Mortgages at risk in deregulation

The Trump administration’s urgency to free Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from federal control has some on Wall Street worried that it might happen without the U.S. government providing an explicit backstop of the companies’ $4.7 trillion of mortgage securities. Credit rating companies, financial firms and even real estate agents claim that such a move would be a disaster. They’re warning that ending Fannie and Freddie’s conservatorships absent a clear guarantee of their securities might prompt big asset managers to curtail their bond buying. That in turn could dry up some of the financing that keeps the mortgage market humming, making it harder and more expensive for consumers to get home loans, they say. An explicit guarantee can only be provided by Congress, which has failed for more than a decade to agree on a fix for Fannie and Freddie.

Telecom deal nears approval

The Justice Department is moving closer to approving T-Mobile’s $26 billion merger with Sprint, but only if the companies sell multiple assets to create a new wireless competitor, according to three people familiar with the plan. If such an arrangement is approved, it could weaken an effort by attorneys general from nine states and the District of Columbia to halt the blockbuster deal with a suit that they filed this week. The department is pushing T-Mobile and Sprint to sell a prepaid mobile service and valuable radio frequencies that carry data to wireless devices, the people said. The companies have approached three internet and television providers — Dish Network, Charter and Altice — about buying Boost Mobile, a prepaid service owned by Sprint, and airwaves owned by Sprint, one of the people said. A settlement between the companies and federal regulators could be completed in the next week, the three people said.