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62 | TH E M R EP O RT O R I G I NAT I O N S E R V I C I N G A NA LY T I C S S E C O N DA R Y M A R K E T SECONDARY MARKET THE LATEST THE LATEST Freddie Mac Reports Another Profitable Year; Mortgage Markets Have 'Strong Momentum' The GSE has returned more than $98 billion in dividends to U.S. Treasury. T he FHFA's conser- vatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remains a controversial topic, and lawmakers and other stakeholders have often ques- tioned the ability of the GSEs to remain profitable. In February, however, Freddie Mac addressed these concerns full-force—at least for now—by reporting a net income of $6.4 billion for 2015 in the enterprise's Q 4 and full-year 2015 earnings report. Though 2015's net income was down 17 percent from the previous year's net income of $7.7 billion, 2015 was still Freddie Mac's fourth consecutive year of profitability. Freddie Mac's net income for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $2.2 billion, rebounding in a big way after reporting a $475 million loss for Q 3. "2015 marked another year of solid financial performance for Freddie Mac—our fourth straight year of profitability, although we did experience significant quarterly market-related earnings volatility," CEO Donald Layton said. "Our performance was driven by our progress in building a better Freddie Mac, as evidenced by continued growth in purchase volumes in the guarantee busi - nesses, including a multifamily record for the company. We're also building a better housing finance system by expanding credit risk transfer and efficiently disposing of legacy assets, and so reducing taxpayer exposure to mortgage risk." Freddie Mac's net interest in- come for 2015 was $14.9 billion— a 5 percent increase from the previous year—despite mandated reduction in the GSE's mortgage- related investments portfolio. Freddie Mac provided $402 bil - lion in liquidity to the mortgage market in 2015, increasing the total of liquidity provided up to $2.9 trillion since 2009 right after the conservatorship began. "The mortgage markets have strong momentum going into 2016," Layton said, "and we continue to focus on serving our customers better and fulfilling our mission to support the housing needs of owners and renters nationwide, including responsibly expanding access to mortgage credit." While concerns remain that the GSEs will eventually need another taxpayer-funded bail - out, Freddie Mac returned $5.5 billion in dividend payments to the Treasury in 2015. Though the yearly dividend payment to the Treasury declined from $47.6 bil - lion in 2013 to $19.6 billion in 2014 and down again to $5.5 billion in 2015, Freddie Mac has now returned $98.2 billion in dividend payments to the Treasury in total, which is nearly $27 billion more than the $71.3 billion bailout it re - ceived in 2008. The amount paid to the Treasury includes the Q1 2016 obligation of $1.7 billion. In 2015, Freddie Mac trans- ferred a portion of credit risk on approximately $180 billion in mortgages—about $30 bil- lion more than in 2014. The Legacy Asset portfolio declined to 16 percent of credit guarantee portfolio in 2015, compared to 20 percent in 2014. The seri - ous delinquency rate on loans backed by Freddie Mac fell to 1.32 percent as of the end of 2015, down from 1.88 percent at the end of the previous year. Freddie Mac also completed nonperform - ing loans sales with an aggregate unpaid principal balance (UPB) of approximately $2.9 billion, after completing sales of loans with slightly more than $500 million in UPB the previous year.