Fannie Mae has reported an annual net income of $17.2 billion for 2012 and a quarterly net income of $7.6 billion for the fourth quarter of 2012, which is the largest annual and quarterly net income in the government-sponsored enterprise's history.
Fannie Mae attributes its financial performance primarily to ‘improved credit results driven by a decline in serious delinquency rates, an increase in home prices, higher sales prices on Fannie Mae-owned properties and the company's resolution agreements with Bank of America.’ Fannie Mae says that it paid U.S. taxpayers $11.6 billion in dividends in 2012 and has paid taxpayers $35.6 billion in dividends since 2008.
‘Our financial results improved significantly in 2012, and we expect our earnings to remain strong over the next few years,’ says Timothy J. Mayopoulos, president and CEO. ‘We have taken a number of actions since 2009 to manage our legacy book of business, build a healthy new book of business with responsible underwriting standards, price appropriately for risk and reduce uncertainty by resolving outstanding issues. These actions have helped to strengthen our financial performance and to support the housing recovery by enabling families to buy, refinance or rent a home even during the housing crisis.’