Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

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Banking groups distance themselves from investor-led lobbying effort to recapitalize the GSEs


Two mortgage banking trade groups that support the so-called "recap and release" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say they have not taken money from Wall Street hedge funds that have reportedly bankrolled a lobbying campaign in Washington focused on the same goals of bulking up the agencies' capital reserves and freeing them from government conservatorship.

The Community Mortgage Lenders of America (CMLA) and the Community Home Lenders Association (CHLA) ultimately want the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to play a major role in housing finance after they are reformed, but they are not associated in any way with the investor-driven lobbying effort, the trade group's executive directors told Scotsman Guide News.

“We don’t get any funding at all, have never taken any money from any sort of hedge fund,” said CMLA Executive Director Glen Corso on Friday.

Recent articles in the Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal reported that hedge funds and investors that bought Fannie and Freddie stock cheap during the downturn have intensified their lobbying efforts. According to a Wall Street Journal report, The Raben Group, a Washington lobbying firm, offered the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), $25,000 to sign its name last year to an editorial supporting the recapitalization of the GSEs. NAHREP’s Executive Director Gary Acosta told the Wall Street Journal that the organization turned the offer down.

CHLA Executive Director Scott Olson said he has not been approached by any group associated with Fannie and Freddie’s investors.

“I myself and the staff of CHLA have not talked to the hedge funds or other stock investors, to anyone in that world, in over three years,” Olson said. “I did it three years ago when we were doing Johnson-Crapo [a GSE reform bill] to get their impression, and I have not even talked to anybody in that segment for three years, much less them having any influence on me.”
http://www.scotsmanguide.com/News/2016/06/Banking-groups-distance-themselves-from-investor-led-lobbying-effort-to-recapitalize-the-GSEs/