WASHINGTON (AP) - A government report finds median pay for nearly 2,000 senior managers at government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exceeded $200,000 last year.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the two mortgage giants, also did an inadequate job monitoring pay, according to the report released Monday from the inspector general for the FHFA.
The median figure means that half the managers received salaries above $200,000 and half received less.
Those managers represent nearly 17 percent of the roughly 11,900 total employees at the two bailed-out companies. Compensation for senior managers at the companies cost about $455 million in 2011, according to the report.
The report also says the top 333 of those managers are vice presidents who had median pay of $388,000. That's close to salaries paid by private financial firms and exceeds pay for similar jobs at federal agencies.
SEC charges 8 ex-mutual
fund directors
Eight former mutual fund directors are facing civil charges after they allowed others at the firm to set values for mortgage securities and investors lost roughly $1.5 billion on five funds.
The Securities and Exchange Commission says the directors at Morgan Keegan & Co. delegated the duty to fund managers, even though directors are required by law to set values when market prices are not available.
Last year Morgan Keegan agreed to pay $200 million to settle the SEC's fraud charges that it inflated the investments' value as the housing market was collapsing in 2007.