Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance company in government conservatorship, said it will need $10.6 billion more from the U.S. Treasury after posting its third- straight quarterly loss.

The first-quarter net loss narrowed to $6.7 billion from $9.9 billion a year earlier, the McLean, Virginia-based company said today in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Freddie Mac, which buys mortgages and guarantees home-loan securities, has tapped $50.7 billion in Treasury aid since November 2008.

Freddie Mac and larger rival Fannie Mae have been surviving on government aid since regulators seized the companies in September 2008 amid rising delinquencies and foreclosures. In December, the Treasury removed a $200 billion limit on support for each company, extending unlimited backing through 2012.

The Congressional Budget Office in January estimated that direct U.S. aid to the government-sponsored entities could total $389 billion by 2019. Washington-based Fannie Mae said in February it would seek $15.3 billion in additional aid after a 10th-straight quarterly loss, bringing its total Treasury borrowings to $76.2 billion.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were charted by the government to boost U.S. homeownership by buying mortgages from lenders and providing a government guarantee of principle on underlying mortgages. They own or guarantee about $5 trillion in mortgage assets, about half of outstanding residential mortgages. The companies financed or guaranteed more than 70 percent of new single-family mortgage loans in 2009.

(Source: Business Week)