Fannie Mae turned in a quarterly profit, paid nearly $3 billion in dividends to the government and required no bailout funds for the first time since being seized by the government. Thanks to healthy first-quarter earnings at both Fannie and Freddie Mac, the government’s position in the two companies improved by more than $4 billion.
First-quarter profits before income taxes at the Federal National Mortgage Association were $2.7 billion.
The Washington, D.C.-based company swung from a $2.4 billion loss in the fourth quarter of last year and a $6.5 billion first-quarter 2011 loss.
“The significant improvement in the company’s financial results in the first quarter of 2012 was due primarily to lower credit-related expenses, resulting from a less significant decline in home prices, a decline in the company’s inventory of single-family real-estate-owned properties coupled with improved REO sales prices, and lower single-family serious delinquency rates,” Fannie said in the report.
Fannie Chief Financial Officer Susan McFarland projected that 2012 will see “significantly better” financial results than 2011.
No additional bailout draws were requested from the Department of the Treasury for the first quarter, leaving the secondary lender’s cumulative draws at $116.1 billion.
It was the first time that Fannie requested no quarterly Treasury draws since being placed into conservatorship on Sept. 8, 2008.
Over at secondary rival Freddie Mac, first-quarter profits were $0.6 billion, leaving the McLean, Va.-based firm requesting an $0.019 billion draw from the Treasury Department and leaving its cumulative bailout balance at $72.3 billion.
A first-quarter dividend payment of $2.8 billion to the Treasury Department brought Fannie’s cumulative dividend payments to $22.6 billion. Freddie has forked over $18.3 billion in dividend payments to the Treasury.
As of the end of the first quarter, combined Treasury draws made to Fannie and Freddie while under government control totaled $188.4 billion. Dividend payments from the pair amounted to $41 billion during the same period. That put the government’s net cost of conservatorship at $147.5 billion.
As of Dec. 31, 2011, the cumulative net costs to keep the duo afloat were $152.1 billion, leaving the U.S. government with a first-quarter gain of $4.6 billion.
Data previously reported by Fannie indicate that new business acquisitions climbed to $221.4 billion during the first-quarter 2012 from the prior period’s $207.4 billion and the year earlier’s $189.5 billion.
Residential delinquency of at least 90 days, meanwhile, was previously reported at 3.67 percent as of the end of March, down from 3.91 percent at the end of December and 4.27 percent as of March 31, 2011.
