OFHEO Dismisses Bernanke Jumbo Idea

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be focused on rescuing subprime borrowers as opposed to developing a new line of products to serve the jumbo market, according to the regulator of the two government-sponsored enterprises.The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board recently suggested to Congress that the two GSEs could play a role in securitizing jumbo mortgages. But James Lockhart, director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, told MortgageWire that the GSEs have no expertise in the jumbo market. "Our view is that at the moment, Fannie and Freddie have their hands full in the conforming loan market -- and in particular the lower-credit-quality portion of the conforming loan market," Mr. Lockhart said in the interview. "That is where they should be concentrating their firepower." The OFHEO director said Fannie and Freddie are doing a reasonably good job in refinancing subprime borrowers that are current on their payments. However, they need to make more of an effort to help borrowers that need loan modifications or partial writedowns. "We will be discussing this with the Fed," he said.