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March 5, 2008
Mortgage
Lending
name='1'>Countrywide Sued Again by
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>Trustee
U.S. Trustee Donald
Walton has filed a second lawsuit against the mortgage lender
Countrywide Financial, accusing the company of abusing the bankruptcy
process, Reuters reported yesterday. In a complaint filed Saturday with
the Federal Bankruptcy Court in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Miami
Walton accused Countrywide Home Loans, a unit of the mortgage lender, of
wrongly asserting claims related to the property of two
size='3'>Miami
who reorganized their finances in bankruptcy. The
w:st='on'>Miami
suit comes on the heels of a separate lawsuit in the
bankruptcy court in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Atlanta
accusing Countrywide of abusing the bankruptcy process. In the
size='3'>Miami
said that after a judge ruled that Countrywide did not have a valid
lien, it nonetheless pursued claims for nearly four years, including an
attempt to foreclose, causing unnecessary delay and expense. Countrywide
voluntarily dismissed its foreclosure complaint in October, the Walton
said.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/business/05lend.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='2'>North Carolina Regulators Fine Home Builder over
Lending
Ryland Group Inc. has
become the latest large home builder to run afoul of regulators for its
questionable lending practices, the
size='3'>Wall Street Journal reported today.
The
Carolina
commissioner's office said that the Calabasas, Calif.-based builder's
affiliated mortgage company, Ryland Mortgage, employed unlicensed loan
officers and charged borrowers excessive fees. Ryland has agreed to a
settlement in which it doesn't admit wrongdoing but will refund 850
buyers about $250 each and pay a $161,000 fine.
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>North Carolina Deputy Commissioner of
Banks Mark Pearce said that state examiners were concerned that Ryland
was charging excessive closing costs and other fees to recoup discounts
they were offering to home buyers.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB120468225954412349.html'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='3'>Commentary: Hope When?
A report issued Monday by
Hope Now, the White House-backed mortgage industry group formed to help
hard-pressed homeowners, shows that homeowners aren’t getting the
help they need, according to a
size='3'>New York Times editorial today. From
July 2007 through January, Hope Now helped 638,000 subprime borrowers.
But nearly 70 percent of them were simply given a chance to catch up on
late payments — a quick fix that means borrowers can easily fall
behind again, especially if interest rates rise. The remaining 195,000
borrowers received loan modifications. Hope Now did not specify how the
loans were altered. For those who owe more on their mortgages than their
houses are worth, rate adjustments may not be the best solution. More
than one million subprime borrowers are now behind in payments, and an
estimated three million could end up in foreclosure over the next
several years.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/opinion/05wed2.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print'>Click
here to read the full editorial.
name='4'>NAHB Calls for Housing Tax Break
As his industry suffers
under a severe downturn, National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry
Howard yesterday called for a tax break for purchasers of new homes to
help decrease a massive inventory of unsold properties,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>CongressDaily
size='3'>reported today. Howard said that Congress should consider a tax
credit for purchasers of new homes to help spur the market, where such
sales have decreased by more than 50 percent since mid-2005. The
slowdown has triggered some bankruptcy filings by builders and resulted
in layoffs within the industry -- 28,000 lost jobs for the sector in
January alone. Howard said that Congress should consider legislation
similar to that enacted in 1975, which provided homebuyers a $2,000 tax
credit for their purchases. That tax break was limited to seven months
to help provide a boost to the economy that was sputtering under a
recession and inflation. However, the plan does have its critics,
especially the trade group representing apartment managers, developers
and lenders. “The real problem in the housing market is not the
oversupply problem, which the home-buyer tax credit targets, but the
liquidity problem,' said Jim Arbury, senior vice president of government
affairs for the National Multi Housing Council. 'Investors have lost
confidence in the mortgage market securitization process and until that
confidence is restored, the housing market will continue to
suffer.'
