The bailout is likely to be required by the firms, as they struggle to raise revenue in the credit crunch.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - America's two biggest mortgage lenders - remain in financial trouble, a new report has suggested.
According to respected US financial journal Barron's, the firms will soon be forced into asking for bailout money from the government, as they struggle to shore up their balance sheets. An anonymous insider is said to have tipped the journal off on the situation.
News of Fannie and Freddie's fresh financial trouble follows the introduction of special legislation from the federal government, which guaranteed unlimited future lending to the pair. Both firms have been hit hard by the credit crunch and the subsequent decline in the US housing market, and have suffered significant erosion of share value.
The reason behind the government's strong support for Fannie and Freddie is their size. Between them, the lenders hold around $2.5 trillion of America's mortgage debt, more than half the national total.
This means that the consequences of the lenders collapsing would be catastrophic for the US economy, and therefore would have massive knock-on effects abroad.
Shares in Freddie and Fannie fell by 25 and 22 percent respectively yesterday, with the release of the Barron's report. The Dow Jones industrial average also dropped 1.55 percent.
Commenting on the falls to the BBC, John Merrill at Tanglewood Wealth Management commented: "The degree and depth of what's happening in the financial industry is beyond anything we've seen in decades and it takes time to get your arms around the severity of what's happening and what the long-term and short-term ramifications are."
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