Saturday, May 11, 2013 / by Carlos J Higareda
Fannie Pays Back Taxpayers From Housing Gains
Fannie Mae announced on Thursday that it will pay $59.4 billion in dividends to the U.S. Treasury, helping to reduce the net cost of its taxpayer bailout to $21.1 billion, Reuters report.
A strengthening housing market has helped the mortgage giant to record a record profit in the first quarter this year. This also marks the fifth-consecutive quarter for profits for the government-sponsored enterprise (GSE).
In the first quarter of this year, Fannie said it had a pretax income of $8.1 billion, as well as an additional gain of $50.6 billion by reversing a write-down on certain tax assets, Reuters reports. A year earlier, Fannie had reported a $2.7 billion profit.
Since government regulators took over Fannie in September 2008, the GSE has received $116.1 billion in taxpayer funds.
Freddie Mac, which was also placed into FHFA conservatorship in 2008, has received about $71 billion in taxpayer aid since that time. By the end of June, it will have paid $36.6 billion of that back to the Treasury.
Source: “Fannie Mae to Send $59.4 Billion to U.S. Treasury,” Reuters (May 9, 2013)