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Credit & Lending News Blog - April 08 ...


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Banks Cut Off Loans to Art Buyers ... April 24/08
The boom in the art market has been fueled in part by easy credit from private banks. In recent years, wealthy U.S. art collectors borrowed an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion from private banks and other financial-services companies to build their collections. The loans are often backed wholly or partially by the art itself... cont...
Canada Says Credit Shortages to Persist Until 2010 ... April 24/08
The Bank of Canada predicted tightness in credit markets until 2010, and said the shortages will combine with a slump in exports to the U.S. to cause the slowest economic growth in 16 years... cont...
How the mortgage industry nurtured deceit ... April 24/08
Here's the narrative we've heard about the mortgage meltdown: miscalculation and unfounded optimism, clueless investors, cash-strapped home buyers clobbered by rate resets. But there's one piece of the mortgage-meltdown tale that virtually every article or television program dances around without ever quite confronting. It's the story of the liar's loan.... cont...
Credit Suisse bank posts $2.1 billion loss ... April 24/08
Credit Suisse Group on Thursday posted a $2.1 billion loss for the first quarter as the global effects of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis continued to spread. Switzerland's second-largest bank said it also had net write-downs of 5.3 billion francs ($5.3 billion) for big buyout loans and mortgage securities. It was the first time the bank, Switzerland's second largest, had posted a loss in the subprime crisis... cont...
Further US Interest Rate Cuts Will Do Far More Harm than Good ... April 23/08
The Federal Reserve has played a major role in America's economic decline. Greenspan's “weak dollar” policy pushed trillions of dollars of credit into the hands of people who had no realistic prospect of paying it back. Now the banks are buried beneath a mountain of bad investments and foreclosures are at record highs. (In California 65,000 homes are now in some stage of foreclosure while the total number of homes sold in February—new and used---was a mere 20,513) Michael S. Rozeff explains the current downturn in his article “The Subprime Crisis and Government Failure”... cont...
Predatory lending or consumers' fault? ... April 23/08
Recent data reveals that the current housing crisis was caused by predatory lending practices as well as mortgage fraud. The dilemma in applying a fix is that a broad bailout not only will help those who were truly victimized by rapacious lending institutions but also those who knowingly took risks with such acts as falsifying financial records or the abuse of stated income loans... cont...
When ‘easy payments’ aren’t easy ... April 23/08
Today, Americans are born into a world dominated by debt, and the majority has no concept that there actually was a time when excessive home mortgages, automobile loans, school loans and credit cards did not exist. The pitch is: “Easy monthly payments!” Yes, but “easy” for whom... cont...
Lending Tree Says Rogue Employees Leaked Customer Info ... April 23/08
Lending Tree sent out an email this week letting customers know that its customer information, including addresses and social security numbers, was accessed by outside parties. Lending Tree doesn't think any fraud or ID theft was involved—instead, several rogue employees leaked passwords to rival mortgage lenders so that they could advertise their own loans to applicants.... cont...
BofA to stop offering risky mortgages ... April 23/08
Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday that it planned to stop offering some riskier mortgage loans after it finishes buying Countrywide Financial Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage lender. The changes affect home loans once common at Countrywide, which agreed in January to a $4-billion takeover by the nation's second-largest bank after borrower defaults soared and credit markets tightened... cont...
Payday loan clients to share $3M settlement ... April 22/08
Payday loan clients of The Cash Store Inc. and Instaloans stand to share in a $3 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit. Lawyer David Thompson of Scarfone Hawkins LLP of Hamilton said today he has negotiated the settlement, subject to court approval. The proposed deal calls for half of the money to be paid in cash and half in vouchers to borrowers outside of British Columbia and Alberta... cont...
Fed auctions another $50 billion to banks ... April 22/08
Battling to relieve stressed credit markets, the Federal Reserve has provided a total of $360 billion in short-term loans to squeezed banks since December to help them overcome credit problems. The central bank on Tuesday announced the results of its most recent auction … the 10th since the program started in December, where commercial banks bid to get a slice of another $50 billion in the short-term loans... cont...
