4Q Loss, Interim CEO for Freddie

Freddie Mac said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter net loss narrowed 5.7% from the third quarter, to $23.9 billion.

The McLean, Va., government-sponsored enterprise also said it had named John Koskinen, its nonexecutive chairman, to be the interim chief executive. Koskinen will succeed David Moffett, who said last week that he plans to resign by Friday.

The fourth-quarter loss was driven by $13.3 billion of mark-to-market losses, $7.2 billion of credit expenses, $7.5 billion of securities impairments and $8.3 billion of charges against deferred tax assets. Freddie had lost $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The GSE said its regulator and conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, had requested $30.8 billion from the Treasury Department under the backstop arrangement established when Freddie was seized in September. It had estimated in January that it would need $30 billion to $35 billion.

The shareholder equity deficit on which the request is based included unrealized losses on available-for-sale securities.

With the additional funds, the government will own $45.6 billion of preferred stock in Freddie, generating annual dividends of about $4.6 billion.

Freddie's credit expenses increased 20% from the third quarter. The GSE said it expects the provision to "remain high" this year.

Koskinen has been Freddie's nonexecutive chairman since the GSE was put into conservatorship. He has been a director since 2006.

Before taking the chairmanship, he was the president of the U.S. Soccer Foundation. Earlier he was a deputy mayor and city administrator in Washington.

Over the years he has also worked at the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Harvard University.

Freddie said its board is working with the FHFA to find a new CEO.

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