Freddie to offset bailout payment

Published 2:11 pm Friday, November 15, 2013

WASHINGTON — Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance firm seized by the government in 2008 along with sibling Fannie Mae, is preparing to pay the treasury $30.4 billion in dividends after posting a third-quarter profit and will have more than offset its bailout costs, the company said on Thursday.

The upcoming payment, made possible because of a recalculation of the tax write-down it can take on its assets, means Freddie will have paid the Treasury Department $71.345 billion in dividends, the company said.

Most Popular

Freddie received $71.336 billion in taxpayer assistance and none since early 2012 as the housing market recovered.

Under terms of the bailout, dividend payments by Freddie and Fannie don’t reduce the amount owed to taxpayers for the bailout. But the payments, made possible because of the improving housing market, offset the bottom-line costs.

Freddie reported a $6.5 billion profit in the July-September period, the company’s eighth-straight quarterly profit. The company had a $4.9 billion profit in the second quarter.

Marketplace