Mag Ranks Ousted Fannie CFO Among Best

Timothy Howard, Fannie Mae's recently ousted chief accounting officer, has been named among the best chief financial officers in America, according to Institutional Investor magazine.The magazine's ranking of the best CFOs is based on a survey of portfolio managers and brokerage firm analysts in 62 industries. Mr. Howard is the lone CFO selection in the "mortgage finance" area, according to a news release put out by Institutional Investor. The magazine notes that Mr. Howard resigned in December of last year, but there is no mention of Fannie Mae's $9 billion accounting scandal, which led the government-sponsored enterprise's board to ask Mr. Howard to leave. In a report released last fall, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight accused Mr. Howard of being the "chief architect" of its faulty amortization policy. The agency added that Mr. Howard "failed to provide adequate oversight to key control and reporting functions within Fannie Mae." A spokesman for the magazine could not be reached for comment by MortgageWire's deadline. After OFHEO released its report, Mr. Howard, in congressional testimony, defended the GSE's accounting practices, which were later found to be faulty by the Securities and Exchange Commission.