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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Earnings Per Share, Policy [Policy Text Block]

The calculation of diluted EPS includes all the components of basic earnings per share, plus the dilutive effect of common stock equivalents such as convertible securities and stock options. Weighted-average shares outstanding is increased to include the number of additional common shares that would have been outstanding if the dilutive potential common shares had been issued.

Earnings (Loss) per Share

Earnings (loss) per share (“EPS”) is presented for basic and diluted EPS. We compute basic EPS by dividing net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders by the weighted-average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. However, as a result of our conservatorship status and the terms of the senior preferred stock, no amounts would be available to distribute as dividends to common or preferred stockholders (other than to Treasury as the holder of the senior preferred stock). Net income (loss) attributable to common stockholders excludes amounts attributable to the senior preferred stock, which increase the liquidation preference as described above in “Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, Senior Preferred Stock and Warrant.”

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Organization

We are a stockholder-owned corporation organized and existing under the Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act (the “Charter Act” or our “charter”). We are a government-sponsored enterprise (“GSE”), and we are subject to government oversight and regulation. Our regulators include the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”). The U.S. government does not guarantee our securities or other obligations.

We operate in the secondary mortgage market, primarily working with lenders. We do not originate loans or lend money directly to consumers in the primary mortgage market. Instead, we securitize mortgage loans originated by lenders into Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”) that we guarantee; purchase mortgage loans and mortgage-related securities, primarily for securitization and sale at a later date; manage mortgage credit risk; and engage in other activities that increase the supply of affordable housing.

We have two reportable business segments: Single-Family and Multifamily. The Single-Family business operates in the secondary mortgage market relating to loans secured by properties containing four or fewer residential dwelling units. The Multifamily business operates in the secondary mortgage market relating primarily to loans secured by properties containing five or more residential units. We describe the management reporting and allocation process used to generate our segment results in “Note 10, Segment Reporting.”

Conservatorship

On September 7, 2008, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of FHFA announced several actions taken by Treasury and FHFA regarding Fannie Mae, which included: (1) placing us in conservatorship and (2) the execution of a senior preferred stock purchase agreement by our conservator, on our behalf, and Treasury, pursuant to which we issued to Treasury both senior preferred stock and a warrant to purchase common stock.

Under the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, as amended, including by the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 (together, the “GSE Act”), the conservator immediately succeeded to (1) all rights, titles, powers and privileges of Fannie Mae, and of any stockholder, officer or director of Fannie Mae with respect to Fannie Mae and its assets, and (2) title to the books, records and assets of any other legal custodian of Fannie Mae. The conservator subsequently issued an order that provided for our Board of Directors to exercise specified authorities. The conservator also provided instructions regarding matters for which conservator decision or notification is required. The conservator retains the authority to amend or withdraw its order and instructions at any time.

The conservator has the power to transfer or sell any asset or liability of Fannie Mae (subject to limitations and post-transfer notice provisions for transfers of qualified financial contracts) without any approval, assignment of rights or consent of any party. However, mortgage loans and mortgage-related assets that have been transferred to a Fannie Mae MBS trust must be held by the conservator for the beneficial owners of the Fannie Mae MBS and cannot be used to satisfy the general creditors of Fannie Mae. Neither the conservatorship nor the terms of our agreements with Treasury change our obligation to make required payments on our debt securities or perform under our mortgage guaranty obligations.

On September 5, 2019, Treasury released a plan to reform the housing finance system. The Treasury Housing Reform Plan (the “Treasury plan”) is far-reaching in scope and could have a significant impact on our structure, our role in the secondary mortgage market, our capitalization, our business and our competitive environment. The Treasury plan includes recommendations relating to ending our conservatorship, amending our senior preferred stock purchase agreement with Treasury, considering additional restrictions and requirements on our business, and many other matters. The Treasury plan recommends that Treasury’s commitment to provide funding under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement should be replaced with legislation that authorizes an explicit, paid-for guarantee backed by the full faith and credit of the Federal Government that is limited to the timely payment of principal and interest on qualifying MBS. The Treasury plan further recommends that, pending legislation, even after conservatorship Treasury should maintain its ongoing commitment to support our single-family and multifamily mortgage-backed securities through the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, as amended as contemplated by the plan.

