Sunday, November 27, 2011

Lawmakers slam Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac CEOs over pay and bonuses

The chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac faced bipartisan outrage Wednesday over multimillion-dollar salaries and large bonuses at the seized housing finance giants, which still owe the government a combined $150 billion in the largest financial crisis bailout. The hearing came a day after another House panel voted overwhelmingly to suspend large executive compensation packages at the two companies and align their salaries with that of government employees. The total compensation for the top six executives at Fannie and Freddie for 2009 and 2010 was $35.4 million, with Williams and Haldeman receiving about half of that. Each of them could take home as much as $6 million apiece in salary and bonuses in 2011. The salary and compensation were defended by Williams, Haldeman and Edward DeMarco, the latter of whom is the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has overseen Fannie and Freddie since they were put in a government conservatorship in 2008 because they were on the brink of failure. The three said executive compensation has been dramatically reduced since the companies were seized but that it remained important to attract and keep skilled people to manage the firms' combined $5 trillion in mortgage-backed securities to prevent further taxpayer losses and additional damage to the housing market.



http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/11/lawmakers-slam-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-ceos-over-pay-and-bonuses.html

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