effective in October 2019, we are required to validate and approve third-party credit score models and obtain FHFA’s approval of our determination. We must evaluate the models for factors such as accuracy, reliability and integrity, as well as impacts on fair lending and the mortgage industry. In November 2020, we announced our determination that the “classic FICO® Score” from Fair Isaac Corporation should be approved for our continued use as a credit score model and FHFA’s approval of this determination. This validation was an incremental step while we continue to assess additional credit score model applications in accordance with the rule. Fannie Mae uses credit scores to establish a minimum credit threshold for mortgage lending, provide a foundation for risk-based pricing, and support disclosures to investors
Single-Counterparty Credit Limit
The Federal Reserve Board has adopted rules to restrict the counterparty credit exposures of U.S.-based global systemically important banks (“U.S. GSIBs”) and certain large bank holding companies, large savings and loan holding companies, and U.S. intermediate holding companies that are subsidiaries of foreign banking organizations. These rules, which have various implementation dates depending on the type of covered organization, generally limit the exposure of a covered organization to any counterparty and its affiliates to no more than 25% of the covered organization’s tier 1 capital. U.S. GSIBs must adhere to a stricter limit of 15% of their tier 1 capital for exposures to any other U.S. GSIB or non-bank entity supervised by the Federal Reserve.
While Fannie Mae is in conservatorship, a covered organization’s exposures involving claims on or directly and fully guaranteed by Fannie Mae are exempt from these restrictions and Fannie Mae MBS and debt can be used as collateral to reduce a banking organization’s counterparty exposure. At this time, we do not know what impact, if any, these rules will have on our customers’ business practices, or whether and to what extent this rule may adversely affect demand for or the liquidity of securities we issue.
In the discussion of a recent amendment to these rules, the Federal Reserve Board noted that a change in the conservatorship status of the GSEs could affect aspects of the Federal Reserve Board’s regulatory framework, and that it “will continue to monitor and take into consideration any future changes to the conservatorship status of the GSEs, including the extent and type of support received by the GSEs.”
The Future of LIBOR and Alternative Reference Rates
In 2017, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”), announced its intention to stop persuading or compelling the group of major banks that sustains LIBOR to submit rate quotations after 2021. In November 2020, ICE Benchmark Administration, the administrator of LIBOR, stated its intention to cease publication of one-week and two-month U.S. dollar LIBOR after 2021, and to cease publication of overnight, one-month, three-month, six-month and one-year U.S. dollar LIBOR tenors after June 2023. We have exposure to one-month, three-month, six-month and one-year LIBOR, including in financial instruments that mature after June 2023. Our exposure arises from our acquisitions of loans and securities, our sales of securities, and our entry into derivative transactions that reference LIBOR. The markets for alternative reference rates are developing and, as they develop, we expect to transition to these alternative reference rates. The transition from LIBOR will require action by many market participants and leadership from organizations such as Alternative Reference Rates Committee (the “ARRC”) member firms, FHFA, our advisors and regulators, and may involve action by one or more legislatures in the U.S and abroad. We are actively seeking to facilitate an orderly transition from LIBOR.
We have established an internal office focused on LIBOR transition issues that is overseen by our LIBOR Enterprise Steering Council, which includes members of senior management. We also coordinate with FHFA on our LIBOR transition efforts. As part of these efforts, we have sought to identify the risks inherent in this transition and engaged
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external business and legal consultants focused on LIBOR and alternative indices. We continue to analyze potential risks associated with the LIBOR transition, including financial, operational, legal, reputational and compliance risks.
In addition to the work we are doing on an enterprise level to facilitate an orderly transition from LIBOR, we also are a voting member of the ARRC and participate in its working groups. The ARRC is a group of private-market participants convened by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to identify a set of alternative U.S. dollar reference interest rates and an adoption plan for those alternative rates. Banking and financial regulators, including FHFA, also participate in the ARRC as ex-officio members. In 2017, the ARRC recommended an alternative reference rate, referred to as the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). The Federal Reserve Bank of New York began publishing SOFR in 2018. In support of the ARRC’s efforts to develop SOFR as a key market index, we issued the market’s first SOFR securities in 2018, and through December 31, 2020 we have issued a total of $136.1 billion in SOFR-indexed floating-rate corporate debt. We created SOFR-indexed adjustable rate mortgage products for new originations for our single-family business and our multifamily business during 2020. We ceased purchasing any LIBOR adjustable-rate mortgage loans at the end of 2020. We also started issuing SOFR-indexed REMIC securities and ceased issuing new LIBOR REMIC securities in 2020. In addition, we have entered into SOFR-indexed interest rate swaps and futures transactions to further support the development of this emerging index.