Credit Crisis Changing American consumers ... April 22/08
The formerly unsinkable American consumer is taking on water, hit by high prices for food and energy, rising unemployment and fewer assets to sell or refinance. And with the household sector accounting for about three-quarters of the U.S. gross domestic product, an end to American shoppers' remarkable run will have a big and self-reinforcing effect... cont...
VisionBank sets sights on problem mortgages ... April 21/08
Mark Saliterman's bank isn't quite 3-years old and hasn't turned a profit, but the 58-year-old entrepreneur still thinks it can help fund troubled Twin Cities homeowners out of foreclosure. VisionBank of St. Louis Park, which Saliterman started in 2005, is rolling out a program to help homeowners who are in or are facing foreclosure keep their homes... cont...
Bank of America 1Q profits fall 77% ... April 21/08
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) today posted a first-quarter profit of $1.21 billion, a 77-percent decline from the year-ago period’s $5.26 billion, on revenue that fell 6 percent to $17.3 billion. Earnings per diluted share shrank to 23 cents from the 2007 first quarter’s $1.16... cont...
Credit crisis squeezing out students ... April 21/08
The credit crunch is squeezing virtually every part of the consumer world, including one group that can ill afford a shortage of funds: college students. As families are applying for college financial aid or are receiving financial aid packages from schools, they face a landscape of uncertainty and more effort to find funds to pay for their children’s education... cont...
Students Scramble To Get Loans Amid Credit Crunch ... April 18/08
Across the country, students and families are scrambling to pay college tuitions after several large corporate lenders pulled out of the student loan business this week. More big corporate lenders are pulling out of the student loan industry. The move puts added stress on colleges like Lasell, where tuition, room and board make up 86 percent of the budget. Four out of five students at Lasell depend on financial aid... cont...
South Florida banks' problem loans rise ... April 18/08
South Florida-based banks are showing signs of economic stress, with the number of problem loans on their books climbing dramatically from December 2006 to December 2007, a new report shows. The increase in past-due loans is a reflection of not only the worsening housing market but also challenges from the economic slowdown as even some solid companies are hard-pressed to keep loan payments up to date, banking analysts say... cont...
Canada's Housing Boom Is Over ... April 18/08
"Canada's six-year housing market boom is officially over," said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets." The Canadian Real Estate Association reported 75,476 homes changed hands in the first quarter of 2008, down 13% from the first quarter of 2007. In March, sales dropped 18.7% from the same month the year before, including a 39.7% slide in Calgary, a 34% drop in Edmonton and a 22.2% drop in Toronto... cont...
State Supreme Court Upholds Payday Lender Fine ... April 17/08
The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a $1.4 million fine levied against the owner of 14 payday lending businesses in Arkansas for operating the check-cashing outlets without a license. The high court affirmed decisions by a Pulaski County circuit judge and the Arkansas State Board of Collection Agencies... cont...
Two plead guilty in $35 million mortgage fraud scheme ... April 17/08
Two men behind one of the largest mortgage fraud schemes to hit the Twin Cities area pleaded guilty to mail fraud Thursday in federal court. Thomas J. Balko and Jonathan E. Helgason, co-owners of TJ Waconia, pleaded guilty to a three-year scheme that involved 162 properties and $35 million in mortgages... cont...
Congress moves to calm US student loan turmoil ... April 17/08
The U.S. Congress moved closer Thursday to putting a government safety net under the the $85 billion student loan market as millions of young people make preparations to head to college in the autumn. The House overwhelmingly approved a bill to direct federal financial institutions, including the Treasury Department's Federal Financing Bank, to ensure enough money is available to provide student loans... cont...
Wachovia to move away from option ARM focus ... April 14/08
Admitting that its plunge into adjustable-rate mortgages has failed, Wachovia Corp said on Monday it will abandon its emphasis on the home loans and instead focus on providing a wider array of loan products.
