Fannie Mae seeks $15.2B in US aid after 4Q loss

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fannie Mae said Thursday it needs $15.2 billion in government aid -- though that figure is expected to grow -- because it lost nearly $59 billion last year as the foreclosure crisis mushroomed.

The Washington-based mortgage finance company hemorrhaged $25.2 billion, or $4.47 per share, in the fourth quarter. That compares with a loss of $3.6 billion, or $3.80 a share, in the year-ago period.

Fannie's net worth -- the value of its assets minus the value of its liabilities -- fell below zero at the end of the quarter, forcing the company to request funding from the government for the first time.

The government seized control of Fannie Mae and its sibling Freddie Mac in September and last week doubled their lifelines to $200 billion each to guarantee they would never fail.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the increase in cash is "not a judgment about the expected losses ahead. It's just a way to make sure people understand that they will be able to play this role going forward."

But the year-end results were just "the same sources of bad news, just with bigger numbers," to debt analyst Jim Vogel of FTN Financial in Memphis, Tenn., who still doubts Fannie will exceed the new $200 billion safety net.

Fannie Mae said its fourth-quarter loss was driven by $12 billion in credit losses due to declining housing market conditions, $12.3 billion in losses on derivatives and $4.6 billion in writedowns of the value of its mortgage-backed securities.

"We expect economic conditions and falling home prices to continue to negatively affect our credit performance in 2009, which will cause our credit losses to increase," Fannie Mae said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

If the recession deepens, the company said, "more borrowers will be unable to make their monthly mortgage payments, resulting in increased delinquencies and defaults, sharper declines in home prices and higher credit losses."

Freddie Mac has said it's likely to require as much as $35 billion in federal support on top of the $13.8 billion it received last year.

Taken together, Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee almost 31 million home loans worth about $5.5 trillion. That's more than half of all U.S home mortgages.

Delinquent loans rose to 2.4 percent of all single-family loans -- more than double the level of a year earlier. Fannie Mae owned more than 63,500 foreclosed properties at the end of December, up from nearly 34,000 a year earlier.