Astoria Financial Corporation, New York state’s largest thrift, said late Thursday that it will write-down the value of its holdings of Freddie Mac preferred stock, taking a charge of $13.3 million for the fourth quarter. The charge will be recorded as a so-called “other-than-temporary impairment charge;” previously, impairment was recorded as an unrealized mark-to-market loss on securities available-for-sale, Astoria said. “The decision to reclassify the unrealized mark-to-market loss on these investment grade securities to an other-than-temporary impairment charge is based on the significant decline in the market value of these securities caused by Freddie Mac’s recently announced negative financial results, capital raising activity and the unlikelihood of any near-term market value recovery,” said CEO George L. Engelke, Jr. Astoria will report earnings on January 23rd. For more information, visit http://www.astoriafederal.com.

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