The fourth-largest U.S. bank became a dominant provider of "option" adjustable-rate mortgages when it paid $24.2 billion in October 2006 for Golden West Financial Corp, a Oakland, California-based lender and thrift...
cont...
Credit hangover will last a decade, analysts predict ... April 14/08
Talk about a hangover: While the current credit crisis may be resolved over the next few years, analysts at J.P. Morgan Chase are predicting its aftermath will linger for 10 years. Market structure and pricing will be impacted for at least the next decade as global financial institutions and regulators spend a major portion of their time ensuring the same mistakes never occur again, according to Jan Loeys and Margaret Canella, the analysts who wrote the J.P. Morgan research note released earlier today... cont...
S & L Crisis vs. Mortgage Meltdown: What Happened? ... April 14/08
Some of us remember the "the savings and loan crisis" of 1989 that swept across the country. Today we are experiencing a similar crisis, known as the "mortgage meltdown." How do these two events compare?... cont...
A Tougher Market for Student Loans ... April 14/08
With April in full swing, a rising generation of future college and graduate students is combing through financial aid awards and contemplating the five- and six-figure of student debt necessary to becoming marketable in the global economy. The effects of the subprime mortgage meltdown have extended to the student loan market, with recent failures in the auction-rate securities market squeezing dozens of lenders out of federally-backed student loans and making other lenders choosier.... cont...
Political and finance officials must take bold steps to solve the mortgage mess and credit crunch ... April 14/08
In critical economic times such as these, progressive thinking and drastic measures are needed in order to avert an economic disaster of historic proportions. The current mortgage mess and credit crunch have the potential of decimating the entire economy. It took the progressive thinking and drastic government measures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to pull the country out of the Great Depression.... cont...
The Madness of Ben Bernanke ... April 14/08
The dollar is in a tailspin, the trade deficit is growing and a recession is on the horizon. The American way of life is in serious danger. But the head of the Federal Reserve keeps on pumping easy credit into the system -- a crazy policy that will worsen the crisis... cont...
For first-time buyers, a falling market has opened a window of opportunity ... April 13/08
When Kelly and Justin Crosby first started looking at homes in Boston's western suburbs last year, they quickly eliminated Southborough from their list - they liked the large lots but prices were out of their reach. What a difference a year made. With home prices falling, the couple broadened their search and are now about to close on a split-level home on 1.7 wooded acres in Southborough for $84,000 less than its original list price... cont...
Townhouses' financing fiasco saps savings and shreds hopes ... April 13/08
To see what the national housing meltdown looks like, take a drive to Sandlin Branch, a modest tree-lined townhouse development on the edge of town. Since December 2005, 45 of the 112 townhomes have been auctioned off in foreclosure sales. At least seven others are being dumped at drastic price reductions as owners scramble to salvage their credit ratings. Banks that repurchased the mortgage loans now hold assets worth a fraction of their original value.... cont...
Senate foreclosure relief bill advances ... April 13/08
Under growing pressure from voters to do something about the nation's home foreclosure crisis, top Senate leaders agreed Tuesday to at least start with a plan that can win the support of both Democrats and Republicans. The pact between Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., ended weeks of partisan bickering over what to do about the crisis in the housing market and the toxic effect it's having on the economy... cont...
Ex-WaMu insider now an angry outsider ... April 13/08
Lee Lannoye was part of the innermost executive circle at Washington Mutual when the Seattle company was an industry wonder, strong enough to acquire a string of competitors and grow its assets from $6 billion to more than $200 billion. Now he's on the outside looking in, and he's angry at the downward spiral of the institution he played a role in building. He's also angry that no one has been held accountable... cont...
A new homebuyer headache ... April 13/08
Escalating home prices in St. George in recent years have made it much more difficult for many low- to moderate-income families to afford a home. And it's about to become even more difficult. Mortgage insurance companies, which provide coverage to borrowers who must have the insurance if they cannot make a 20 percent down payment, now consider St. George to be a "declining area" in terms of home prices.... cont...
