Message from the Acting Director

I am pleased to present the Strategic Plan: Fiscal Years 2013-2017 for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). FHFA is an independent regulatory agency, responsible for the oversight of the housing government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs or alternatively, ‘the regulated entities’). The housing GSEs include Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac (known as the Enterprises) and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

FHFA’s mission is to ensure the housing GSEs are safe and sound and that they serve as a reliable source of liquidity and funding for housing finance and community investment. The FHFA Strategic Plan Fiscal Years 2013-2017 sets four strategic goals for FHFA:

1) Safe and sound housing GSEs.
2) Stability, liquidity, and access in housing finance.
3) Preserve and conserve Enterprise assets.
4) Prepare for the future of housing finance in the United States.

To ensure that the housing GSEs are safe and sound, FHFA, as regulator and conservator must identify and respond to risks to the regulated entities, and take timely and appropriate supervisory actions to improve their conditions. FHFA does this through annual on-site examinations of each of the housing GSEs, off-site monitoring, targeted examinations of particular business operations, and focused program reviews, known as horizontal reviews.

FHFA coordinates with other federal regulators, individually and through its involvement with the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), the Financial Stability Oversight Board, and the Federal Housing Finance Oversight Board to monitor financial market conditions and stability.

Since September 2008, FHFA has been the conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with responsibility of overseeing management and governance of the Enterprises. FHFA establishes restrictions and expectations for the Enterprises’ boards and management, but does not manage day-to-day operations.

As conservator, FHFA focuses on improving the Enterprises’ operational efficiency and effectiveness, promoting and maintaining foreclosure prevention efforts and credit availability for new and refinanced mortgages, reducing the Enterprises’ footprint in current mortgage finance markets, and building infrastructure for future mortgage finance markets. While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in conservatorship, their continued operations depend on capital infusions under an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The agreement with Treasury Department contributes to financial market stability but is not a long-term solution. Such government support for housing is not indefinitely sustainable. However, the form of a successor system of housing finance—one far less dependent on government support—is still uncertain and largely depends on actions that must be taken by the Administration and Congress.

While waiting for important public policy questions ahead to be resolved, FHFA will pursue a series of initiatives and strategies set forward in this plan, which will serve to improve current mortgage processes, inspire greater confidence among prospective market participants, and set the stage for recovery and an improved future system of housing finance. FHFA’s strategic plan builds on the strategic plan for the conservatorships that I presented to Congress on February 21, 2012. Strategic Goal four of this plan consists of three performance goals of which two, Build and Contract, are aligned to the Conservatorship Strategic Plan. The Maintain Goal that is part of the Conservatorship Strategic Plan is embedded under Strategic Goals 2 and 3 of this plan. There are several means and strategies that cross-cut more than one strategic goal in this plan.

Working with the Congress, the Administration, and FHFA’s stakeholders, I am confident that FHFA will meet the challenge of building the foundation for a safer, more efficient, and effective system of housing finance.

Edward J. DeMarco
Acting Director
Federal Housing Finance Agency

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