Freddie Mac reported Wednesday it posted a comprehensive income of $2.6 billion in the third quarter of 2018.
This income is up slightly from the second quarter this year, when the company reported comprehensive income of $2.4 billion, but still much lower than the third quarter of 2017, when it saw a comprehensive income of $4.7 billion.
“The third quarter marked another very good quarter for Freddie Mac, with comprehensive income of $2.6 billion,” Freddie Mac Chief Executive Officer Donald Layton said. “This continues our growing quarterly track record of producing stable and strong earnings, all while responsibly supporting the company’s mission and reducing taxpayer exposure to our risks.
Layton said as Freddie Mac looks back on its ten years in conservatorship, these results make clear that it plays a key role in reforming and improving America’s housing finance system.
The company reported its single-family origination volumes decreased by 6% to $231 billion. Notably, refinance activity took a hit too, falling 30%. However, Multifamily originations managed to rise 2%, climbing to $47 billion.
Through its credit risk transfer program, the government-sponsored enterprise announced it transferred risk on a total of $ 1.1 trillion in single-family mortgages outstanding.
FTN Financial Group Analyst Jim Vogel said the enterprise continues progress in transferring credit risk outside the organization into the private sector.
“Credit-adjusted capitalization figures fell in the last three months as a result, even as business volume increased. This is a positive for the years-long effort to implement credit sharing to protect US taxpayers but also highlights how dependent the current system has become on outside capital.” Vogel said. “If October’s risk aversion continues in the financial system, it will soon be time to track the cost of credit-transfers from the GSEs to other investors.”
The company’s net income came in at $2.7 billion for the quarter, up from $2.5 billion in the second quarter of this year.
The company will pay $2.6 billion dividend to the Treasury in December, based on its net worth as of September 30, 2018 of $5.6 billion. This will bring the total cash dividends paid to the Treasury to about $42.4 billion. The cumulative payments to date total $114 billion.
