securitization. This has allowed primary market debt issuers to increase loan volume and decrease the risks associated with individual loans. This also provides standardized instruments (securitized securities) for investors. Ownership and implicit guarantee Some of the GSEs (such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) have been privately owned but publicly chartered; others, such as the Federal Home Loan Banks, are owned by the corporations that use their services. GSE securities carry no explicit government guarantee of creditworthiness, but lenders grant them favorable interest rates, and the buyers of their securities offer them high prices. This is partly due to an "implicit guarantee" that the government would not allow such important institutions to fail or default on debt. This perception has allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to save an estimated $2 billion per year in borrowing costs. This implicit guarantee was tested by the subprime mortgage crisis, which caused the U.S. government to bail out and put into conservatorship Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September, 2008. Every GSE prospectus contains the following text, or something virtually identical, in bold letters, and has since before the sub-prime loans were originated: "Neither the certificates nor interest on the certificates are guaranteed by the United States, and they do not constitute a debt or obligation of the United States or any of its agencies of instrumentalities other than Fannie Mae." Critics of the GSEs have challenged the "implicit guarantee" since before the sub-prime crisis. List of GSEs Housing The eleven Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) (1932) Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) (1938) Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (1970) Veteran National Veteran Business Development Corporation (1999) Farming Federal Farm Credit Banks (FCBanks) (1916) Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) (1987) Education SLM Corporation (Sallie Mae) (1972-1995) See also Crown corporations of Canada — Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Danish mortgage market Ginnie Mae State-Owned Enterprise Government-owned corporation Independent agencies of the United States government Nationalization Public Sector Undertaking (Indian state enterprise) Public company (public corporation) Public ownership Quasi-corporation SLM Corporation, also known as Sallie Mae, a former GSE State-Owned Enterprises of New Zealand State-owned enterprises of the United States Statsforetak (Norwegian state enterprise) Unitary Enterprise (Russian state enterprise) Volkseigener Betrieb (East German state enterprise) References External links Investopedia Definition of Government-Sponsored Enterprise - GSE Fannie Mae Freddie Mac FHL Bank System Farmer Mac OFHEO - regulator of Fannie Mae and