Freddie needs $1.5bn after housing losses

Freddie needs $1.5bn after housing losses
Freddie Mac will seek another $1.5bn from the US taxpayer after registering a comprehensive loss of $1.1bn, Reuters reports. The mortgage agency’s deficit is partly dues to a $1.6bn dividend to the Treasury, which owns an 80 per cent stake from its 2008 rescue of Freddie Mac. Freddie has so far needed $66.2 billion from taxpayers, paying $13.2 billion in dividends, Bloomberg says. Both Freddie and Fannie were also caught on Monday in the ramifications of S&P downgrading the United States, losing their own AAA credit ratings, according to the WSJ.