Few banks heavily exposed to GSE preferred shares: OCC

By John Poirier

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A few national banks have "significant" exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock with respect to their capital, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said on Monday.

"Only a very few national banks have holdings that are significant compared to their capital," OCC spokesman Kevin Mukri said, adding that the regulatory agency is monitoring exposure at national banks.

"They are small national banks with exposure to Fannie and Freddie preferred stock," Mukri said "These holdings are primarily in the form of preferred stock."

The Office of Thrift Supervision gave a similar estimate on Sunday. The regulator said less than 1 percent of its thrifts have "significant" concentrations of GSE stock.

At the end of the second quarter, the OTS supervised 829 thrifts with assets of $1.51 trillion.

OTS spokesman William Ruberry said the concentrations involve smaller thrifts.

U.S. banking regulators said a limited number of banks and thrifts hold "significant" exposure to equities securities of the government-sponsored entities, which were taken over by the U.S. government on Sunday.

The agencies, as well as the Federal Reserve, said they are working with banks and thrifts to develop ways to restore their capital levels which will suffer due to the plummeting value of Fannie and Freddie stocks.