Saturday, August 09, 2025 9:20:52 AM
In those meetings, Mr. Trump told the Wall Street executives and their deputies
that he was intent on moving quickly, according to two people briefed on the meetings.
In addition to the banksters invited to the White House,
other Wall Street investors & advisers have been invited recently
to meet with Treasury officials to discuss the stock sale,
two of the people said.
Mr. Trump asked bank executives, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan,
David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America &
Jane Fraser of Citigroup,
to explain how they would execute a deal.
While some shares of the companies still trade over the counter,
the new shares would be listed on a major stock market and
could yield tens of billions of dollars.
It’s unclear just how the plan would work. A critical question that was not resolved
in the meetings with bankers is whether Fannie and Freddie would remain
under government control after the stock sale.
On one hand, a government-controlled company would mitigate the risks to investors
and the mortgage market, but it would also leave investors with less sway over
the company’s decisions.
It is unclear how much investor appetite exists for shares in the mortgage firms,
particularly given the likely scale of the offering. Fannie and Freddie must sell enough
in any offering to pay back investors and the federal government on the equity stakes
they still hold and have sufficient cushion to cover any losses from the mortgages
they guarantee.
The stock offering would be a boon for Wall Street banks that garner giant fees for
advising on the deals. Because of the sheer size of the listing and the number of
individual government entities involved, a slew of different banks would take part.
Trump Seeks to Sell Fannie, Freddie Shares to Public Investors
More than a decade after the government bailed out the mortgage giants,
the Trump administration is looking for a partial stock-market exit.
By Lauren Hirsch, Maureen Farrell and Matthew Goldstein - Aug. 8, 2025
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee bond investors that they will be made whole
if too many mortgage borrowers default.
Seventeen years after the financial crisis, the Trump administration is looking to sell shares of
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in what could be a step toward freeing the mortgage finance
firms from full federal control.
President Trump and members of his administration have met with executives from the nation’s
largest banks in recent weeks, asking them to devise plans to sell shares of Fannie & Freddie
on the stock market by the end of the year, according to people briefed on the discussions.
Fannie and Freddie, which have been under the government’s control since the housing market
meltdown of 2008, remain a linchpin of the $12 trillion mortgage market.
Mr. Trump and his advisers have said the companies could be valued at around $500 Billion
collectively, according to two of the people.
While some shares of the companies still trade over the counter, the new shares would be listed
on a major stock market and could yield tens of billions of dollars.
Proceeds from the proposed stock sale, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal,
could help the government generate a return on the money it spent bailing out the companies
in 2008, while also infusing the mortgage firms with private capital.
Mr. Trump telegraphed his intent to pursue a public offering in May, writing on his Truth Social
platform that he was giving “very serious consideration to bringing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public.”
At the time, Mr. Trump wrote that the companies were “throwing off a lot of CASH, and the time
would seem to be right.”
But those plans appear to have accelerated over the past three weeks, as Mr. Trump summoned
chief executives of the nation’s largest banks into meetings at the White House.
In those meetings, Mr. Trump told the Wall Street executives and their deputies that he was intent
on moving quickly, according to two people briefed on the meetings.
Mr. Trump asked bank executives, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan, David Solomon of Goldman
Sachs, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America and Jane Fraser of Citigroup, to explain how they would
execute a deal.
Our business coverage. Times journalists are not allowed to have any direct financial stake in
companies they cover.
It’s unclear just how the plan would work. A critical question that was not resolved in the meetings
with bankers is whether Fannie and Freddie would remain under government control after the
stock sale. On one hand, a government-controlled company would mitigate the risks to investors
and the mortgage market, but it would also leave investors with less sway over the company’s decisions.
Plans for taking Fannie and Freddie out of a government conservatorship have been discussed
on and off for years without any agreed-upon solution for doing so.
In addition to the bankers invited to the White House, other Wall Street investors and advisers
have been invited recently to meet with Treasury officials to discuss the stock sale, two of the
people said.
It’s unclear exactly how stock market investors would value the mortgage giants and whether
that valuation would be anywhere near the $500 billion price tag the Trump administration is
discussing.
Neither Fannie, which is officially called the Federal National Mortgage Association, nor Freddie,
the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, actually make loans.
They buy mortgages from banks and package those loans into securities that are sold to
big investors. In creating those mortgage-backed securities, Fannie and Freddie guarantee
bond investors that they will be made whole if too many mortgage borrowers default.
That guarantee helps keep mortgage rates low.
In 2008, bond investors and investors in shares of Fannie and Freddie panicked as more and
more homeowners defaulted on their mortgages. The government ultimately stepped in with
a $187 billion bailout to prevent the firms from filing for bankruptcy.
A public stock offering could help some wealthy investors, including William A. Ackman and
the Trump donor and adviser John Paulson, who invested in the mortgage firms at deeply
discounted prices. A stock offering doesn’t guarantee them a windfall, though, because
the issuance of new shares could also dilute the value of their existing stock
Mr. Ackman has been arguing for years that the conservatorship should be ended. In January,
he prepared a 104-page presentation called The Art of the Deal that lays out his case for
ending the conservatorship.
(The presentation’s title is an allusion to Mr. Trump’s book of the same name.)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously has said that while he favors ending the
government control of Fannie and Freddie, he would not do anything that would cause
an increase in mortgage rates, which have risen in recent years, constraining housing sales.
Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has been taking bold steps
at Fannie and Freddie. One of Mr. Pulte’s first acts as director was to appoint himself
as the chair of both Fannie and Freddie — an unprecedented act.
It is unclear how much investor appetite exists for shares in the mortgage firms,
particularly given the likely scale of the offering. Fannie and Freddie must sell enough
in any offering to pay back investors and the federal government on the equity stakes
they still hold and have sufficient cushion to cover any losses from the mortgages
they guarantee.
The stock offering would be a boon for Wall Street banks that garner giant fees for
advising on the deals. Because of the sheer size of the listing and the number of
individual government entities involved, a slew of different banks would take part.
Lauren Hirsch is a Times reporter who covers deals and dealmakers in
Wall Street and Washington.
Maureen Farrell writes about Wall Street for The Times, focusing on private equity,
hedge funds and billionaires and how they influence the world of investing.
Matthew Goldstein is a Times reporter who covers Wall Street and white-collar
crime and housing issues.
