The U.S. Federal Reserve paid a record $46.1 billion to the Treasury Department in 2009 thanks to aggressive bond purchases and lending programs to help boost the faltering economy, which brought the Fed’s net income up 46.8 percent last year, reports Reuters. The Fed’s payments to the Treasury were up $14.4 billion from 2008 and topped all annual payments since the central bank’s inception in 1914. The Fed made the previous record payment of $34.6 billion in 2007.
The Fed’s $52.1 billion net income was also the highest in its history. Most of the income, $46.1 billion, came from the open-market purchase of Treasury debt, as well as debts of lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and other mortgage bonds and securities.
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