FHFA Director Bill Pulte at the MBA Secondary Conference

May 21, 2025 | This week, FHFA Director Bill Pulte appeared in front of a packed ballroom at the New York Marriott Marquis for the MBA Secondary and Capital Markets Conference. In his usual affable style, Pulte delivered some important messages that may have cruised over the heads of many attendees. And he made absolutely clear that his prime concern is the safety and soundness of the Enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that in all respects he is a good soldier who reports up to the White House and President Donald Trump.

The comments were in a fireside chat, hosted by an official of the MBA with prepared questions. In response to the first question about his experience so far, Pulte commented that “the government is very different from the private sector, and the more they do, the more they come after you,” a reference to the Democrats in Congress and particularly Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Pulte revealed how he had gone to see Warren and “wanted to work with her,” but then received an unfriendly letter complaining about Pulte’s removal of the directors of the GSEs. Pulte correctly noted that under The Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) the FHFA has total authority over the GSEs in conservatorship. Pulte has no need to even maintain the pretense of a board unless and until the Enterprises are released from conservatorship.

“The boards of the GSEs don’t have a fiduciary duty to the Enterprises,” he noted. “They have a fiduciary duty to the conservatorship.” He then went on to say that the boards were "fake" and slowed the management of the Enterprises because they have no real function so long as the GSEs are under government control.

Pulte described how Senator Warren seemed unaware of the existence of manufactured homes, a remarkable revelation given that the considerable advances in manufactured homes make them ideal for creating affordable housing. Inflation has taken up the cost of home building so much that building a home for entry level buyers is almost impossible. If you figure that the average home costs $125 per square foot, that means $100,000-$150,000 just to build.

“I get this letter [from Warren] that says I did something illegal, and it was nonsense, total nonsense,” Pulte asserted. When asked about his commitment to the MBA last year to bring a more business minded attitude to the GSEs (than had existed over the past four years), Pulte minced no words:

“If its not in the law, not in the actual statute, then it needs to go. We will do what Congress has told us to do, but if its not in the law, then we are not going to do it. What has happened in the last many years is that the FHA Director came up with these ideas and they would try to legislate from the bench, so to speak.”

Pulte described how he has been attacking the institutional bureaucracy created at the GSEs under the Biden Administration. He described “layers and layers” of internal bureaucracy at the GSEs. As we've noted in past issues of The IRA, the GSEs became entirely politicized under the Biden Administration.

“I would hear from people in the industry that we just want to have regulatory certainty,” Pulte noted, who described how and why he decided to use X for many official announcements. 

Pulte also said that he believes that the estimates of the value of the GSEs are too low, a veiled hint that the Trump Administration must eventually try to monetize these assets given the swelling federal budget deficits. He sidestepped a question about reducing the footprint of the GSEs as occurred under Trump I, but said his main focus is improving the financial performance of the GSEs. "An efficient, well-run Fannie and Freddie is a safe and sound mortgage market," Pulte declared.

In response to a question about ending the conservatorship for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Pulte remained non committal and said simply “we’ll see.”  While he indicated that he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were in constant discussion about the GSEs and other issues, Pulte made clear that “this is a decision for the President of the United States.”

At the end of the program, Pulte took several questions, including one from The IRA regarding the four years of chaos at FHFA around the unworkable proposal pushed by Experian (EXPN) to force lenders to US Vantage Score for underwriting loans. 

When asked if FHFA would end the program to validate non existent data for Vantage, which is rarely if ever used by mortgage lenders for conventional loans, Pulte responded that it was “a good question” and suggested that the industry may see some relief soon. But during his remarks, Pulte minced no words when he said that Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) should reduce the cost of its credit files, a message he later posted on X.

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