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Stress Tests Reports - Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac

2020 Dodd-Frank Act Stress Test Results - Severely Adverse Scenario

Published: 8/12/2021

​​​​​​​​​​Revised 8/2/2023

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​​​​​​​Overview

  • Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the “Enterprises”) are required to conduct annual stress tests pursuant to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) rule 12 CFR § 1238, which implements section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Dodd-Frank Act"). Section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Act, as amended by section 401 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (“EGRRCPA”) requires certain financial companies with total consolidated assets of more than $250 billion, and which are regulated by a primary federal financial regulatory agency, to conduct periodic stress tests to determine whether the companies have the capital necessary to absorb losses as a result of severely adverse economic conditions. These statutory changes became effective on November 24, 2019. This is the seventh implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act Stress Tests (DFAST) for the Enterprises.

  • In September 2008, FHFA suspended capital requirements after placing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorships. The Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements that were established between the Department of the Treasury and each Enterprise limited the amount of capital that each Enterprise can hold to a Capital Reserve Amount of $3.0 billion. However, on September 27, 2019, the FHFA acting in its capacity as the conservator of the Enterprises, and Treasury entered into a letter agreement modifying the dividend and liquidation preference provisions of the senior preferred stock held by Treasury. Effective with the third quarter 2019 dividend period, the Enterprises were not required to pay further dividends to Treasury until they accumulated over $25 billion in net worth at Fannie Mae and $20 billion in net worth at Freddie Mae.

  • Notwithstanding the capital limits stipulated in the Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements, FHFA requires the Enterprises to conduct DFAST annually in order to provide insight into risk exposure and potential sources of losses in the prescribed conditions. This report provides updated information on possible ranges of future financial results of the Enterprises under severely adverse conditions. The severely adverse conditions assumed are identical for both Enterprises.

  • The projections reported here are not expected outcomes. They are modeled projections in response to “what if” exercises based on assumptions about Enterprise operations, loan performance, macroeconomic and financial market conditions, and house prices. The projections do not define the full range of possible outcomes. Actual outcomes may be different.

  • The 2020 DFAST Severely Adverse scenario is described on page 3. The Enterprises used their respective internal models to project their financial results based on the assumptions provided by FHFA. While this results in a degree of comparability between the Enterprises, it does not eliminate differences in the Enterprises’ respective internal models, accounting differences, or management actions.​​​

August 2023 Update:

In November 2022, Fannie Mae announced that it was reevaluating its 2020​ stress test results and associated reporting due to the recent identification of errors in an underlying model. Fannie Mae has completed its evaluation and determined that the errors were not material and therefore will not post revised stress test results for this year.​

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