Fannie Mae accounting review sees more errors

WASHINGTON -- Still more errors have turned up in Fannie Mae's government-ordered review of its accounting, the mortgage giant disclosed yesterday. It also said it doesn't expect the review to be finished before the second half of the year.

The government-sponsored company, which finances one of every five home loans in the United States, said it had found accounting errors in addition to those it disclosed on March 13.

Fannie Mae said it will miss a regulatory deadline today for filing its financial report for the first quarter.

Federal regulators in 2004 accused Fannie Mae of serious accounting problems and earnings manipulation to meet Wall Street targets, and the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the company to restate earnings back to 2001 -- a correction expected to reach an estimated $11 billion. The Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation.

The company also has said it expects an internal report to show that its financial controls remained insufficient as recently as the end of last year. The company's CEO, Daniel Mudd, said in a conference call: ''We've made progress. We've got some more to do."