Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together exercised a virtual monopoly on the secondary mortgage market until the 1990s, when increasing federal regulation of the corporations and new legislation allowing mergers between banks and other financial companies resulted in greater competition from conventional firms....
The financial toll of the pandemic on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was significant, as these agencies provided vast liquidity to the mortgage and rental markets. Fannie Mae saw its net income decline by over 20% between 2019 and 2020, and Freddie Mac saw a drop of over 17%. However, both ...