Browse by Tags

...He cites as examples appraisers, "fee hungry" mortgage brokers, and real estate agents who participated in putting home buyers into subprime mortgages they could not afford.

There may also be, as Lenckus puts it, an unknown number of "widget manufacturers" which bought various mortgage- backed financial instruments as investments that must now be devalued. This will impact the company's bottom line and provide an impetus for shareholder suits.

Even companies that did not invest in subprime instruments may be vulnerable...

Investigations into events surrounding the virtual collapse of the mortgage lending industry are expanding on a number of levels.

In addition to examining the general poor underwriting that appears to have formed the basis of the subprime crisis such as ignoring poor credit or inflating or failing to document income, prosecutors are also investigating how lenders may have defrauded Wall Street banks. For instance, did some lenders lie to Wall Street firms about...

RealtyTrac, Inc., a company that tracks delinquencies and foreclosures was reporting Thursday that the number of foreclosure filings in November was 68 percent higher nationwide than those in November 2006.

The U.S. House Judiciary signed off on Wednesday on a bill designed to help certain bankrupt homeowners stay in those homes. The highly controversial bill is yet another piece in a crazy-quilt of government and mortgage industry attempts to curtail rising foreclosures and stem the collapse of lending and lenders.

The bill changes the creditor-friendly overhaul of the nation's bankruptcy code passed in 2005 allowing bankruptcy courts to change the terms of some existing mortgages to the benefit of the homeowners.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo�s recently announced investigation of eAppraiselT, a division of First American reverberated throughout financial markets on Wednesday, contributing to a 361 point loss on Wall Street.

The huge sell-off was helped along by a gloomy forecast by Washington Mutual (WaMu), one of the principal actors in the Cuomo investigation. In a conference with its investors WaMu revealed that its short term fortunes were even worse than it had earlier predicted.

Meanwhile, the Cuomo investigation continued. Yesterday Cuomo announced...

A death watch was underway on Wall Street on Monday as investors and financial analysts waited for what was rumored to be the imminent resignation or firing of Stan O'Neal as CEO of Merrill Lynch & Company.

Mr. O'Neal, architect of his company's plunge into the sub- prime mortgage market announced last week that...

Looks like people are finally starting to take the mortgage situation seriously, and by people we mean the federal government and major industry players.

'Bout time!

There were several major and minor developments in the subprime arena this week that indicates that the people who can actually do something are now paying attention.

According to Sudeep Reddy and Michael Corkery writing in The Wall Street Journal, "The housing market is going into a deeper chill, and consumers are starting to shiver."

Other market segments that are closely, even loosely tied to housing construction and sales are beginning to report some distress. Monday, Lowe's reduced its earnings outlook for this year and...