Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC)

Freddie Mac

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC). A publicly-traded company chartered by the U.S. Congress to guarantee mortgages granted to low- or middle-income households. In order to do this, it buys mortgages and repackages them, selling them as mortgage-backed securities. It also maintains its own portfolio of mortgage-backed securities. It was established in 1970 to provide competition for Fannie Mae, which provides the same services and also had an implicit guarantee of federal backing. With the collapse of the housing bubble, Freddie Mac was placed in federal receivership in 2008 as a result of overexposure to this market. See also: Community Reinvestment Act, Credit Crunch.

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation

See Freddie Mac.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation

A stockholder-owned corporation chartered by Congress in 1970 to assist home mortgage lenders with a steady flow of money.Called Freddie Mac (www.freddiemac.com) for short,it buys home mortgages from loan originators such as local financial institutions and then sells mortgage backed securities and debt securities. In order to realize one of its goals, to stabilize the mortgage industry, Freddie Mac has transformed the industry by standardizing mortgage documents, introducing automated underwriting, creating the market for conventional mortgage backed securities, and leading the fight against unfair and predatory lending practices. Its primary competitor is Fannie Mae; both are regulated by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight in HUD.