conservatorship

The mortgage finance giant, now under government conservatorship, recorded the loss as it wrote down a tax-related asset that had buoyed its capital and the housing slump worsened.

The record loss is the fifth consecutive quarterly loss for the mortgage insurance giant, which has been operating under a government conservatorship since September.

The U.S. Treasury put the flailing mortgage companies under federal conservatorship on Sunday.

The government informed the two mortgage-finance companies that it is preparing a plan to seize them and place them in a conservatorship, officials and executives said.