Armando Falcon, ex-regulator for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, to advise trade group

Armando Falcon Jr., who once was the top government regulator for troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has accepted a position as senior policy adviser at the American Securitization Forum, a trade group representing firms that invest in mortgages and other securities.

The group's members include market giants such as Goldman Sachs and the investment management firm Pimco.

Falcon is chairman and chief executive of Falcon Capital Advisors, which advises about seven or eight clients including financial institution and trade groups. He helps clients follow legislative and regulatory developments "so they can just keep themselves informed," he said. "I don't do any lobbying," he said. "I might in the future, but I haven't done that as part of the consulting practice."

He said he is not registered as a lobbyist and declined to provide more detail about his clients.

Falcon will advise the securitization group on issues including the reform of the U.S. housing finance system, government-sponsored enterprises and regulatory policy affecting securitization markets, the group said.

Falcon was director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight from 1999 to 2005. OFHEO oversaw both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until 2008, when it was replaced by a new agency and the federal government seized control of the failing companies as the mortgage market collapsed.

During Falcon's tenure, both Fannie and Freddie were hit with accounting scandals and had to restate years worth of earnings, pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and remove several top executives.

"Armando has an incredible depth of experience," said Tom Deutsch, the ASF's executive director.