OFHEO Eyes Liability Shield for GSEs

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight is developing a process to report incidents of mortgage fraud discovered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to law enforcement agencies without causing any legal liability for the two government-sponsored enterprises.OFHEO issued a final rule in July that requires the two GSEs to report mortgage fraud to its examiners. But unlike banks, which are protected by the Bank Secrecy Act, the GSEs can be sued by persons named in those reports. So OFHEO is working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to develop a process to share information with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. "We are trying to make sure that information received by OFHEO examiners is investigated," Alfred Pollard, OFHEO's acting deputy director, told the Exchequer Club in Washington.