Fannie Misclassified $10.3B in Purchases

Fannie Mae reported late Wednesday that it had misclassified $10.3 billion in loan purchases over the past two years, counting single-family acquisitions as multifamily and vice versa.The company, which is working its way through an $11 billion accounting scandal, said the misclassification will not affect earnings. A company spokeswoman told MortgageWire that the problem was caused by a "coding" mistake. She also said the government-sponsored enterprise will no longer specify its loan purchases as single-family or multifamily on a monthly basis, offering that information only quarterly. It will continue to publicize its total purchases each month under the data point called "business volume."