Fed to send $76.9 billion in earnings to Treasury

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve said on Tuesday it would send about $76.9 billion of its estimated 2011 net income over to the Treasury.

That was down from a record $79.3 billion in 2010, and comes primarily from interest payments on securities held in the central bank's massive multi-trillion-dollar portfolio.

Each year, the Fed sends its earnings, minus operating costs and other expenses, to the fiscal authority.

The Fed estimated its net income for last year at $78.9 billion, down from a record $81.7 billion in 2010.

Through its conduct of unconventional monetary stimulus, which has been implemented with purchases of government bonds, the Fed has more than tripled its balance sheet since the start of the 2008 financial crisis, to about $2.9 trillion.

The Fed turns over profits to the Treasury annually and has never posted a loss. But it took a number of extraordinary actions during and after the 2007-2009 financial crisis that critics say may have left it with some poor-quality holdings.

(Reporting By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Kenneth Barry and James Dalgleish)

Corrects figures in paragraphs 2 and 4 to 2010 income and remittances to show final revisions.