The former Fannie Mae headquarters building in Washington, D.C., are pictured. | J. David Ake, File/AP PhotoThe Supreme Court on Wednesday gave President Joe Biden greater control over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two companies that dominate the U.S. mortgage market, ruling that he has the authority to fire their regulator.
The court in a split decision found that the leadership structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency was unconstitutional because of a provision that the president could only remove its director for cause, not at willThe widely anticipated decision mirrored the court's ruling on the similarly structured Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year.
Fannie and Freddie, which buy mortgages from lenders and bundle them into securities for sale to investors, stand behind about half of the $11 trillion U.S. residential mortgage market.in profits to the government since their federal takeover.