Washington - Wayne Abernathy, one of the chief engineers on the overhaul legislation for embattled mortgage financing concerns Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will resign from that post at the end of January to work in the private sector.
Abernathy joined the Treasury in December 2002 as assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions, after serving on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee as Republican staff director.
He was also one of the Bush administration's top people on terrorism insurance. He spearheaded the administration's effort in drafting regulations aimed at safeguarding private financial information in the event of a terrorist strike.
In December, following a review of Fannie Mae's accounting practices, the Securities and Exchange Commission said that the mortgage concern didn't comply with two major accounting rules and asked it to restate its financials from 2001-2004, which could deflate its earnings by as much as $9 billion. The action forced the ouster of former chief executive Franklin D. Raines and former chief financial officer J. Timothy Howard.
