Fox-Pitt analyst says Freddie Mac, Fanni Mae insolvency unlikely

(Reuters) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can sustain pretax losses of between $85 billion and $141 billion without solvency becoming an issue over the next three to five years, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton said.

Concerns about the mortgage lenders were fanned after former St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole was quoted in an interview with Bloomberg as saying the companies are "insolvent" and may need a U.S. government bailout.

Analyst Howard Shapiro said Fannie Mae would need to see immediate losses of $40 billion and Freddie Mac $37 billion for their viability to be in question, which he noted was unlikely.

(Reporting by Neha Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Bernard Orr)