Steven Mnuchin, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Treasury Secretary, said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should leave government control and that the incoming administration “will get it done reasonably fast.”

The comments, which came in an interview on Fox Business, sent shares of the mortgage-finance giants soaring in early trading Wednesday. Fannie Mae jumped as much as 29 percent and Freddie Mac rose as much as 27 percent.

Mnuchin in the interview said that government ownership of the companies displaces private mortgage lending.

“We will make sure that when they are restructured, they are absolutely safe and don’t get taken over again. But we’ve got to get them out of government control,” Mnuchin said.

Government Control

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been under government control since the 2008 financial crisis. They send nearly all of their profits to the Treasury, and some private shareholders in the companies have been fighting in U.S. courts to get some of the profits, while also trying to persuade policymakers to allow the companies to survive.

Perhaps most important for shareholders, Mnuchin did not appear to mimic Republicans who have said that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be wound down or eliminated.

That stance could bring him in conflict with Republican lawmakers. Jeb Hensarling, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, in a speech earlier this month reiterated his desire to pass his own housing-finance reform plan, which would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac within five years. Tennessee Republican Senator Robert Corker co-sponsored a bipartisan bill that would also have eliminated the mortgage-finance companies.