The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, commonly known as Freddie Mac, is an American publicly traded, government-sponsored enterprise, headquartered in McLean, Virginia. The FHLMC was created in 1970 to expand the secondary market for mortgages in the US. Along with its sister organization, the Federal National Mortgage Association, Freddie Mac buys mortgages, pools them, and sells them as a mortgage-backed security to private investors on the open market. This secondary mortgage market increases the supply of money available for mortgage lending and increases the money available for new home purchases. The name "Freddie Mac" is a variant of the FHLMC initialism of the company's full name that was adopted officially for ease of identification. On September 7, 2008, Federal Housing Finance Agency director James B. Lockhart III announced he had put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the conservatorship of the FHFA. The action has been described as "one of the most sweeping government interventions in private financial markets in decades". Wikipedia