Hughes was executive vice president for branch banking and CIO at Cleveland's National City Corp., where he oversaw 11,000 employees and 1,250 retail bank branches in seven states.

Hughes, 48, will manage information systems planning and development, which supports Freddie Mac's finance, investment, sourcing, servicing divisions and corporate functions. He will report to Joseph A. Smialowski, executive vice president of operations and technology.

Before joining National City in 1997, Hughes was a manager at Anderson Consulting, USF&G, Seer Technologies and Credit Suisse First Boston. undergoing a major internal IT reorganization; rather than building its own IT it plans to purchase more off-the-shelf systems, including its core loan underwriting system.