WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Reserve Banks provided about 78.4 billion dollars for the Treasury in 2010, the largest amount in the Fed's history, the Federal Reserve announced on Monday.

The payments to the Treasury for 2010 increased by 31.0 billion dollars from 2009's level, which was the previous record.

The Fed said that the increase was due primarily to the rising interest income earned on securities acquired through open market operations during 2010.

The Fed in total purchased 1.4 trillion dollars of mortgage-backed securities and mortgage debt as well as 300 billion dollars of government debt in order to fight the financial crisis. Last November, the Fed still decided to buy another 600 billion dollars worth of Treasury to boost the weak economy. However, this program was criticized by Europe and many other countries around the world.

The figures provided by the Fed on Monday are preliminary unaudited results. The final results will be released later this year.