The conservatorship has no specified termination date and there continues to be significant uncertainty regarding our future, including how long we will continue to exist in our current form, the extent of our role in the market, the level of government support of our business, how long we will be in conservatorship, what form we will have and what ownership interest, if any, our current common and preferred stockholders will hold in us after the conservatorship is terminated and whether we will

continue to exist following conservatorship. Under the GSE Act, FHFA must place us into receivership if the Director of FHFA makes a written determination that our assets are less than our obligations or if we have not been paying our debts, in either case, for a period of 60 days. In addition, the Director of FHFA may place us into receivership at his discretion at any time for other reasons set forth in the GSE Act, including if we are critically undercapitalized or if we are undercapitalized and have no reasonable prospect of becoming adequately capitalized. Should we be placed into receivership, different assumptions would be required to determine the carrying value of our assets, which could lead to substantially different financial results. Treasury has made a commitment under the senior preferred stock purchase agreement to provide funding to us under certain circumstances if we have a net worth deficit. We are not aware of any plans of FHFA (1) to fundamentally change our business model, other than changes that might result from recommendations in the Treasury plan, if implemented, or (2) to reduce the aggregate amount available to or held by the company under our capital structure, which includes the senior preferred stock purchase agreement.

Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, Senior Preferred Stock and Warrant

Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement

Under our senior preferred stock purchase agreement with Treasury, in September 2008 we issued Treasury one million shares of senior preferred stock and a warrant to purchase shares of our common stock. The senior preferred stock purchase agreement was amended and restated on September 26, 2008 and was subsequently amended three times: in May 2009, December 2009 and August 2012. The dividend and liquidation preference provisions of the senior preferred stock were also amended in December 2017 and in September 2019 pursuant to letter agreements between us, through FHFA in its capacity as conservator, and Treasury.

Senior Preferred Stock

The modifications and other specified provisions of the September 2019 letter agreement are described below.

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Modification to Dividend Provisions—Increase in Applicable Capital Reserve Amount. The terms of the senior preferred stock provide for dividends each quarter in the amount, if any, by which our net worth as of the end of the immediately preceding fiscal quarter exceeds the applicable capital reserve amount. The September 2019 letter agreement modified the dividend provisions of the senior preferred stock to increase the applicable capital reserve amount from $3 billion to $25 billion, effective for dividend periods beginning July 1, 2019. As a result of this change to the senior preferred stock dividend provisions, no dividends will be payable on the senior preferred stock for the first quarter of 2020, as our net worth of $14.6 billion as of December 31, 2019 is lower than the $25 billion capital reserve amount.

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Modification to Liquidation Preference Provisions—Increase in Liquidation Preference. The September 2019 letter agreement provides that, on September 30, 2019, and at the end of each fiscal quarter thereafter, the liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock will increase by an amount equal to the increase in our net worth, if any, during the immediately prior fiscal quarter, until such time as the liquidation preference has increased by $22 billion pursuant to this provision. As a result of this change to the senior preferred stock liquidation preference provisions, the aggregate liquidation preference of the senior preferred stock will increase from $131.2 billion as of December 31, 2019 to $135.4 billion as of March 31, 2020, due to the increase in our net worth during the fourth quarter of 2019.

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Agreement to Amend Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement to Enhance Taxpayer Protections. The September 2019 letter agreement provides that we and Treasury agree to negotiate and execute an additional amendment to the senior preferred stock purchase agreement that further enhances taxpayer protections by adopting covenants broadly consistent with recommendations for administrative reform contained in the Treasury plan.

See “Note 11, Equity” for additional information about the senior preferred stock purchase agreement, including Treasury’s funding commitment under the agreement.

Warrant

On September 7, 2008, we issued to Treasury a warrant to purchase, at a nominal price, shares of our common stock equal to 79.9% of the total common stock outstanding on a fully diluted basis on the date the warrant is exercised. The warrant may be exercised, in whole or in part, at any time on or before September 7, 2028. We recorded the warrant at fair value in our stockholders’ equity as a component of additional paid-in-capital. The fair value of the warrant was calculated using the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model. Since the warrant has an exercise price of $0.00001 per share, the model is insensitive to the risk-free rate and volatility assumptions used in the calculation and the share value of the warrant is equal to the price of the underlying common stock. We estimated that the fair value of the warrant at issuance was $3.5 billion based on the price of our common stock on September 8, 2008, which was after the dilutive effect of the warrant had been reflected in the market price. Subsequent changes in the fair value of the warrant are not recognized in our financial statements. If the warrant is exercised, the stated value of the common stock issued will be reclassified as “Common stock” in our consolidated balance sheets. Because the warrant’s exercise price per share is considered non-substantive (compared to the market price of our

common stock), the warrant was determined to have characteristics of non-voting common stock, and thus is included in the computation of basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share. The weighted-average shares of common stock outstanding for 2019, 2018 and 2017 included shares of common stock that would be issuable upon full exercise of the warrant issued to Treasury.

