Former Wall Street exec to head up operations at Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae announced the appointment of technology and banking industry executive Peter Akwaboah to chief operating officer.

Akwaboah comes to the government-sponsored enterprise from Morgan Stanley, which he joined in 2015. He most recently served as a managing director and chief operating officer for technology and the head of innovation at the Wall Street firm. In that role, he was charged with oversight of technology strategy aimed at encouraging innovation, driving results and building resilience throughout the global investment bank.

As COO at Fannie Mae, Akwaboah will take on similar management responsibilities, leading its chief information office, enterprise operations and workplace and security functions. With his appointment, he also will become a member of Fannie Mae's management committee. 

"Peter's many years of experience and unique combination of technology and operations expertise will add to our deep leadership bench," said Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar in a press release this week. 

"We look forward to the talent and experience he'll bring to our technology and operations as we continue to respond to the needs of the market, carefully balancing innovation, risk management, and our commitment to our housing mission," Almodovar added.

While at Morgan Stanley, Akwaboah also worked with the firm's various businesses to improve technology investments across the company to improve profitability. Alongside his role directing technology strategy, he served on the board of the bank's philanthropic arm and was a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's payments risk committee

Earlier in his career, Akwaboah held several technology-related leadership roles at other major international corporations, including Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, KPMG and IBM.

Akwaboah is scheduled to start in his new position on May 20 and will help lead an enterprise that has been at the forefront of digital adoption within home finance in recent years. In the past 12 months, the GSE broadened several digital initiatives meant to encourage use of technology and data in the mortgage industry while fulfilling its mission to develop homeownership opportunities.

As part of its efforts, Fannie Mae started leaning further into the application of climate analytics and rent reporting software within underwriting. At the same time, it is also making moves to streamline the origination process for condo purchases and expand the use of attorney-opinion letters in some situations to increase supply and affordability.

The appointment of a new COO is the latest in a series of leadership changes at Fannie Mae in the past few months. In December, President David Benson announced his planned retirement set for the first half of 2024, while chief administrative officer Jeffrey Hayward also left the organization. Almodovar, who began her tenure as CEO in late 2022, will also add the title of president to her name, while Fannie Mae's former general counsel, Stergio "Terry" Theologides, succeeded Hayward.

In its most recent earnings call, the enterprise reported profits of $17.4 billion in 2023, citing the impact of elevated home values.