
	The&nbsp;Federal National Mortgage Association&nbsp;(FNMA), commonly known as&nbsp;Fannie Mae, was founded in 1938 during the&nbsp;Great Depression&nbsp;as part of the&nbsp;New Deal. It is a&nbsp;government-sponsored enterprise&nbsp;(GSE), though it has been a publicly traded company since 1968.The corporation&#39;s purpose is to expand the&nbsp;secondary mortgage market&nbsp;by&nbsp;securitizing&nbsp;mortgages&nbsp;in the form of&nbsp;mortgage-backed securities&nbsp;(MBS), allowing lenders to reinvest their assets into more lending and in effect increasing the number of lenders in the mortgage market by reducing the reliance on locally-based&nbsp;savings and loan associations.