Impact of U.S. Government Support

We continue to rely on support from Treasury to eliminate any net worth deficits we may experience in the future, which would otherwise trigger our being placed into receivership. Based on consideration of all the relevant conditions and events affecting our operations, including our reliance on the U.S. government, we continue to operate as a going concern and in accordance with FHFA’s provision of authority.

In addition to MBS issuances, we fund our business through the issuance of short-term and long-term debt securities in the domestic and international capital markets. Accordingly, we are subject to “roll over,” or refinancing, risk on our outstanding debt. Our ability to issue long-term debt has been strong primarily due to actions taken by the federal government to support our business and our debt securities.

We believe that continued federal government support of our business, as well as our status as a government-sponsored enterprise, are essential to maintaining our current level of access to debt funding. Changes or perceived changes in federal government support of our business without appropriate capitalization of the company could materially and adversely affect our liquidity, financial condition and results of operations. Changes or perceived changes in our status as a government-sponsored enterprise could also materially and adversely affect our liquidity, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, due to our reliance on the U.S. government’s support, our access to debt funding or the cost of debt funding also could be materially adversely affected by a change or perceived change in the creditworthiness of the U.S government. A downgrade in our credit ratings could reduce demand for our debt securities and increase our borrowing costs. Future changes or disruptions in the financial markets could significantly impact the amount, mix and cost of funds we obtain, which also could increase our liquidity and “roll over” risk and have a material adverse impact on our liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

Related Parties

Because Treasury holds a warrant to purchase shares of Fannie Mae common stock equal to 79.9% of the total number of shares of Fannie Mae common stock, we and Treasury are deemed related parties. As of December 31, 2019, Treasury held an investment in our senior preferred stock with an aggregate liquidation preference of $131.2 billion. See “Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, Senior Preferred Stock and Warrant” above for additional information on transactions under this agreement.

FHFA’s control of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has caused Fannie Mae, FHFA and Freddie Mac to be deemed related parties. Additionally, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jointly own Common Securitization Solutions, LLC (“CSS”), a limited liability company created to operate a common securitization platform; as such, CSS is deemed a related party. As a part of our joint ownership, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and CSS are parties to a limited liability company agreement that sets forth the overall framework for the joint venture, including Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s rights and responsibilities as members of CSS. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and CSS are also parties to a customer services agreement that sets forth the terms under which CSS provides mortgage securitization services to us and Freddie Mac, including the operation of the common securitization platform as well as an administrative services agreement. CSS operates as a separate company from us and Freddie Mac, with all funding and limited administrative support services and other resources provided to it by us and Freddie Mac through our capital contributions.

In the ordinary course of business, Fannie Mae may purchase and sell securities issued by Treasury and Freddie Mac. These transactions occur on the same terms as those prevailing at the time for comparable transactions with unrelated parties. With our implementation of the Single Security Initiative in June 2019, some of the structured securities we issue are backed in whole or in part by Freddie Mac securities. Additionally, we make regular income tax payments to and receive tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), a bureau of Treasury.

Transactions with Treasury

Our administrative expenses were reduced by $20 million, $24 million and $40 million for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, due to reimbursements from Treasury and Freddie Mac for expenses incurred as program administrator for Treasury’s Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”) and other initiatives under Treasury’s Making Home Affordable Program.

In December 2011, Congress enacted the Temporary Payroll Cut Continuation Act of 2011 (“TCCA”) which, among other provisions, required that we increase our single-family guaranty fees by at least 10 basis points and remit this increase to Treasury. Effective April 1, 2012, we increased the guaranty fee on all single-family residential mortgages delivered to us by 10 basis points. FHFA and Treasury advised us to remit this fee increase to Treasury with respect to all loans acquired by us on or after April 1, 2012 and before January 1, 2022, and to continue to remit these amounts to Treasury on and after January 1, 2022 with respect to loans we acquired before this date until those loans are paid off or otherwise liquidated. The resulting fee

revenue and expense are recorded in “Mortgage loans interest income” and “TCCA fees,” respectively, in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income. We recognized $2.4 billion, $2.3 billion and $2.1 billion in TCCA fees during the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively, of which $626 million and $586 million had not been remitted as of December 31, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

The GSE Act requires us to set aside certain funding obligations, a portion of which is attributable to Treasury’s Capital Magnet Fund. In December 2014, FHFA directed us to set aside amounts for these contributions during each fiscal year, except for any fiscal year for which a draw from Treasury was made under the terms of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement or in which such allocation or transfer would cause such a draw. These funding obligations, recognized in “Other expenses, net” in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income, were measured as the product of 4.2 basis points and the unpaid principal balance of our total new business purchases for the respective period, with 35% of this amount payable to Treasury’s Capital Magnet Fund. We recognized $98 million, $75 million and $84 million in “Other expenses, net” in connection with Treasury’s Capital Magnet Fund for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively. We paid $75 million and $84 million to Treasury’s Capital Magnet Fund in 2019 and 2018, respectively. In 2020, we expect to pay $98 million to Treasury’s Capital Magnet Fund based on our new business purchases in 2019.

