US regulator orders Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to consider crypto for mortgages
Federal Housing Finance Agency director William J. Pulte ordered the two government-sponsored enterprises to prepare to consider crypto for mortgage loan risk assessments.
The US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has ordered home mortgage purchasers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider how to count cryptocurrencies as assets in their risk assessments for some home loans.
FHFA director William J. Pulte told both of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) in a letter on Wednesday to “prepare a proposal for consideration of cryptocurrency as an asset for reserves in their respective single-family mortgage loan risk assessments, without conversion of said cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars.”
The order means the two GSEs could consider potential borrowers’ crypto holdings when they apply for a mortgage, which Pulte said “has not typically been considered” in mortgage risk assessments without first converting the crypto to US dollars.