As part of Freddie’s voluntary retirement program, 700 employees have taken a buyout. Most are expected to be gone by the end of March.

According to court filings, beginning in 2016, the FHLB-SF developed a proposal for the bank to purchase one of the GSEs. To assist in the process, the bank also engaged the services of McKinsey Consulting.

The hiatus in the net worth sweep added $12.53 billion to the GSEs’ combined net worth over the last six months of 2019, including fourth-quarter profit of $4.27 billion at Fannie and $2.45 billion at Freddie. (Includes data chart.)