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America's two largest mortgage controllers, Freddie Mac (FMLC) and Fannie Mae (FNMA) recently agreed to enact tougher standards on appraisers and lenders beginning in January 2009. FMLC and FNMA buy mortgages from all facets of the mortgage industry and together they control over 80 percent of the mortgage industry. They either hold these mortgages in their own portfolios or package them into mortgage-backed securities for resale to investors. Any variation from current policies within these two agencies would create a ripple effect that will be felt by all mortgage institutions and appraisers large and small.

November of last year Mr. Cuomo, the New York State Attorney General and long time champion of equal housing, began investigating FMLC and FNMA as part of his industry-wide investigation of mortgage fraud. In this investigation Mr. Cuomo specifically targeted Washington Mutual (WaMu), the nation's largest savings and loan, and threatened to widen his investigation to other large lenders like Countrywide and Wells Fargo. His point of contention is the appraisal process and how it affects the housing market adding that he believes that "the appraisal process is broken."

It is very likely that Mr. Cuomo's investigation would have turned up problems and inconsistencies within these two mortgage giants, as is the case with most large companies. Many people in the mortgage industry argue that any large company such as Wal-Mart, Starbucks and Microsoft are almost certain to have problems on close inspection but on the whole run a tight ship. The problem is that in today's over sensitive mortgage market any negative news that concerns FMLC and FNMA will be given national attention in effect making mountains out of mole hills.

Mr. Cuomo doesn't have the power to make policy changes for FMLC and FNMA; however, he does have the ability to garner national attention from the media by calling the two giants into question. Amid scrutiny, FMLC and FNMA have agreed to abide by Mr. Cuomo's "suggestions" and only buy loans only from banks that agree to his standards of appraiser independence. In exchange, Mr. Cuomo has agreed to forego his investigation. These standards are set to go into effect January of 2009, and among other things, will bar lenders from using in-house staff or a company it controls to conduct appraisals.

As is the case with most regulations and legislation, Republicans feel that the rule is over reaches and Democrats feel it doesn't reach

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