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Trump to Nominate Bill Pulte as FHFA Head; Ending GSE Conservatorship a Priority
President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate Bill Pulte as the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Current FHFA head Sandra Thompson previously announced plans to retire effective Jan. 19, the day before Trump is sworn in.
The Trump administration is expected to make ending the long-running conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a priority, after taking some steps to move them away from government control in his first term, Reuters reported. The two mortgage giants, which lend in both the single-family and multifamily sectors, have been under conservatorship since the 2008 financial crisis.
In a statement, Mortgage Bankers Association president and CEO Bob Broeksmit said, “We look forward to working with him and the FHFA staff on policies and programs that boost housing supply and create affordable opportunities for our nation’s homebuyers and renters while protecting taxpayers and ensuring a robust secondary mortgage market and Federal Home Loan Bank system for single-family and multifamily lenders.”
He continued, “The conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs) was never intended to be permanent. MBA stands ready to work with the administration and Congress to ensure that the transition to a post-conservatorship era for the GSEs is done the right way, including the critical step that Congress approves an explicit federal backstop for the GSEs’ mortgage-backed securities, to prevent severe market disruptions.”
Pulte is CEO of private equity firm Pulte Capital Partners. His grandfather, William Pulte, founded homebuilder PulteGroup.
