NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 30, 2019--Today's announced agreement between the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to retain more capital is one of the first and perhaps simplest steps in the Treasury's ambitious plan to rework and limit the government's involvement in the housing market and to encourage greater participation of private capital. While that plan could ultimately affect our ratings on the debt of those government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), the act of allowing greater capital retention has no immediate impact on those ratings. This is because, in our view, the odds, timing, and details of executing the rest of the plan remain very uncertain. The plan charts paths
