Fannie Boosts Cap Surplus

Fannie Mae increased its capital surplus in the second quarter by $580 million, which should lower the amount of new capital the mortgage giant must raise under its supervisory agreement with the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.Based on first-quarter results, it was assumed that Fannie would have to raise $5 billion in new capital to achieve a 30% capital surplus over the next nine months. The second-quarter capital report issued Sept. 30 by OFHEO shows that Fannie exceeds its $31.2 billion minimum capital requirement by $4.9 billion. Now it appears that Fannie Mae will only have to raise $4.4 billion under the supervisory agreement. But OFHEO warns that an ongoing accounting review at Fannie "may result in a restatement of prior [earnings] and a revision of the respective capital calculations." OFHEO also announced that it will publish Fannie's capital calculations on a monthly rather than a quarterly basis.