Federal Housing Finance Agency

About Federal Housing Finance Agency

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is an independent federal agency created by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

It is the successor regulatory agency resulting from the statutory merger of the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), absorbing the powers and regulatory authority of both entities, with expanded legal and regulatory authority, including the ability to place government sponsored enterprises into receivership or conservatorship. Its enabling law is the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008, which is Division A of the larger Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, Public Law 110-289. The FHFA transmitted a "notice of establishment," for publication in the Federal Register on September 4, 2008. The notice formally announces the agency's existence, which was established upon the signing of the enabling law by President George W. Bush on July 30, 2008. One year after the law was signed, the OFHEO and the FHFB shall go out of existence. All existing regulations, orders and decisions of OFHEO and the Finance Board remain in effect until modified or superseded. James B. Lockhart III, the director of OFHEO, is the director of the new FHFA.

On September 7, 2008, FHFA director Lockhart announced he had put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the conservatorship of the FHFA. The action is "one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in decades".[10][11]