Federal Home Loan Mortgage - Earnings Call - Q1 2021

Transcript

Speaker 0

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Freddie Mac First Quarter twenty twenty one Financial Results Media Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today, Mr. Jeffrey Makowitz. The floor is yours.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for a presentation of Freddie Mac's first quarter twenty twenty one financial results. I'm Jeff Markowitz, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. We're joined today by our CFO, Chris Lown. Before we begin, we'd like to point out that during the call, Mr. Lown may make forward looking statements based on assumptions about the company's key business drivers and other factors.

Changes in these factors could cause the company's actual results to materially vary from its expectations. A description of those factors can be found in the company's quarterly report on Form 10 Q filed today. Mr. Lau may also discuss non GAAP financial measures. For more information about those measures, please see our earnings press release and related materials, which are posted on the Investor Relations section of freddiemac.com.

Our commentary today will be limited to business and market topics. As you know, we cannot comment on public policy or legislation concerning Freddie Mac. This call is recorded and a replay will soon be available on freddiemac.com. We ask that the call not be rebroadcast or transcribed. With that, I'll turn the call over to Freddie Mac's CFO, Chris Lown.

Speaker 2

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our call today, where I will discuss our first quarter twenty twenty one financial results. Let's start with our mission to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to The U. S. Housing market. Freddie Mac supplied $377,000,000,000 of liquidity to the single family and multifamily segments in the quarter.

Our funding helped 1,400,000 families purchase, refinance or rent a home, a significant increase compared with the $637,000 we supported in the 2020. Some key first quarter highlights include strong refinancing activity helped us to provide funding that reduced mortgage payments for 940,000 families. We provided support for 113000 time homebuyers, representing 46% of home purchase loans. And 77% of the 134,000 multifamily units we financed were affordable to families making at or below 80% of the area median income. 97% were within reach of moderate income families making at or below 120% of AMI.

Also in the quarter, we took further action to reduce the pandemic's destabilizing effects on homeowners, renters and the markets. We extended our single family foreclosure and eviction moratorium covering approximately 12,000,000 homeowners until at least June 30. We extended forbearance to a maximum of eighteen months for the approximately 230,000 single family borrowers remaining in forbearance. Similarly, we extended COVID-nineteen related forbearance to qualifying multifamily property owners for another three months to June 30. And tenants of those properties remain protected from infection for nonpayment of rent.

Overall, we helped hundreds of thousands of at risk homeowners and renters remain in their homes, while supporting a vibrant U. S. Housing finance system that remained a source of strength for the national economy. Turning to our first quarter financial results, Freddie Mac reported net income of $2,800,000,000 and comprehensive income of $2,400,000,000 increases of $2,600,000,000 and $1,800,000,000 respectively from the year ago quarter. These increases were driven by mortgage portfolio growth and higher upfront fee income recognition in single family, strong margins on loan commitments in multifamily and lower credit expenses.

First quarter net revenues totaled $5,300,000,000 an increase of almost 120% compared to $2,400,000,000 in the prior year quarter. Net interest income in the quarter increased by 31% year over year to 3,600,000,000 This was primarily driven by growth in the single family mortgage portfolio and higher upfront fee income recognition due to faster loan prepayments as a result of the low mortgage interest rate environment. Net investment gains were $1,200,000,000 compared to net investment losses of $800,000,000 in the prior year quarter, primarily driven by continued strong margins on multifamily loan commitments. The prior year quarter included significant spread related losses as a result of the market volatility caused by the COVID-nineteen pandemic. Credit related expenses were 400,000,000 compared to $1,100,000,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty.

This reduction was primarily driven by improving economic conditions in the first quarter of twenty twenty one, partially offset by a decrease in credit enhancement recoveries. Credit related expense in the prior year quarter was primarily driven by the negative economic effects of the COVID-nineteen pandemic. Turning to our individual business segments. As you can see, we have realigned our financial statements from three segments to two segments: single family and multifamily. In the single family segment, net income increased by 1,300,000,000 from the prior year quarter to $1,700,000,000 This increase was primarily driven by higher net interest income, which was mainly due to 22% portfolio growth and increased upfront fee income recognition associated with faster loan prepayments.

In addition, it was partly driven by lower credit related expense. New business activity of $362,000,000,000 increased on strong home purchase and refinance activity compared to the first quarter of twenty twenty, but declined slightly from the fourth quarter of twenty twenty. The single family serious delinquency rate of two point three four percent continued to decline from its pandemic peak in the third quarter of twenty twenty. We helped nearly 94,000 families remain in their homes through single family loan workout activity that increased from 11,000 in the prior year quarter, driven by completed forbearance agreements and payment deferrals primarily related to the COVID-nineteen pandemic. The Multifamily business segment reported net income of nearly $1,000,000,000 compared to a loss of $238,000,000 in the prior year quarter.

This increase was mainly driven by investment gains, which were primarily due to continued robust margins on multifamily loan commitments. Those gains were partially offset by lower guarantee fee income driven by higher fair value losses on the guarantee asset as a result of an increase in interest rates from the prior year quarter. The fair value losses occurred because most multifamily loans are not prepayable without penalty and therefore increases in interest rates generally result in lower multifamily guarantee asset fair values. We saw multifamily new business activity of $14,000,000,000 up 40% from $10,000,000,000 in the prior year quarter. The multifamily mortgage portfolio increased by 15% in the year ago comparison to $394,000,000,000 driven by new securitization activity.

The delinquency rate, which does not include multifamily loans and forbearance, increased to 0.17% compared with 0.08% in the first quarter of twenty twenty. Approximately 92% of the multifamily mortgage portfolio was covered by credit enhancements with loss credit enhancement provided by subordination. On the capital front, our capital position or net worth increased to $18,800,000,000 compared to $9,500,000,000 as of 03/31/2020. In summary, Freddie Mac posted solid earnings in the first quarter of twenty twenty one and continued to build capital while delivering on its vital mission to make home possible for millions of families. With that, thank you all for joining us today.