Fannie Mae designation on credit report?

January 10, 2009 5:41 PM

Why does my credit report list our mortgage as a Fannie Mae account?

As part of the kickoff to the Year Of Paying Cash And Not Screwing Up (yay), I pulled our credit reports from Equifax tonight. We've had a conventional, 30-year mortgage with GMAC (no PMI) since 2003. In the comments under our GMAC listing, it says "Fannie Mae account." Just curious, why would that be worth noting? I don't remember seeing it on prior reports, but maybe Fannie just wasn't on my radar screen before.

And on a side note, does anyone know what would happen to mortgagees if GMAC doesn't survive its restructuring?

(I think I felt better when I wasn't paying close attention to stuff like this.)

posted by Sweetie Darling to Work & Money (4 answers total)

I'm no mortgage pro, but it sounds like GMAC sold your mortgage to Fannie Mae, so they are now the beneficiary of the trust deed on your house, not GMAC any more (assuming you don't have a true mortgage), and they also now hold the promissory note on the house.

If this is correct, GMAC sold the note to Fannie to recapitalize its reserves and make new loans to new people.

Whoever holds them, mortgages are assets of the note holder that are disposed of in bankruptcy. If GMAC blows up, chances are some snake of a company will pick up your mortgage note for pennies on the dollar and life will go on. Occasionally one hears stories of a borrower being able to buy back his own note at a similar discount, but this is rare; mortgage companies hire mortgage servicers to insulate the end-consumer from the realities of the biz.
posted by troy at 6:06 PM on January 10, 2009

Collateralized Mortgage Obligation (CMO)

Happy reading!
posted by purephase at 6:19 PM on January 10, 2009

This sale may go unnoticed by the borrower, who still writes checks to the original mortgagee, if Fannie Mae has a contract with it to service the mortgage, including processing the payments.
posted by megatherium at 3:41 AM on January 11, 2009

Thanks, all. No longer curious. (Wow, purephase, that was numbing reading.)
posted by Sweetie Darling at 7:14 PM on January 13, 2009