Fannie Mae said on Friday it would soon send the U.S. Treasury $7.2 billion, a profit-related dividend that makes taxpayers whole for the 2008 bailout of the mortgage-financing giant and its sibling company Freddie Mac.
Unlike other companies rescued by taxpayers during the financial crisis, however, the firms will remain under government control until Congress winds them down or replaces them.
The bailout terms for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac force them to turn over their profits to the Treasury in the form of dividends on the controlling stake the government took when it bailed them out. They cannot repurchase the government’s share.
In announcing the payment, Fannie Mae said it posted net income of $6.5 billion for the three-month period that ended December 31. It was the company’s eighth straight quarterly profit.
For 2013 as a whole, its net income was a record $84.0 billion, helped by a recovery in the housing market and some tax-related windfalls. That compares to its previous record profit of $17.2 billion a year earlier.
"We expect to remain profitable for the foreseeable future," Fannie Mae President and Chief Executive Officer Timothy Mayopoulos said on a call with reporters. "Our annual earnings will remain strong and healthy … nonetheless we also expect they will be substantially lower than in 2013."
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last year benefited from a recovering market that lifted home prices and kept a lid on loan defaults. Their return to profitability also allowed them to reverse write-downs of certain tax-related assets, which led to large one-time windfalls.
The duo, which own or guarantee 60 percent of all U.S. home loans, were seized by the government as mortgage losses threatened their solvency.
Officials felt they could not let the companies collapse because they played a role that was too important, providing liquidity to the mortgage market by buying loans from lenders and repackaging them as securities for investors.
They also feared a failure to honor the guarantees the companies made on loans would lead to an even deeper crisis.
Before returning to the black last year, Fannie Mae had suffered five years of losses totaling $164 billion, and it had drawn $116.1 billion in taxpayer aid.
Freddie Mac, which lost $94 billion between 2007 and 2011 before it turned things around, was supported by $71.3 billion in bailout funds. While Freddie Mac has yet to report fourth quarter results, it has already paid $9 million more in dividends than it received in aid.
The dividend payment to Treasury by Fannie Mae means that combined with Freddie Mac, they will have more than repaid the government, paying dividends of about $192.5 billion compared to the $187.5 billion they have drawn for their 2008 bailouts.
To avoid having to rescue them again, the Obama administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have vowed to revamp the housing finance system and do away with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they are currently constituted.
"It’s good news for taxpayers that Fannie Mae is profitable and sending dividends to the Treasury," said Mayopoulos. "But I don’t think that our profitability should be interpreted as a reason for delaying housing finance reform."
The Senate is working on a bipartisan bill that would ensure there will be a government backstop for the market in times of crisis, an approach favored by the White House. A Republican-backed bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would limit federal mortgage guarantees more sharply.
Last year’s dividend payments are not expected to be matched this year. However, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are likely to keep paying billions to the Treasury, unless there is a sudden downturn in the housing market, Congress shutters them or lawsuits challenging the dividend requirement are successful.
Hedge funds, including Perry Capital LLC and Fairholme Funds Inc., have sued the U.S. and argued that if profits are being returned to taxpayers, the government’s stake should shrink. This would benefit private shareholders who would see the value of their shares rise.
Indeed, the sizable profits Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now earning have led some big investors to pile into the stock on speculation they could be spun off again as private firms – an outcome that does not have support in the U.S. Congress or the Obama administration.
In a separate suit, low-income housing groups are seeking enforcement of original bailout terms that demand some of the companies’ profits go into a government trust fund for affordable housing initiatives.
The litigation is expected to drag out for years, as is the congressional effort to remake the housing finance system.
Putting an end to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would likely increase the cost of taking out a mortgage, even though the White House insists that any reforms retain some government role to preserve easy access to the 30-year loans that are a staple for middle-class buyers.
