If Herb
Allison is nominated to replace the
anxious-to-get-the-hell-out-of-Washington
Neel Kashkari as head of the Treasury's financial bailout programs, the
Obama
Administration also will need to find someone else to run seized
mortgage
securitizer Fannie Mae.
Allison has been president of Fannie since it
was
placed into federal conservatorship in September. He previously ran
TIAA-Cref and press reports indicate he will be asked to succeed
Kashkari as head of the Trouble Asset Relief Program.
Should
the White House embark on a lengthy search for another high-powered CEO to run Fannie
Mae?
Probably
not, says banking consultant Bert Ely, a long-time watcher of Fannie Mae and
sister government sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac.
Since being placed into
conservatorship, the CEO roles at Fannie and Freddie, which also is looking for
a new chief, have been greatly diminished,
Ely says. The individual really running the organizations is their
regulator James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance
Administration.
"In many ways Lockhart is the CEO of both companies. The formal
CEO would only be carrying out policies crafted by others," Ely says. "The job
now is one more of execution than policymaking and strategy."
Rather than mount
an extensive search for new number ones, Ely suggests promoting from within and
possibly combining the CEO and COO slots. - Bill McConnell
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