In a related commentary
in the Washington
Post today, reports of the accelerating
decline in home prices should be viewed as good news because lower home
prices are the only real solution to the housing collapse; the longer
the adjustment takes, the longer the housing slump (weak sales, low
construction, high numbers of unsold homes) will last. While there is
about 10 months' supply of existing homes as opposed to four months' a
few years ago, the real problem is insufficient demand. By definition,
the 'housing bubble' meant that home prices got too high. Easy credit,
lax lending standards and panic buying raised them to unrealistic
levels. No one relishes evicting hundreds of thousands of families from
their homes. Eroding real estate values make many consumers less willing
to borrow and spend. The understandable impulse to minimize foreclosures
should not be a pretext to prop up the housing market by rescuing too
many strapped homeowners. Foreclosures and falling home values have the
virtue of bringing prices to a level where housing can escape its
present stagnation.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030402330_pf.html'>Read
more.
name='5'>Subprime Mortgage Lender Files Plan to
Liquidate
People's Choice Home Loan Inc.
filed its chapter 11 plan on Monday, saying that it intends to transfer
its assets to trusts that will then be liquidated, the Associated Press
reported yesterday. The proceeds will be distributed among creditors
with allowed claims, and creditors holding secured claims will be repaid
in full. However, People's Choice estimates that unsecured creditors
could recover 10 to 18 percent of what they are owed. According to
People's Choice, the assets it plans on transferring to the liquidating
trusts include stock, proceeds from lawsuits, cash it received from
selling its assets and assets that haven't been sold off or
abandoned.
href='http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080304/people_s_choice_bankruptcy.html?.v=1'>Read
more.
name='6'>U.S.
face='Times New Roman' size='3'> Trustee Attacks New Century's
Disclosure Statement
U.S. Trustee
Kelly Beaudin
Stapleton attacked New Century Holdings Inc.'s
chapter 11 plan, joining a number of the bankrupt mortgage lender's
creditors in saying the plan doesn't provide creditors with sufficient
information for a vote,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
The latest plan also seemed to suggest consolidating the debts of New
Century's various subsidiaries and affiliates without addressing exactly
how that would be accomplished, Stapleton said. She further pointed to
“a number of blanks” in other aspects of the plan, including
voting procedures and provisions for how to handle objections. A hearing
on the trustee's objection is set for today.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=48939'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='7'>Feds Prosecute
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Kansas
size='3'>Foreclosure Scam
U.S. prosecutors
yesterday said that Isaac Yass, 41, was arrested last week in Los
Angeles after being indicted in Topeka, Kan., on six counts of mail
fraud and six counts of aggravated identify theft, the Associated Press
reported yesterday. In the indictment and other court papers, the
government accuses Yass of operating a business called Stopco and
persuading people behind in mortgage payments to pay him a monthly fee
to stop foreclosure proceedings. Prosecutors said that he filed false
claims in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
face='Times New






Roman'
size='3'>Wichita,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Kansas
and
size='3'>Topeka
of nonexistent businesses that claimed to be part owners of the
properties and claiming to be a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Kansas
The U.S. Trustees Office in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Kansas
size='3'>estimates Yass stopped foreclosures on properties valued at $50
million across the country, with $8.5 million of that from bankruptcy
filings he made in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Kansas
the properties are in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Kansas
href='http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080304/ks_foreclosure_scam.html?.v=1'>Read
more.
size='3'>Bankruptcy Boom Has Law Firms Preparing
for Rush of Requests
As
18
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>companies with liabilities of $12.4 billion have sought
bankruptcy protection in the first two months of 2008, bankruptcy
attorneys and management and financial consultants are gearing up,
the Washington
Post reported today. The number of corporate
bankruptcies in the first two months of the year is twice as many as
those who filed in the comparable period a year earlier and with a debt
level four times higher, according to data from
w:st='on'>New
York
size='3'>University's
size='3'>Salomon
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>Center
the Study of Financial Institutions. “A year
or two ago, perhaps 5 percent of firms would say they're thinking about
adding bankruptcy attorneys,' said Jon Lindsey, managing partner of
Major, Lindsey & Africa, a New York executive placement firm
specializing in lawyers. 'Now it's about 85 percent.
size='3'>While there is evidence that large business bankruptcies are on
the uptick, smaller businesses are probably also in distress because of
the tightening credit market and decline in retail sales. Small- to
mid-cap businesses are more likely to have been capitalized by credit
cards or second mortgages, said ABI Resident Scholar
and
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Georgia
size='3'>State
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>University
size='3'>aw Professor
Williams
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030402770_pf.html'>Read
more.