On September 27, 2019, we, through FHFA acting on our behalf in its capacity as our conservator, and Treasury entered into a letter agreement modifying the dividend and liquidation preference provisions of the senior preferred stock held by Treasury. These modifications and other specified provisions of the letter agreement are described under “Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement, Senior Preferred Stock and Warrant” above.

Transactions with FHFA

The GSE Act authorizes FHFA to establish an annual assessment for regulated entities, including Fannie Mae, which is payable on a semi-annual basis (April and October), for FHFA’s costs and expenses, as well as to maintain FHFA’s working capital. We recognized FHFA assessment fees, which are recorded in “Administrative expenses” in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income, of $121 million, $110 million and $112 million for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

Transactions with CSS and Freddie Mac

We contributed capital to CSS, the company we jointly own with Freddie Mac, of $105 million, $135 million and $102 million for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

In the second quarter of 2019, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and CSS entered into an amendment to the customer services agreement that sets forth the terms under which CSS provides mortgage securitization services to us and Freddie Mac. In June 2019, we entered into an indemnification agreement with Freddie Mac relating to the commingled structured securities that we and Freddie Mac issue. Under the indemnification agreement, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each have agreed to indemnify the other party for losses caused by: its failure to meet its payment or other specified obligations under the trust agreements pursuant to which the underlying resecuritized securities were issued; its failure to meet its obligations under the customer services agreement; its violations of laws; or with respect to material misstatements or omissions in offering documents, ongoing disclosures and related materials relating to the underlying resecuritized securities.

New Accounting Guidance

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2016-13, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326), Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments in June 2016, which was later amended by ASU 2019-04, ASU 2019-05 and ASU 2019-11. These ASUs (the “CECL standard”) replace the existing incurred loss impairment methodology for loans that are collectively evaluated for impairment with a methodology that reflects lifetime expected credit losses and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable forecast information to develop a lifetime credit loss estimate. The CECL standard also requires credit losses related to AFS debt securities to be recorded through an allowance for credit losses. Our adoption of this standard on January 1, 2020 did not have a material impact on our portfolio of AFS debt securities.

The CECL standard became effective for our fiscal year beginning January 1, 2020. We have changed our accounting policies and implemented system, model and process changes to adopt the standard. Upon adoption, we used a discounted cash flow method to measure expected credit losses on our single-family mortgage loans and an undiscounted loss method to measure expected credit losses on our multifamily mortgage loans. The models used to estimate credit losses incorporated our historical credit loss experience, adjusted for current economic forecasts and the current credit profile of our loan book of business. The models used reasonable and supportable forecasts for key economic drivers, such as home prices (single-family), rental income (multifamily) and capitalization rates (multifamily).

The adoption of the CECL standard on January 1, 2020 will reduce our retained earnings by $1.1 billion on an after-tax basis, which will be reflected in our financial statements for the quarter ending March 31, 2020. The adoption of this guidance increased our overall credit loss reserves primarily as the result of an increase in our single-family loan loss reserves that were previously evaluated on a collective basis for impairment. This increase was partially offset by a decrease in estimated credit losses on loans that were previously considered individually impaired (our troubled debt restructurings).

The increase in our single-family loan loss reserves that were previously evaluated on a collective basis was primarily driven by the migration from an incurred-loss approach, which allowed us to consider only default events and economic conditions that already existed as of each financial reporting date, to an estimate that incorporates both expected default events over the expected life of each mortgage loan and a forecast of home prices in different economic environments over a reasonable and supportable period. The increase in loss reserves for this portion of our book was low relative to its size due to the credit quality of these loans and because our current model forecasts home price growth.

The allowance for loan losses on the TDR book was already measured using an expected lifetime credit loss estimate. The expected credit losses on this portion of our single-family book decreased upon the adoption of CECL because the new guidance required us to exclude from our estimate of credit losses all pre-foreclosure and post-foreclosure costs that are expected to be advanced after the balance sheet date. Prior to the adoption of CECL, we incorporated these costs in our estimate of expected credit losses for this book.