Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s federal regulator is renegotiating the companies’ financing plan with the US Treasury Department and may seek an increase to their $400bn federal lifeline before the end of the year, according to people familiar with the talks.

Treasury and Federal Housing Finance Agency officials are also debating whether to lower the cost of the companies’ dividend payments on their borrowings from Treasury, according to these people, who requested not to be identified describing the internal deliberations.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest sources of mortgage money in the US, have used $111.6bn of their $400bn in backup financing in less than a year.

bloomberg.com