WASHINGTON: The US government has taken control of troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, effectively wiping out shareholders' interest in the publicly traded companies.

The regulator of the two companies, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), will manage the two companies on a temporary basis.

The takeover is the second rescue bid engineered by the US Treasury Department in little more than six weeks, and comes as confidence in the firms' ability to keep operating amid a deepening housing crisis continued to erode.