Craig Phillips, once counselor to former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin during the first Trump administration, will join Freddie Mac as an executive vice president next week.
Phillips will work directly with senior leadership while overseeing external affairs and corporate strategy, including matters involving the government-sponsored enterprise's conservatorship, industry relations, regulations and broader marketing communications.
Both Phillips and
Freddie's decision to hire Phillips, starting Jan. 14, could be a short-term positive for Fannie and Freddie shares trading in the over-the-counter market, according to an equity research report Bruyette and Woods issued on Thursday.
"We think this announcement will be seen as an indication that the company is preparing for an effort by the Trump administration to privatize the GSEs," the analysts said.
Freddie's stock had risen from around $4.50 to closer to $5 per share at deadline late Thursday afternoon. Fannie's shares started the day close to $4.70 and also were approaching $5 at the time of this writing.
Phillips stayed with the Treasury only during the initial years of Trump's term,
His days in the mortgage business go back to the 1990s when he worked primarily at Morgan Stanley, expanding his role more broadly into fixed income over time. Around the same time, Mnuchin headed up Goldman Sachs' mortgage-backed securities trading desk.
That background gave both of them experience with the GSEs at a time when their role was more contained and the private market was more active, which could prove useful if
The Great Financial Crisis' housing market crash forced Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship in 2008. They've been tied to the Treasury with oversight from the Federal Housing Finance Agency as their regulator and conservator since then.
Trump has tapped Scott Bessent, founder of hedge fund Key Square Group,
