Fannie Mae CEO Exits Abruptly as Trump Considers Taking the Mortgage Giant Public

by Keith Griffith

The CEO of Fannie Mae has exited unexpectedly as President Donald Trump weighs plans to sell shares of the government-backed mortgage giant in a public offering.

Fannie Mae announced the immediate departure of Priscilla Almodovar from the CEO role last Wednesday, naming COO Peter Akwaboah as the company's acting CEO.

Almodovar, 58, had led Fannie Mae since December 2022. She had been scheduled to speak alongside Freddie Mac CEO Michael Hutchins at a mortgage banking conference in Las Vegas last Monday, but the appearances were canceled at a late hour.

A regulatory filing shows that Almodovar will receive a $1.2 million severance package, equivalent to two years of her base salary, in exchange for releasing Fannie Mae from certain claims, which are not specified in the filing.

Almodovar did not respond to a request for comment, but said in a statement released by Fannie Mae that leading the organization "has been the privilege of a lifetime."

Bill Pulte, the Trump administration's top mortgage regulator and chairman of Fannie Mae, said in a statement: "We appreciate Priscilla Almodovar for her years of service to Fannie Mae, and we wish her great success in her next endeavor."

In March, Pulte fired Freddie Mac CEO Diana Reid and other top officials there as part of a broader leadership shakeup at Fannie and Freddie, after appointing himself chairman of both entities.

Fannie and Freddie are cornerstones of the U.S. mortgage market and ensure a steady supply of credit for homebuyers by bundling home loans into securities that are then sold to investors.

The two entities have been under government conservatorship since a federal takeover in 2008 during the subprime mortgage crisis, and are currently controlled by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where Pulte is director.

Since starting his second term, Trump has teased IPO plans for Fannie and Freddie, posting in May on Truth Social that he was “giving very serious consideration to bringing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public.”

President Trump in August posted this fictional image of himself ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, hinting at plans for a public offering of shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

In August, Trump posted a fictional image of himself ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange for the IPO of an entity called the Great American Mortgage Corporation. The image was dated November 2025.

However, the full details of the plan remain unclear, and industry experts view a November IPO as unrealistic, particularly amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.

No underwriter for a public offering has been announced yet, and questions remain about whether Fannie and Freddie would remain in conservatorship after an IPO.

In a social media post last week, Pulte said that an offering in late 2025 or early 2026 was possible, but that any decision on the matter would be up to Trump.

For homebuyers, the benefits of an IPO will hinge on details of the plan that have yet to be announced, such as what level of government guarantee Fannie and Freddie would retain postoffering.

Strong government guarantees would help keep mortgage rates lower, but a full privatization and release from conservatorship without the implicit guarantee Fannie and Freddie enjoyed before 2008 may send rates higher, economists say.

Trump in May said in a social media post that Fannie and Freddie would retain their implicit guarantees after a public offering, although the full details of the plan have not yet been made public.

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