FHA Say It Will Loosen Some Lending Rules ... April 9/08
New rules may help some homeowners avoid foreclosure. The U.S. Federal Housing Administration says it's taking additional steps to help homeowners facing foreclosure stay in their homes. FHA Director Brian Montgomery has told Congress his agency is loosening some of its rules to head off what some see as a looming disaster.... cont...
Subprime Mortgage Crisis: Nightmare of the “American Dream” for Black and Latino People ... April 9/08
Ozell and J.W. McBee, a retired Black couple, had lived with their three grandchildren in their South Side Chicago home since 1999. In 2006, they received a call from a “mortgage consulting” company offering to re-finance them into a mortgage with a monthly payment $100 lower than the $700 a month they were paying. But to get that lower rate, the McBees were told, they would first have to be refinanced into a mortgage with payments of $1,400 for two months. But then the mortgage company refused to refinance them into the lower monthly payments... cont...
Fed Weighs Options As Credit Crunch Lingers ... April 9/08
Having already bailed out the financial system with its rescue of Bear Stearns last month, the Federal Reserve is under pressure to expand its extraordinary encroachment into the markets even further as the credit crisis persists. But as the Fed wrestles with how best to guide the economy through the credit crunch, calls for a fiscal response from elected officials are growing... cont...
Who Will Bail Out the US FED? ... April 9/08
Whoever believes that the most recent Fed/JP Morgan heist to acquire Bear Stearns, along with other simultaneous and preceding Fed actions, were ”successful” had better check again. The current crisis is so severe, and it has already forced the Fed to reach into its own balance sheet grab-bag so deeply, that a very legitimate question arises, and the question is this: when the Fed ploughs all the way through its own balance sheet and gets to the bottom of the barrel, who will bail it out?... cont...
IMF fears near-trillion-dollar financial crisis ... April 8/08
Financial institutions could suffer losses as high as 945 billion dollars from the ongoing credit crisis, according to a gloomy forecast by the International Monetary Fund Tuesday that far exceeded banks' existing write-downs and economists' estimates. The IMF blamed a 'collective failure' of oversight for the market turmoil... cont...
SBA-backed loans drop 15% in S. Fla ... April 8/08
The number of loans backed by the Small Business Administration in South Florida dropped 15 percent during the first half of the fiscal year, as the national credit crisis reared its head in the small business marketplace, the agency reported. The SBA backed 1,786 loans worth $380 million through March 31, versus the 2,071 loans worth $384 million it processed last year at this time. Broward County saw the steepest drop in loan volume, down 27 percent ... cont...
5 Plead Guilty to Mortgage Fraud Scheme ... April 8/08
Five individuals recently pleaded guilty in federal court to mortgage fraud charges... Sharon Chamberlain of Pittsburgh and Ericka Stanford of Carnegie, Pa., pleaded guilty to one count each of participating in a wire fraud conspiracy. Stanford and her co-conspirators also submitted false documents in connection with the loan applications, including appraisals that inflated the true value of the properties, appraisals that represented that they were prepared by licensed appraisers when they were really prepared by unlicensed appraisers and employment and income verification documents that misrepresented the borrowers' employment status and overstated the borrowers' income.... cont...
Citi may write down another $17 billion ... April 8/08
Banks’ first-quarter earnings will deliver more bad news, reflecting higher loan loss provisions and lower revenue from fees. “Back in January 2008, there still seemed to be hope that the economy would avoid a recession and that the second half of 2008 would bring a turnaround for banks,” said independent research agency CreditSights in a report published Tuesday. “However, since that time, the first quarter brought another leg down in housing prices and equity market averages.”... cont...
