Washington - Fannie Mae, the recently-nationalized US mortgage lender has posted a record quarterly loss on Monday, after writing down assets by some 21 billion dollars in the wake of the collapse of the US housing and credit markets.

The total loss for the quarter was 29 billion dollars, or 13 dollars per share. Fannie Mae, the largest mortgage lender in the US, had warned of serious losses since its takeover by the US government in September.

The lender's net loss in the same quarter of 2007 was 1.4 billion dollars. (dpa)