size='3'>Alabama County May Have to File for
Bankruptcy after Rating Cut
Moody's Investor Services
cut the sewer-bond rating of an
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Alabama
that may be forced to file bankruptcy because of cash-flow problems and
the woes in the market for auction-rate securities, the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Wall Street Journal
size='3'>reported today. Moody's lowered its rating another three
notches to Baa3 on the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Jefferson
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>County bonds,
putting the rating into junk status. The $3.2 billion in bonds are
guaranteed by insurers that include XL Capital Assurance and Financial
Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. The county said last week that it
couldn't be sure that sewer revenues or other cash would cover
obligations such as debt service, and that it couldn't ensure it could
comply with terms of credit-default swaps. Those swaps can be
terminiated as early as Friday, and such a move would result in the
county making termination payments, further depleting its cash
position.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB120466111811011047.html'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Autos
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>
name='10'>Delphi
size='3'> Not Sure When It Will Emerge from Chapter
11
Delphi Corp., which for
quite some time had said that it plans to leave chapter 11 by the end of
this month, is now offering a vague timeline for its bankruptcy exit,
the Detroit Free Press reported today. The company said it plans to
emerge from bankruptcy, 'as soon as reasonably practicable,' indicating
that its case -- already more than two years old -- could drag on past
March 31.
size='3'>Delphi
loan to exit chapter 11 at a time when banks have tightened their
lending practices after taking hundreds of billions of dollars in
mortgage losses.
size='3'>Delphi is seeking a two-month
buffer by asking a bankruptcy judge's permission to be the only party in
the case allowed to submit a reorganization plan until May 31. A hearing
on that extension request is slated for March 19.
href='http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/BUSINESS01/803050323'>Read
more.
name='11'>GM to Shut Seventh Plant Due to Strike at
Supplier
The General Motors
Corporation said yesterday that it would close a seventh plant next week
because of a strike against a supplier, American Axle and Manufacturing,
Reuters reported. GM said that the company’s transmission plant
in
size='3'>Toledo,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ohio
expected to close Monday because of the strike by the United Automobile
Workers. The latest announcement will affect
1,300 hourly employees, GM said. All the closings mean that about 15,000
workers, or almost 19 percent of the blue-collar work force in
GM’s North American manufacturing facilities, could be laid off
because of the strike. About 3,600 UAW-represented workers in
size='3'>Michigan and
size='3'>New York
strike last Tuesday against American Axle, and the supplier said that
talks between the sides have not resumed. American Axle relies on GM for
almost 80 percent of its sales, and the layoffs show that the impact of
the strike-related shutdown is starting to spread across GM’s
product line. American Axle, which was spun off from GM in 1994, said
that it needed the UAW to accept steep concessions on wages and benefits
to keep production in the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>United States
size='3'>.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/business/05axle.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='12'>Tweeter Gets Chapter 11 Extension
Tweeter Home
Entertainment Group Inc. won four more months to control its bankruptcy
case as it sorts out the claims against the company, the Associated
Press reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge
size='3'>Peter J. Walsh said Monday that the
former electronics retailer may have through June 5 to file its chapter
11 plan without the threat of competing plans, a right that would have
otherwise expired Feb. 6. Tweeter requested the extension last month in
order to finish analyzing the claims against it and to reconcile its
assets and liabilities after a sale of substantially all its assets
closed last summer. The company argued that its creditors would only
benefit from the delay. Tweeter will now have through Aug. 4 to solicit
creditors' support for the plan. The previous deadline was April
7.
href='http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5591300.html'>Read
more.
Group Files Chapter 11 Plan
The SCO Group, an
embattled Unix software provider that was driven to bankruptcy by the
costs of litigating its copyright infringement suits against IBM Corp.
and Novell Inc., has filed its reorganization plan,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360
size='3'>reported yesterday. Under the filed plan, SCO would provide
full payment of both approved and pending creditors' claims as well as
distributions to stockholders. The plan also provides for the
establishment of a new board of directors and the future appointment of
a new chief executive officer. A hearing for approval of the disclosure
statement is scheduled before the Delaware Bankruptcy Court for April
2.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=48873'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='14'>Asarco Seeks Court Approval to Settle
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Missouri
size='3'>Claims
Asarco LLC has asked the
court overseeing the company's chapter 11 proceedings to approve an
environmental settlement under which the U.S. government, the state of
Missouri and others will get more than $70 million in allowed general
unsecured claims against the 108-year-old mining company,
Bankruptcy Law360
reported yesterday. Under the proposed settlement, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would get a claim of $37.5 million
for response costs at three sites. The U.S. Department of the Interior
and the state of Missouri would get a “joint, indivisible”
claim for $34.8 million, and Missouri would also get a claim of
$1.25 million for past natural resource damage assessment costs and
future oversight and maintenance costs, according to Asarco's
motion.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=48977'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=48977'>