Tim Mayopoulos spent a good part of his literal last day as CEO of Fannie Mae at the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., looking back at his nearly 10-year tenure at Fannie Mae and looking ahead to the future.
Mayopoulos has served as Fannie Mae's CEO since June 2012, and spent nearly a decade helping rescue the government-sponsored enterprise from the brink of failure.
Given that it was Mayopoulos' last day at Fannie Mae, he was asked to look back at his time at the GSE and the government's efforts to save the company and its counterpart, Freddie Mac.
Despite other prominent housing figures stating earlier that morning that the GSE conservatorship is unstable and undesirable, Mayopoulos complimented the government on its decision to bail out the companies and place them in conservatorship for 10 years.
But since then, Fannie has stabilized and is reliably profitable. And despite a growing push in D.C. for sweeping housing finance reform, Mayopoulos said the GSEs have already seen tremendous reforms in the last few years.
With Fannie Mae on good footing, Mayopoulos is stepping away and awoke Tuesday as a "retired" man.
But don't expect him to stay that way. He told the crowd at MBA Annual that he "loves to work," and after some time off for traveling, he plans to stay involved in housing, saying that he has an "abiding passion" for affordable housing and technology.
And Mayopoulos has some thoughts on those two matters.
While he acknowledged the debate surrounding GSE reform, he said the real debate should be about how we can make housing more affordable in this country.
Mayopoulos also said the mortgage business needs to look to today's technological giants as guiding lights for the future.
And with that, Mayopoulos left Fannie Mae and the mortgage business behind…for now.