Freddie Mac CFO steps down

Freddie Mac, the second-largest mortgage provider in the country, announced that chief financial officer Martin Baumann has resigned.The company is still recovering from an accounting scandal, and recently announced that it would delay filing its 2005 financials by two months. Freddie Mac's president and chief operating officer, Eugene McQuade, will assume Baumann's responsibilities while the company looks for a permanent successor.

In a statement, Baumann gave no reason for his departure. He joined the company in March 2003 as executive vice president for finance after a 30-year career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He was named Freddie Mac's chief financial officer three months later.

The company said that Baumann's resignation should not affect its plan to release quarterly and full-year 2005 results in May. Freddie Mac's earnings have not been current since a 2003 accounting scandal resulted in a $5 billion earnings restatement and subsequent management overhaul.

Sister company Fannie Mae had held the spotlight until recently, with the release of a tell-all report on its finances followed by the admission of more accounting errors.

Various accounting problems at the two government-chartered institutions, which between them control the bulk of the American home-mortgage market, have led to a move on Capitol Hill to tighten regulation of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and a scaling back of Fannie Mae's controversial investment portfolio.

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