Freddie Mac, the U.S.-owned mortgage financier, will return $2.8 billion to the Treasury Department next month, bringing its total payments to about $20 billion above what it got in aid after the 2008 credit crisis.
The McLean, Virginia-based company had comprehensive income of $2.8 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to a regulatory filing today. That compares with income of $30.4 billion for the same period last year, an amount that reflected a one-time change in the way the company accounts for tax credits.
"The level of earnings we have experienced in 2013 and 2014 is not sustainable over the long term," the company said in today's filing. "Our 2013 financial results included a significant benefit related to" the tax credits.
Freddie Mac, which was taken into federal conservatorship in 2008, is required to pay Treasury all profits in return for $71 billion in taxpayer aid it received. The money counts as a return on the U.S. investment and not as repayment, and there is no mechanism for the company to exit government control.
Freddie Mac's common stock, which doesn't trade on an exchange, closed yesterday at $2.21, down 24 percent for the year.