Currently, our LIBOR-indexed derivative contracts represent a substantial portion of our LIBOR exposure. In fall 2020, we announced that we agreed to industry-adopted amendments aimed at an orderly transition to SOFR upon any LIBOR cessation for our derivatives contracts. Another principal source of our exposure to LIBOR arises from (1) single-family and multifamily LIBOR-based adjustable-rate mortgage loans that we have securitized or own and (2) LIBOR-indexed REMIC structured securities that we have issued. Each of those products allow us to select a replacement index if LIBOR ceases to be published. In addition, we implemented fallback language based on the recommendations of the ARRC for new issuances of these products during 2020.
See “Risk Factors—Market and Industry Risk” for a discussion of the risks to our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and net worth posed by the potential discontinuance of LIBOR.
Human Capital
Our employees are key to ensuring our long-term success. They are essential to our goals of being a return-oriented company able to attract private capital while managing risk, increasing our operational agility and undertaking a digital transformation. As of December 31, 2020, we had approximately 7,700 employees. Because we design, build and maintain complex systems to support our specialized role in the secondary mortgage market, approximately 38% of our employees work in technology-related jobs. Competition is high for employees with technology skills in the Washington, DC and Dallas metropolitan areas, where most of our employees work. Despite conservatorship, an uncertain future, and limitations on the compensation we are able to offer, we believe many employees and potential recruits are attracted by our mission and the compelling nature of our work. As of December 31, 2020, approximately 4% of positions across the company were vacant, and approximately 6% of our technology-related positions were vacant.
Employee Engagement
We are committed to maintaining an engaged workforce as we believe engagement is critical to the ongoing achievement of the company’s and the conservator’s goals. We monitor employee engagement through regular surveys. In 2020 the vast majority of our employees agreed with statements such as whether they would recommend Fannie Mae as a great place to work, which we consider to be strong indicators of their engagement. We believe our ability to recruit and retain employees and keep them engaged is influenced by the opportunity to do interesting work that supports our mission. We also offer employee benefits to encourage involvement in socially positive efforts, including those that echo our mission. Specifically, we offer employees up to $5,000 per year in matching charitable gifts (subject to overall available funding) and 10 hours of paid leave each month to engage in volunteer activities. We have also established a relief fund to which our employees can make charitable donations to assist employees who have suffered losses as a result of a natural disaster or other catastrophic event.
Employee Development
We invest in our employees’ development, because we believe doing so supports the success of the company as well as our employees. We seek to provide training and opportunities that enable employees to develop digital, leadership and other critical skills we need to achieve our strategy and fulfill our mission. In recent years, we have worked on instilling lean management techniques, practices and behaviors throughout our workforce and Agile development principles for employees engaged in product development. We also emphasize to our employees their responsibility for and role in managing risk through our risk-assessment and monitoring activities, training and corporate messaging. In
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2020, these efforts enabled us to respond to demands created by the COVID-19 pandemic and record-high volumes resulting from historically low interest rates with commercial speed and agility.
Safety and Resiliency
We took a number of steps in 2020 to protect the safety and resiliency of our workforce. From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March through early October 2020, we required nearly all of our workforce to work remotely. Recognizing that our employees were balancing a number of competing obligations, we focused on employee wellness and, with the help of a campaign to spotlight flexible work options, we created an environment that supports our business needs while helping employees better meet their personal obligations. We also increased the amount of family sick leave available to employees and made other adjustments to support employees. In early October 2020, we began allowing employees, on a voluntary basis, to request approval to return to work at some of our office locations and established mandatory COVID-19 safety protocols at those locations. We expect a significant majority of our employees will continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future. To date, our business resiliency plans and technology systems have effectively supported this remote work arrangement.
Diversity and Inclusion
We seek to foster an environment in which all employees are treated with dignity and respect, have the opportunity to contribute to meaningful work, and perform that work in an inclusive environment free from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. We believe this commitment helps us attract and retain a skilled, diverse workforce. As of December 31, 2020, racial or ethnic minorities constituted 55% of our overall workforce and 24% of our officer-level employees, and women constituted 44% of our overall workforce and 37% of our officer-level employees. Supporting our role in the secondary mortgage market requires employees with specialized technology skills. As a result, we consider our workforce diversity in the context of fintech companies, whose operations are based on a blend of financial services products and technology platforms, rather than financial services firms or other companies that have significant retail operations or a large number of administrative roles. We sponsor programs and activities to cultivate a diverse and inclusive work environment by focusing on inclusive leadership principles, talent development, enterprise accessibility, team and group dynamics, and a consistent communications strategy that reinforces the practice of driving inclusion to achieve innovative solutions. We also support voluntary, grassroots employee resource groups that are open to all employees, support diversity and inclusion, and provide a forum for members to come together for professional growth and development, cultural awareness, education, community service, and networking across the organization. In 2020, our senior management also sponsored a series of “Courageous Conversations” to facilitate safe-space discussions for employees to gain an understanding of and share differing viewpoints on issues related to social justice.
