by Investors Unite
This morning, Freddie Mac / Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (OTCBB:FMCC) reported a $200 million profit in its fourth quarter earnings report. The company’s release noted that 2014 marked Freddie Mac’s third straight year of profitability and that it helped more than 14 million families buy, rent or keep their homes since 2009.
Freddie Mac CEO Donald Layton, in a prepared statement, commented: “We made tremendous progress in materially reducing taxpayer exposure to risk, increased market share between the GSE’s through improved customer focus and service, and making our operations better through innovation and efficiency.”
The company’s release also said that, in March, Freddie Mac will pay an additional $900 million to Treasury for a total $91.8 billion. This is $20.5 billion more than the $71.3 billion Treasury advanced it since placing the entity into conservatorship in 2008. Despite its success, the Treasury continues the reckless practice of the Third Amendment Sweep it instituted in 2012. The Sweep strips all profit out of these entities making them the only financial institutions in the world that can operate without an adequate capital safety net.
Freddie Mac and its counterpart Fannie Mae / Federal National Mortgage Assn (OTCBB:FNMA) have done a lot to strengthen themselves along with the market. Just imagine what that $20.5 billion could have done to strengthen and revitalize the housing sector. What a bureaucratic shame.
