The Obama administration plans an Aug. 17 conference to discuss ways to fix the country’s “broken” housing-finance system and intends to submit a proposal by January to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee more than $5 trillion in mortgages and hold $1.6 trillion in agency loans and other securities in their portfolios. 

Government-controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac is requesting $1.8 billion more in federal help after a larger second-quarter loss. Freddie Mac lost $6 billion, or $1.85 per share, from April through June, the firm announced Monday. Those losses include $1.3 billion the company is required to pay the Treasury Department, representing a 10 percent annual dividend. During the same period last year, the company lost $840 million. 

On Thursday, Fannie Mae asked for an additional $1.5 billion after posting a $3.13 billion loss, although its losses shrank dramatically in the second quarter, down from $11.5 billion in the first quarter.

Both companies, which own about half of the nation's mortgages, about 31 million, were rescued by the government from the edge of collapse almost two years ago. They've needed more than $149 billion to stay in business, including $63.1 billion used by Freddie Mac and $86.1 billion for Fannie Mae, including the second-quarter request. 

Fannie and Freddie faced political pressure and got an added push from Wall Street during the housing boom to expand home ownership to back riskier loans. Both companies have blamed their losses on bad loans they backed between 2005 and 2008. 

See full article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-27/obama-to-hold-aug-17-housing-conference-on-ways-to-repair-fannie-freddie.html