Freddie Mac could miss November restatement target
Monday October 20, 6:50 pm ET
SAN DIEGO, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News), under fire due to an accounting scandal, could miss its November target to deliver the restatement of its earnings, a top company executive said on Monday.
"I can't say definitely that it will be done because the external auditors still have to do their final reviews and all that has to occur before we can release the information," said Freddie Mac Chief Operating Officer Paul Peterson.
While not offering a 100 percent guarantee to meet the latest restatement schedule, Peterson said Freddie Mac is "reasonably confident" that the nation's No. 2 mortgage finance company will make the November time frame.
Peterson was speaking at a press luncheon at a conference here organized by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.
Last week, George Gould, a Freddie Mac board member, told a Senate panel that he was "quite confident" that the earnings restatement, which has been delayed several times already, would be complete in November.
"In some sense, you can't ever be certain at all that it will be done in November because there are reviews that have to take place just like (it) took place at the end of September," Peterson said. "Still, who knows what the external auditors will find? Or what our own accountants will find in that review process of the final numbers?" he added.
Freddie Mac rattled financial markets earlier this year after it admitted to accounting irregularities that could force the company to upwardly revise its earnings by more than $4.5 billion going back to 2000.
The accounting scandal intensified scrutiny of the company and the other mortgage finance agencies, including Freddie Mac's bigger rival Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM - News) and the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) System.
Leading Republican lawmakers and the Bush Administration have called for stronger oversight over all three government- sponsored enterprises, including a new regulator that would fall under control of the Treasury Department. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are companies whose stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (News - Websites) . But they are congressionally chartered entities, set up to buy loans from banks and other mortgage lenders to provide the market liquidity for financing for Americans to buy homes.