Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have more than repaid taxpayers through dividends yet remain the only major bailout recipients still locked in conservatorship more than 18 years later. ProPublica’s tracker shows the GSEs received roughly $191.5 billion in draws and have returned well over $300 billion in dividends, producing a large net gain for the Treasury, while nearly every large bank and AIG repaid in full with profits and were released.​ Companies that left taxpayers with permanent losses were allowed to restructure and operate freely. Keeping Fannie and Freddie under unique, indefinite government control after superior repayment is inconsistent and unwarranted. Companies and what they still owe: General Motors ~$11.3 billion Wells Fargo ~3.4 billion JP Morgan Chase ~3.2 billion CalHFA ~2.4 billion Bank of America ~2.3 billion Check for yourself: projects.propublica.org/bail… CIT Group ~$2.3 billion Chrysler ~$1.2 billion

@BillAckman on CNBC this morning, full transcript: (part 1) Host: Speaking of disappointment in the short term, Fannie and Freddie have been a drag, and I know you’ve had high hopes that the Trump administration is going to finally make a move here to privatize. It’s taken longer than expected. I did get some comments from Secretary Bessent in a podcast this week saying, I think he said ’27 or ’28. They still want to go forward. “I would imagine next year or the year after we will be tackling the ownership structure.” Do you still have high conviction that this is going to happen? Are you still bullish? Bill Ackman: Yes, very bullish. And actually, to point out, our relative underperformance this year in large part is driven by Fannie and Freddie. These are stocks that went from $3 to $15 or so last year and went from $15 to $3 this year. You know, they became fairly sizable positions. We own well north of 200 million shares combined of the companies. So this was a very big sort of headwind for us. Now, why did we hold it when the stock was up 5x? Because we again believe our view of what’s going to happen here. Look, actually, what’s not talked about: it’s actually absolutely politically critical for Fannie and Freddie to be released from conservatorship before the end of the Trump administration. Why is that the case? Because this is an enormously cash-flow-generative asset that in the hands, for example, of a Democratic administration could be used in a manner that is politically very threatening to the Republican Party—the control of who gets access to mortgages. There were issues during the Biden administration where there were mortgages being granted to people on favorable terms because of skin color and other such initiatives. It’s a tool that can be used in a very political manner. So, having met with the administration about this topic, I think they view it as absolutely mission critical that they’re both released from conservatorship. We’ve put forth a very straightforward plan that will get it done more efficiently. Actually, it’s really important that the stock is in the hands of institutional investors and is privatized to protect this from becoming a politically controlled asset. That is well understood at the highest levels of the Trump administration. I think the administration toyed with some other alternative approaches to taking these companies public. There was an initiative, I understand, where Fannie and Freddie would be combined under a new holding company—I don’t know if you saw the tweet from the president about something called the Great American Mortgage Company—where Fannie and Freddie would stay in conservatorship and there would be this new holding company put on top. You know, it is not a viable structure. The simplest outcome here that creates the most value for the American taxpayer is just simply accounting for the $300 billion of payments that have been made by Fannie and Freddie to the Treasury, fully repaying the $191 billion that was advanced during the financial crisis, and then an uplisting to a major exchange like the New York Stock Exchange. And the president rings the bell, announces a major hundreds of billions of value creation for the American people, and then he tasks the Treasury Secretary and Director Pulte with resolving the conservatorship, which is a process of finalizing the capital rules.

$FNMA $FMCC Fannie and Freddie shareholders are on the lips of @SecScottBessent once again. Lloyd in New York: "Thanks so much for hosting and having the secretary on the program. I think it's fantastic. As you guys had mentioned, one of the issues confronting all Americans, young, old, Democrats, Republicans, is housing and affordability. Critical, critical issue. On the campaign trail and over the course of the last eight years, if not 10 years, the president's referenced on many occasions the critical role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play within the economy and the mortgage market and has acknowledged their success. Yet for 18 years, they remain in conservatorship and for over 14 years, they've been subject to the net worth sweep that was implemented by the Obama administration and deemed illegal by the decision in the Fairholme case. The taxpayers would benefit, the shareholders would benefit, the economy writ large would benefit from an exit from conservatorship. And I'm wondering if there is a plan to address this issue and take the shareholders out of purgatory and benefit all people within the economy in the process." Host: "Lloyd, thank you. Mr. Secretary, this is such a complicated one because the status quo ain't great but change is difficult with Congress and some of the debt and other issues. So how do you all see that these issues?" Treasury Secretary Bessent: "Yeah, and and look, our North Star on this will be, and it's unclear why homeowners or mortgage holders would benefit [from] a change in the arrangement of the shareholder structure. So whatever we do is going to be guided by making sure that the spread on mortgages, on agency mortgages over the Treasury does not increase. So that that's our North Star and you know, I would imagine that next year, [or] the year after, we we will be tackling the ownership structure."