Freddie Mac announced on Tuesday that it will voluntarily limit the annual growth of the company retained mortgage portfolio. The self imposed limit of no more than 2% above the level at the end of June comes in response to a request by the US Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the company's government regulator. "We believe a constructive working relationship with our regulator is necessary to our ability to meet our mission and generate long-term shareholder value," said Richard Syron, Freddie Mac Chairman and CEO. The limit, effective July 1, will remain in effect until the company returns to producing publically released quarterly financial statements. Freddie Mac stopped filing quarterly reports after an internal investigation found executives manipulated accounting rules. Fannie Mae agreed to a similar cap on its retained portfolio in May. Freddie Mac announced that it continues to work on a series of initiatives that will improve the financial reporting infrastructure and change other deficiencies in the internal control environment. The company plans to return to quarterly reporting following the release of the entire year of 2006. Freddie Mac said its current estimate of net income for the first quarter is around $1.3 billion, which is lower than the prediction submitted in April. This is partly due to adjustments made in the 2005 financial reports. |
