WASHINGTON, DC—As they have every three months of profitability since the fourth quarter of 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sent dividend payments to the US Treasury Department this past Friday, with the cumulative total now at slightly less than $279 billion. This quarterly payment was different, though, in that the GSEs didn't pass all their Q3 profits—totaling $7.7 billion—along to Treasury.

That's because of a new agreement between the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the GSEs, announced this past Dec. 21. It grants Fannie and Freddie each a capital reserve of $3 billion under the senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements that have been in place since the two lenders entered conservatorship following the global financial crisis.

Prior to the amended agreement reinstating these reserves, the PSPAs barred Fannie and Freddie from rebuilding their capital buffers, which were expected to be drawn down to zero at the start of this year. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this past September that his department “expect[s] our dividends to be paid” until any future reforms of the housing finance system went into effect.