Lewis Ranieri — the co-inventor of the mortgage-backed security — and bond market maven Bill Gross are among a group of 12 speakers testifying next Tuesday at a Treasury forum on the future of the housing finance system, a discussion that will touch on what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner and Housing secretary Shaun Donovan will moderate the discussion, which will occur between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Also speaking is Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America Home Loans, the nation's second largest residential funder. B of A's mortgage operations include Countrywide Financial, once the nation's largest subprime lender.
Mike Heid, co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and S.A. Ibrahim, CEO of Radian, also will make presentations. Gross is co-founder and chief investment officer of PIMCO. Ranieri, who pioneered the MBS market in the early 1980s when he was at Salomon Brothers, is chairman of Ranieri & Co.
The Treasury Department is working on a draft proposal to reorganize Fannie and Freddie and hopes to release its blueprint early next year. Currently, the two GSEs account for 70% of all residential loans funded in the U.S. The Federal Housing Administration accounts for most of the balance. (Jumbo and nonconforming lenders account for a fraction of today's market, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News.)
