White House List to Replace Ed DeMarco Said to be Long, Michael Barr?

The White House has put together a long list of candidates who might eventually replace Edward DeMarco as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, according to officials who have been briefed on the matter.

Roughly seven names are being mentioned, these officials said. “They are now actively looking,” said one of these sources.

Some of those candidates include former U.S. Treasury official Michael Barr, and current Treasury official Michael Stegman who is the agency’s point man on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Stegman, in particular, has worked on a new Treasury white paper on the future of the GSEs, a product that likely may never see the light of day, industry sources told National Mortgage News.

DeMarco, who has been in the post for three-plus years, is an “acting” director and a career civil servant. If the White House picks a successor who can pass the Senate he would stay with the agency in another role unless he decides to leave entirely.

The White House has been unhappy, to some degree, with DeMarco because of his refusal to allow the GSEs to write down the principal on underwater loans as a restructuring tool.  

THE FHFA has been conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since September 2008. Both are now profitable on an operating basis.

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