A growing bloc of Federal Reserve committee members favors selling some of the Fed’s $1.25trn in mortgages and other non-Treasury assets that were bought during the financial crisis to unfreeze credit markets and keep interest rates low, several Fed sources told CNBC. At least six members of the Fed’s policymaking committee favor near-term asset sales, which—if the economy keeps improving—could lead the Fed to announce a program to sell assets by the third or fourth quarter of this year, these sources said. While financial markets are focused on the language of the policy statement from next week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the asset sales are likely to be debated vigorously.