Lessons from Japan: Prepare for 0% ... April 8/08
The prospect of a USFed 0% rate becoming a reality has been on my mind since August when the sub-prime news hit. In my view, the entire mortgage bond structure would suffer massive losses in a successive of waves, beginning with subprimes, extending to primes, and concluding with commercials.... cont...
WaMu To Exit Much of Mortgage Origination Business ... April 7/08
As HW reported Monday evening, the deal with TPG includes provisions that will see the Seattle-based lender substantially scale back its footprint in residential mortgage origination. In addition to a complete exit out of wholesale lending, the bank will also close its free-standing loan origination offices as it looks to refocus entirely on bank retail origination activity.... cont...
Mortgage Protection Legislation Introduced ... April 7/08
Senator Kevin O’Toole introduced legislation today that would provide greater regulatory oversight and consumer protections for mortgages. The measure also strengthens prohibitions against predatory lending. "This measure will provide fundamental protections for New Jersey families purchasing or refinancing homes," O’Toole stated. "Home ownership is the American dream, and we must take every possible step to ensure that it is safeguarded."... cont...
Bank of America creates business loan unit ... April 7/08
Bank of America Corp on Monday said it has created a new unit to make $5 million to $25 million secured loans to mid-sized businesses. The new unit will be called the Business Finance Division, and be part of Bank of America Business Capital, a unit of the second-largest U.S. bank by assets.... cont...
Loans for college harder to find ... April 6/08
The credit crunch is squeezing virtually every part of the consumer world, including one group that can ill afford a shortage of funds – college students. As families are applying for college financial aid or are receiving financial aid packages from schools, they face a landscape of uncertainty and more effort to find funds to pay for their children's education.... cont...
Senate Won't Let Judges Alter Mortgages ... April 3/08
U.S. Senate Democrats dropped an attempt to let bankruptcy judges alter the terms of mortgages Thursday, though that did little to strengthen the tenuous bipartisan support for the Senate's first significant attempt to address the housing crisis. The 58-36 vote to table the amendment was a victory for the lending industry, which vigorously lobbied lawmakers in recent weeks to oppose the measure by suggesting it would raise interest rates for all homeowners.... cont...
US Investment Banks Borrow $10 Billion from Fed ... April 3/08
Under the Fed's new primary dealer credit facility, investment banks borrowed $10.341 billion from the discount window for the week ending April 2, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday. Also, $92.658 billion was borrowed by dealers under the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF). The TSLF auction was held on March 27, 2008 and settled the following day. The TSLF lends U.S. Treasury Securities to primary dealers through an auction process. The loans have a 28-day term... cont...
Subprime Mortgage Problems: A Quick Through the Rubble ... April 3/08
The collapse of the subprime mortgage market in late 2006 set in motion a chain reaction of economic and financial adversity that has since spread to nearly all sectors of the economy, as well as to global financial markets, has created depression-like conditions in the housing market, and has led the American economy to the brink of recession. In response, many in Congress and the executive branch have proposed a number of new federal spending and credit programs that would greatly expand the role of government in the economy... cont...
Geithner Says Credit Markets Still Impaired, Urges Action ... April 3/08
New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner said capital markets are still "substantially impaired'' and policy makers and financial industry leaders must "act forcefully'' to stem the crisis.  "What we were observing in U.S. and global financial markets was similar to the classic pattern in financial crises,'' Geithner said in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee... cont...
Cohen Unveils Plan to Save Homes from foreclosure ... April 3/08
Assemblyman Neil M. Cohen, chairman of the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, today unveiled legislation he has crafted to help give the thousands of New Jersey families caught-up in the recent mortgage market upheaval an opportunity to retain their homes. Cohen's bill aims to directly help three classes of homeowner/borrowers affected by the mortgage crisis: homeowners whose mortgage interest rates are about to reset; borrowers who currently are in foreclosure proceedings and are awaiting issuance of a final judgment; and borrowers whose homes are slated for sale but who retain the "right to redemption" under the law... cont...
