fannie mae

Mortgage giants Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac may back 30 million mortgages. But that doesn't mean that the new foreclosure prevention program announced this week by the Bush administration will rescue every troubled borrower on their books.

The federal government's plan to streamline modifications of troubled loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won't help the majority of people threatened with foreclosure, experts said.

US mortgage finance firm Fannie Mae reports a third-quarter loss of $29bn in the wake of the slowing housing sector.

Troubled mortgage-finance giant Fannie Mae reported that it lost $29 billion in the most recent quarter, driven by a large jump in the mortgage loans it owned or backed that went bad.

Falling house prices are still a problem. Could Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be part of the solution?

AP - Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.

The credit crisis has moved from big institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to smaller institutions like hospitals, colleges and non-profits.

Rising interest rates are limiting their ability to expand, and they warn rising debt payments will cut into staff and services.

Curt Nickisch of member station WBUR in Boston reports.