Fannie Mae

The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, was founded in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal. It is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and has been a publicly traded company since 1968. The corporation's purpose is to expand the secondary mortgage market by securitizing mortgages in the form of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), allowing lenders to reinvest their assets into more lending and in effect increasing the number of lenders in the mortgage market by reducing the reliance on locally based savings and loan associations (aka "thrifts"). Its brother organization is the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), better known as Freddie Mac.

History

The Great Depression wreaked havoc on the U.S. housing market. By 1933, an estimated 20-25% of the nation's outstanding mortgage debt was in default. Fannie Mae was established in 1938 by amendments to the National Housing Act as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Originally chartered as the National Mortgage Association of Washington, the organization's purpose was to provide local banks with federal money to finance home mortgages in an attempt to raise levels of home ownership and the availability of affordable housing. Fannie Mae created a liquid secondary mortgage market and thereby made it possible for banks and other loan originators to issue more housing loans, primarily by buying Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured mortgages. For the first thirty years following its inception, Fannie Mae held a monopoly over the secondary mortgage market.

Fannie Mae (song)

"Fannie Mae" is a 1959 song written and performed by American blues and R&B singer Buster Brown.

The harmonica riffs of the song took it into the U.S. Top 40, and to #1 on the R&B chart in April 1960.

Track listing

Chart performance

In popular culture

The song is featured in the film American Graffiti (1973).

Recorded versions

References

External links