Wachovia Looking to Pull Back on Option ARMs ... April 3/08
A lender memo sent out earlier in the week by Wachovia Corp. announcing that it would no longer offer its infamous Pick-A-Payment loans might have been premature, but sources told Housing Wire on Thursday that it’s only a matter of time before the Seattle-based bank pulls the plug on its Option ARM product in key California counties... cont...
Overdue Consumer Debts Highest Since 1992 ... April 2/08
Consumers fell behind on car, credit-card and home-equity loans at the highest level in 15 years, another sign the U.S. economy is slowing, according to the American Bankers Association's quarterly survey. Payments at least 30 days past due increased across all eight categories of loans tracked during the fourth quarter, the Washington-based group said today in a statement.... cont...
Seniors Turning to Reverse Mortgages For Everyday Expenses ... April 2/08
Regular HW readers know that the reverse mortgage market has been booming as of late, for two distinct reasons: first, the greying of American baby-boomers continues, and for many, their home is their most significant asset as they head into retirment. But reverse mortgages have also been booming because so many former brokers and loan officers have figured out the demographics, and the implosion of the residential lending market has led to a mass exodus of sorts for many former brokers... cont...
Credit Crunch to Drag On Despite Efforts by the Fed ... April 2/08
Now that Wall Street has gone through its version of “Survivor,” it’s time for a reality check. The credit crunch is probably far from over and is more likely to play out like a mini-series than as a reality TV show. The root structure of the credit crunch stretches wide and deep. Many of the financial instruments involved are complex, unusual and difficult to value. Asset prices remain in a state of flux and the very players that need to be lending are the ones shoring up their balance sheets... cont...
Myers accuses Adler of being influenced by mortgage lobby ... April 2/08
Republican House of Representatives candidate Chris Myers charged that state Sen. John Adler, D-6th, took money from mortgage industry lobbyists and voted for their interests when making changes to state consumer protection laws. The Myers campaign issued statements Friday and Monday highlighting a Dec. 31 Wall Street Journal article about the mortgage lobby's campaign donations to legislators from various states. The article alleged legislators watered down predatory lending laws after accepting donations. Butera & Andrews, a lobbying firm founded by a former executive at Ameriquest Mortgage Co., donated $2,500 to Adler in November 2003 and March 2004, according to the story... cont...
Volatile lending practices place burden on students ... April 1/08
About 3,500 students who have federal loans will soon feel the effects of the currently unpredictable federal and private loan market as early as this summer, a financial aid officer said. Some lenders have dropped out of the loan market, causing students to seek different lenders for next fall, said Mike Scott, director of scholarships and financial aid. "This is the worst situation we have seen in the 10 years I have been working with loans," said Melet Leafgreen, assistant director scholarships and financial aid... cont...
First Direct Suspends New Mortgage Lending ... April 1/08
First Direct, a telephone and online bank owned by London-based HSBC Holdings Plc, has temporarily halted mortgage lending to new customers after a five-fold increase in applications, the Financial Times reported. First Direct has been swamped with applications since it introduced a two-year, fixed-rate, 4.95 percent mortgage, and competitors withdrew similar deals because of the credit crunch, the FT said.... cont...
Mortgage failures force Denver-area exodus ... April 1/08
Foreclosures are ripping through the rows of new homes in the flatlands where Denver turns to prairie. Every week, 10 more families here need to find someplace else to live. Six months behind on their mortgage, Dave Evans and his wife, Suzie, packed the contents of their modest blue house here into a rented truck one day in July.... cont...
Eight Steps to a Trillion-Dollar Meltdown ... April 1/08
No, it’s not the Great Depression, but the United States is facing a nasty economy-wide retrenchment following the excesses of the 2000s, with no easy way to dance through it. Think 1979 to 1982, when then U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker exorcised consumer price inflation from the economy. The difference today is that the inflationary explosion has been absorbed by prices of assets—houses, stocks and bonds, office buildings—rather than by the prices of things you buy at the store. Here’s how it happened.... cont...

 

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