In what Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte termed “something big on mortgage fraud,” Fannie Mae said it has launched an AI-powered Crime Detection Unit in partnership with software firm Palantir. The announcement came amid further talk of listing shares of Fannie Mae and its counterpart, Freddie Mac, on a major stock exchange.
Fannie Mae has more than $4.3 trillion in assets and either owns or guarantees an estimated one out of four single-family mortgages in the U.S.
The Fannie Mae-Palantir partnership expands the government-sponsored enterprise's (GSE) fraud detection capabilities with financial crimes data science and investigations technology, the company said, explaining that the AI-driven software foundation “will power” the Crime Detection Unit.
The company noted it believes the platform will help detect and prevent mortgage fraud “with speed and precision never before seen in the U.S. housing market” and that the new Crime Detection Unit will prevent millions of dollars in future fraud losses.
Palantir designs and deploys artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tech used by government agencies and commercial clients. The technology monitors for “anomalous transactions, activities, and behaviors” to help detect suspicious activity and trigger investigative action.
“No one is above the law,” said FHFA Director and Fannie Mae Chairman Pulte in a statement. He added that the GSE’s new Crime Detection Unit “will increase safety and soundness by rooting out bad actors in our housing system.”
“This cutting-edge AI technology will help us find criminals who try to defraud our system," Pulte added. On a media call announcing the partnership yesterday, he noted the technology could also be deployed at Freddie Mac, if it proves successful at Fannie Mae.
Fannie Mae President and CEO Priscilla Almodovar underscored that the new crime unit and antifraud tech will allow the company to “look across millions of datasets to detect patterns that were previously undetectable.”
Potentially Publicly Traded Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
Meanwhile, as this announcement came of tighter antifraud efforts at Fannie Mae, there’s been more discussion of whether to again list shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a major exchange like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were removed from trading on the NYSE on July 8, 2010 — a decision that was made by FHFA.
The question on many economists’ and mortgage professionals’ minds is, what would happen to the government backing of the two (at least for now) government-sponsored enterprises? President Trump addressed that point in a post on Truth Social Tuesday evening, May 27.
“I am working on TAKING THESE AMAZING COMPANIES PUBLIC, but I want to be clear, the U.S. Government will keep its implicit GUARANTEES, and I will stay strong in my position on overseeing them as President,” he wrote.
The President reiterated that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “are now doing very well,” adding his well-known MAGA tagline.
FHFA Director Pulte again responded directly to the President’s post with one of his own, only in his case on X.com. The morning following President Trump’s Truth Social post, Pulte commented, “Thank goodness we have a President who cares and loves Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac!”
Pulte also went on Fox News to discuss the Fannie/ Freddie matter. “Now, what you have is you have mortgage rates that have skyrocketed,” he said. “What we’re trying to do … is take cost out of the system and get homes so they can be affordable again.”
He pointed to what he described as major housing affordability issues during former President Joe Biden’s time in office.
“The American Dream is what America is all about, and we’re going to restore the American Dream under President Trump,” Pulte contended. “There is a security for Fannie and Freddie which trades on what’s called the pink sheets [i.e., equities that trade through an over-the-counter, or OTC, market], but President Trump is thinking way bigger than that.”
