The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) plans to remove portfolio growth caps on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on March 1. This move is in response to the government-sponsored enterprises' (GSEs) timely filing of 2007 financial statements and other marks of progress ‘in remediation of their respective operational and control weaknesses that led to multi-year periods when neither company released timely, audited financial statements,’ OFHEO says.
At the same time, consent orders and required capital cushions of 30% over statutory minimum capital requirements remain in effect. OFHEO plans to continue evaluating the GSEs' progress toward meeting the requirements of their respective consent orders and will also consider a gradual decreasing of the mandatory capital cushions.