Russia has cut its exposure to US mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to less than $50 billion by not refinancing matured short-term debt, a senior central bank official told Reuters on Monday.
Russia held about $100 billion in US agencies Freddie, Fannie and Federal Home Loan Banks at the start of 2008, as part of its now near-$600 billion reserves, although over 80 percent of the holdings were due to mature within the year. "It's now less than $50 billion," central bank first deputy chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said. "We had short-term paper. They mature: you can refinance and buy some more, or you can not," he told journalists later, when asked about why the central bank had reduced its holdings.
Ulyukaev did not comment on Russia's holding in the US Federal Home Loan Bank System (FHLB). News of the reduced holding comes around two weeks after the Russian Finance Ministry said it was happy to hold the agency debt and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Russia had not made losses from investing reserves despite market turbulence. Freddie and Fannie - which together guarantee or own nearly half of the $12 trillion in outstanding US mortgage debt - have been hard hit by the fallout of the now nearly-one-year-old credit crunch.
The two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have lost billions of dollars in bad home loans, sparking concerns that foreign central banks may be less keen to buy US agency debt or even Treasuries. Less demand for US instruments would pose a further headache for the dollar - which earlier this month fell to a record low against the euro - thus potentially further increasing inflationary pressures in the United States.
China, estimated to be the biggest holder of US agency debt with around $400-500 billion, has yet to comment officially on the issue. A housing bill approved by US Congress late last week is aimed at bringing some relief to the agencies, making emergency money available to them if needed and setting up a $300 billion fund to help hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners. Shares in Fannie and Freddie showed little reaction to Ulyukaev's comments, both trading slightly higher on the day, but down over 70 percent since the start of the year.
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