Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae - Federal National Mortgage Association

It is a private company that operates under a congressional charter to increase the availability and affordability of homeownership for low-, moderate-, and middle-income Americans. Since 1968, Fannie Mae has helped 43 million families realize the dream of owning a home. In 2002, it created what it calls the American Dream Commitment, a program to provide $2 trillion in funding over the next decade in order to increase homeownership in America by 18 million new families. Fannie Mae doesn’t lend money itself; what it does is provide the financing that makes it possible for banks to lend money to consumers.

---

Fannie Mae, during 1980s, had a simple, crystalline understanding that it could be the best capital markets player in anything related to mortgages, better even than Goldman Sachs or Salomon Brothers in opening up the full capital markets to the mortgage process. It built a powerful economic machine by reframing its business model on risk management, rather than mortgage selling. And it drove the machine with great passion, the Fannie Mae people inspired by its vital role in democratizing home ownership.

Fannie Mae transition began in 1981, with the arrival of David Maxwell.