See “Corporate Governance—Human Capital Management Oversight” for information on oversight of human capital management by our Board of Directors’ Compensation and Human Capital Committee. See “Risk Factors—GSE and Conservatorship Risk” for a discussion of how restrictions on our compensation and uncertainty with respect to our future negatively affects our ability to retain and recruit executives and other employees.
Where You Can Find Additional Information
We make available free of charge through our website our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10‑Q, current reports on Form 8-K and all other SEC reports and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file the material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Our website address is www.fanniemae.com. Materials that we file with the SEC are also available from the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov. You may also request copies of any filing from us, at no cost, by calling the Fannie Mae Investor Relations & Marketing Helpline at 1-800-2FANNIE (1-800-232-6643), or by writing to Fannie Mae, Attention: Investor Relations & Marketing, 1100 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005.
References in this report to our website or to the SEC’s website do not incorporate information appearing on those websites unless we explicitly state that we are incorporating the information.
Forward-Looking Statements
This report includes statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Exchange Act. In addition, we and our senior management may from time to time make forward-looking statements in our other filings with the SEC, our other publicly available written statements and orally to analysts, investors, the news media and others. Forward-looking statements often include words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “project,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “likely,” “may,” “will” or similar words. Examples of forward-looking statements in this report include, among others, statements relating to our expectations regarding the following matters:
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•our future financial performance, financial condition and net worth, and the factors that will affect them;
•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the actions that we and federal, state, and local governments are taking in response to it, on our business, financial results, financial condition, returns on capital, debt funding needs, business plans, and on mortgage market and economic conditions, and the factors that will affect the pandemic’s impact;
•our expectations for, and the impact of fluctuations in, our acquisition volumes, market share, guaranty fees, acquisition credit characteristics, or the pace at which loans in our book of business turn over;
•our plans relating to and the effects of our credit risk transfer transactions, as well as the factors that will affect our engagement in future transactions;
•our loss mitigation activity and its impact;
•our business plans and strategies, their development, and their impact;
•our work and plans to build capital to meet the requirements of the enterprise regulatory capital framework as well as to build management buffers;
•the impact of the enterprise regulatory capital framework and the January 2021 letter agreement with Treasury on our business and our financial performance and condition;
•future increases in our net worth and in the liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock, and attainment of the capital reserve end date;
•the impact of the CFPB’s final rule eliminating the qualified mortgage patch on our business;
•volatility in our future financial results and efforts we may make to address volatility, including our expectations relating to our hedge accounting program and its impact;
•the size and composition of our retained mortgage portfolio;
•the amount and timing of our purchases of loans from MBS trusts;
•the impact on our business or financial results and the timing of legislation and regulation;
•our payments to HUD and Treasury funds under the GSE Act;
•mortgage market and economic conditions (including U.S. GDP, unemployment rates, mortgage rates, home price growth, housing demand, housing activity, housing starts, home sales, rent growth, multifamily vacancy rates, and the future volume of and characteristics of mortgage originations) and the impact of mortgage market and economic conditions on our business and financial results;
•our future off-balance sheet exposure to Freddie Mac-issued securities;
•the risks to our business;
•future delinquency rates, default rates, forbearances and other loss mitigation activity, foreclosures, and credit losses relating to the loans in our guaranty book of business and the factors that will affect them, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic;
•our expectations relating to our TDRs;
•the performance of loans in our book of business and the factors that will affect such performance;
•our loan acquisitions, the credit risk profile of such acquisitions, and the factors that will affect them;
•our expectations regarding our employees’ remote work arrangements;
•our future liquidity, liquidity requirements, the amount of our outstanding debt, and expectations for how we will meet our debt obligations; and
•our response to legal and regulatory proceedings and their impact on our business or financial condition.
Forward-looking statements reflect our management’s current expectations, forecasts or predictions of future conditions, events or results based on various assumptions and management’s estimates of trends and economic factors in the markets in which we are active and that otherwise impact our business plans. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Our actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and financial condition indicated in these forward-looking statements.
