Delegation Makes Freddie Program Closer to Fannie's.(Freddie Mac grants Centerline Capital Group full mortgage underwriting authority)

Three years after it started sharing the risk of multifamily mortgages with a handful of lenders, Freddie Mac is delegating full underwriting authority to one of them.

The delegation is another step by the government-sponsored enterprise in the direction that Fannie Mae has taken for nearly 20 years. Lenders said Freddie has narrowed Fannie's lead in the apartment-finance business by aping some risk-sharing practices. However, until recently Freddie was unwilling to trust its lenders' judgment as much as Fannie did about credit decisions.

Kim Griffin, Freddie's vice president of multifamily affordable sales and investments, said that this month it gave …