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | 31 | |||||||
| Business | Forward-Looking Statements | ||||||||
There are a number of factors that could cause actual conditions, events or results to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements, including, among others, the following:
•uncertainty regarding our future, our exit from conservatorship and our ability to raise or earn the capital needed to meet our capital requirements;
•uncertainty surrounding the duration, spread and severity of COVID-19 pandemic; the actions taken to contain the virus or treat its impact, including government actions to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic and the widespread availability and public acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine; the extent to which consumers, workers and families feel safe resuming pre-pandemic activities; the nature, extent and success of the forbearance, payment deferrals, modifications and other loss mitigation options we provide to borrowers affected by the pandemic; accounting elections and estimates relating to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; borrower and renter behavior in response to the pandemic and its economic impact; how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume, including whether any future outbreaks or increases in the daily number of new COVID-19 cases interrupt economic recovery; and how quickly and to what extent affected borrowers, renters and counterparties can recover from the negative economic impact of the pandemic;
•the market and regulatory changes we anticipate and our readiness for them, including changes relating to an eventual exit from conservatorship, the competitive landscape, and the need to attract private investment;
•the impact of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement and the enterprise regulatory capital framework, as well as future legislative and regulatory requirements or changes affecting us, such as the enactment of housing finance reform legislation, including changes that limit our business activities or our footprint;
•actions by FHFA, Treasury, HUD, the CFPB or other regulators, Congress, or state or local governments that affect our business, including our new capital requirements and recent changes or potential further changes in the ability-to-repay rule that eliminates the qualified mortgage patch for GSE-eligible loans;
•changes in the structure and regulation of the financial services industry;
•the timing and level of, as well as regional variation in, home price changes;
•future interest rates and credit spreads;
•developments that may be difficult to predict, including: market conditions that result in changes in our net amortization income from our guaranty book of business, fluctuations in the estimated fair value of our derivatives and other financial instruments that we mark to market through our earnings; and developments that affect our loss reserves, such as changes in interest rates, home prices or accounting standards, or events such as natural disasters or the emergence of widespread health emergencies or pandemics;
•uncertainties relating to the discontinuance of LIBOR, or other market changes that could impact the loans we own or guarantee or our MBS;
•credit availability;
•disruptions or instability in the housing and credit markets;
•the size and our share of the U.S. mortgage market and the factors that affect them, including population growth and household formation;
•growth, deterioration and the overall health and stability of the U.S. economy, including U.S. GDP, unemployment rates, personal income and other indicators thereof;
•changes in the fiscal and monetary policies of the Federal Reserve;
•our and our competitors’ future guaranty fee pricing and the impact of that pricing on our competitive environment and guaranty fee revenues;
•the volume of mortgage originations;
•the size, composition, quality and performance of our guaranty book of business and retained mortgage portfolio;
•the competitive environment in which we operate, including the impact of legislative, regulatory or other developments on levels of competition in our industry and other factors affecting our market share;
•how long loans in our guaranty book of business remain outstanding;
•challenges we face in retaining and hiring qualified executives and other employees;
•the effectiveness of our business resiliency plans and systems;
| Fannie Mae 2020 Form 10-K | 32 | |||||||
| Business | Forward-Looking Statements | ||||||||
•changes in the demand for Fannie Mae MBS, in general or from one or more major groups of investors;
•our conservatorship, including any changes to or termination (by receivership or otherwise) of the conservatorship and its effect on our business;
•the investment by Treasury, including the impact of recent changes or potential future changes to the terms of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, and its effect on our business, including restrictions imposed on us by the terms of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, the senior preferred stock, and Treasury’s warrant, as well as the extent that these or other restrictions on our business and activities are applied to us through other mechanisms even if we cease to be subject to these agreements and instruments;
•adverse effects from activities we undertake to support the mortgage market and help borrowers, renters, lenders and servicers;
•actions we may be required to take by FHFA, in its role as our conservator or as our regulator, such as actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in the type of business we do, or actions relating to UMBS or our resecuritization of Freddie Mac-issued securities;
•limitations on our business imposed by FHFA, in its role as our conservator or as our regulator;
•our future objectives and activities in support of those objectives, including actions we may take to reach additional underserved creditworthy borrowers;
•the possibility that changes in leadership at FHFA or the Administration may result in changes in FHFA’s or Treasury’s willingness to pursue our exit from conservatorship;
•our reliance on CSS and the common securitization platform for a majority of our single-family securitization activities, our reduced influence over CSS as a result of recent changes to the CSS limited liability company agreement, and any additional changes FHFA may require in our relationship with or in our support of CSS;
•a decrease in our credit ratings;
•limitations on our ability to access the debt capital markets;
•constraints on our entry into new credit risk transfer transactions;
•significant changes in forbearance, modification and foreclosure activity;
•our resumption of and the volume and pace of future nonperforming and reperforming loan sales and their impact on our results and serious delinquency rates;
•changes in borrower behavior;
•actions we may take to mitigate losses, and the effectiveness of our loss mitigation strategies, management of our REO inventory and pursuit of contractual remedies;
•defaults by one or more institutional counterparties;
•resolution or settlement agreements we may enter into with our counterparties;
•our need to rely on third parties to fully achieve some of our corporate objectives;
•our reliance on mortgage servicers;
•changes in GAAP, guidance by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and changes to our accounting policies;
•changes in the fair value of our assets and liabilities;
•the stability and adequacy of the systems and infrastructure that impact our operations, including ours and those of CSS, our other counterparties and other third parties;
•the impact of increasing interdependence between the single-family mortgage securitization programs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in connection with UMBS;