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July 18, 2008
Filing Shines Light on Countrywide
Loans
An amended complaint filed Thursday by the California attorney general
related to a suit against Countrywide Financial Corp. sheds new light on
the poor quality of loans the company was planning to sell to investors,
the Wall Street Journal reported today. Nearly 48 percent of
nonprime loans and 21 percent of pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages in
that portfolio were in some stage of delinquency or foreclosure as of
April 30, according to the amended complaint filed by California
Attorney General Jerry Brown in state court in Los Angeles. Overall,
more than 21 percent of all loans in that portfolio were in some stage
of delinquency or foreclosure, it says. The new data provide a close
look at 158,000 mortgages that had been slated for sale by Countrywide
Homes Loans before last summer's credit turned investors away from
mortgage-backed securities.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121635098079464665.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news'>Read
more. (Subscription required.)
New York Minority Homeowners
Reimbursed for Discriminatory Loan Fees
The New York Attorney General's office said that more than $900,000 has
been reimbursed to 276 African-American and Latino homeowners in New
York who were charged higher fees on loans from GreenPoint Mortgage,
Newsday reported yesterday. The borrowers, a quarter of
them from Long Island, paid thousands of dollars more than their
caucasian counterparts, even when credit scores and other legitimate
criteria were ruled out as factors, investigators found after analyzing
federally required mortgage data. The loans, made between 2004 and 2006,
originated with independent mortgage brokers used by GreenPoint, and
these brokers charged more for arranging the loans for minorities, the
state agency said. GreenPoint stopped making home mortgages last August
and now only services them.
href='http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzmort175766564jul17,0,2496007.story'>Click
here to read the full story.
In related news, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on
Oversight and Investigations held a hearing today examining the
Government Accountability Office's report on Regulation B titled
“Should Lenders Be Required to Collect Race and Gender Data of
Borrowers for All Loans.”
href='http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/hr071708.shtml'>Click
here to read the prepared witness testimony.
Judge Approves New Century's
Liquidation Plan
Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey on Monday confirmed New
Century Financial Co.'s liquidation plan, two weeks after tentatively
approving the plan first proposed by New Century's debtors and their
unsecured creditors back in April, Bankruptcy Law360 reported
yesterday. Earlier this month, Judge Carey dismissed the last objection
to the plan from an ad hoc committee made up of beneficiaries of New
Century's deferred compensation plan. New Century and its unsecured
creditors' committee submitted its second amended joint plan of
liquidation on April 23. The plan splits New Century's creditors into
three categories: creditors of the holding company debtors, creditors of
the operating company debtors and creditors of Access Lending, a company
New Century acquired in 2006. Each creditor is allowed to make claims
against the specific debtors, with assets from each debtor group
distributed among creditors in each group.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/printview.aspx?id=62677'>Read
more. (Subscription required.)
Defrauded Hedge Fund Investors Sue
Goldman Sachs
Former investors of the Bayou Group, a bankrupt hedge fund, are seeking
$20 million from Goldman Sachs, claiming that the investment bank failed
to detect former Bayou CEO Samuel Israel's fraudulent deals, the New
York Times reported today. For six years, Goldman acted as the
prime broker for Bayou, clearing trades, taking custody of securities
and providing reports on the fund firm's investments. But Bayou's
creditors claim that Goldman should have realized something was amiss,
and argue that Goldman did nothing to investigate various warning
signs.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/business/18bayou.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
FDIC Issues New Deposit Rules for Big
Banks
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. yesterday issued new rules requiring
around 160 of the largest banks -- those with at least $2 billion in
domestic deposits and either $20 billion in assets or 250,000 deposits
accounts -- to adopt new procedures allowing banking regulators to
settle existing accounts in the event of a bank failure, the Wall
Street Journal reported today. The FDIC said the rules for big
banks, which take effect Aug. 18, will 'mitigate the spillover effects
of a failure, such as risks to the payments system, problems stemming
from depositor illiquidity and a substantial reduction in credit
availability.' The new rules for large banks will require them to
standardize the information they provide to the FDIC on deposit
accounts, and to put in systems to automatically post possible holds on
very large deposit accounts. Separately, the FDIC also proposed new
rules for how it determines the value and nature of claims against a
failed bank. The agency said that it will consider whether to make
automated sweep transactions at banks of all sizes ineligible for
deposit insurance. Swept funds that are transferred from insured deposit
accounts to nondeposit investment vehicles or accounts may not qualify
for deposit insurance, the FDIC said, though the agency said it would
defer implementing that change until July 1, 2009.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121632439187562885.html'>Read
more. (Subscription required.)
Housing-Assistance Bill Will Not Raise
Debt Limit
The housing-recovery package that is expected on the House floor
Wednesday will not raise the statutory debt limit of $9.8 trillion, even
though it will allow the Treasury Department to provide a line of credit
to beleaguered mortgage-financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,
CongressDaily reported today. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has
not scored the cost of the plan crafted by Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson that would provide a temporary increase for the line of credit
the two have with Treasury and allow the department to purchase equity
in the two. The government-sponsored enterprises own or guarantee about
$5.2 trillion in mortgages, though lawmakers do not expect the CBO
estimate to be anywhere near that number. Paulson contends that the two
will not have to tap the public funds because the legislation would send
a strong signal to the markets that they will be fully capitalized.
Lawmakers are expected to place some restrictions on the proposal before
attaching it to the housing package.
Lake Las Vegas Resort Developer Files
for Chapter 11
The master developer of the Lake Las Vegas Resort, a
combination residential development and vacation complex in Nevada, has
filed for chapter 11 protection citing a difficult real estate market,
Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday. According to court
documents filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of
Nevada, Lake at Las Vegas Joint Venture LLC has assets of between $100
million and $500 million and debts of between $500 million and $1
billion. The company said that it had received commitments for up to
$127 million in debtor-in-possession financing, pending court approval,
from a group of lenders led by Credit Suisse.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/printview.aspx?id=62846'>Read
more. (Subscription required.)
Fedders Corp.'s Disclosure Statement
Approved
Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon on Wednesday approved
Fedders Corp.'s disclosure statement, clearing the way for creditors to
vote on its liquidation plan next month, Bankruptcy Law360
reported yesterday. Judge Shannon set a deadline of Aug. 13 for
creditors to vote on approval of Fedders' liquidation plan, and a
confirmation hearing is scheduled for Aug. 21. In June, Fedders asked
the court to approve the disclosure statement, which it said would
distribute the proceeds of its liquidation to holders of allowed
claims.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/printview.aspx?id=62693'>Read
more. (Subscription required.)
Wachovia Securities Probed on
Marketing
In the latest sign of a regulatory crackdown on the
auction-rate-securities market in the United States, a team of 10 state
securities regulators showed up at the St. Louis headquarters of
Wachovia Securities yesterday to demand documents and conduct interviews
about the company's sales and marketing practices, the Wall Street
Journal reported today. The group includes investigators from
Missouri, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other
states, all of which are part of a task force of state regulators
investigating auction-rate securities and led by the Massachusetts
securities regulator. They are all members of the North American
Securities Administrators Association. Missouri Secretary of State Robin
Carnahan's office has also subpoenaed more than a dozen Wachovia
Securities agents and executives, seeking more information on the firm's
auction-rate-securities business.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121630723271962173.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Subscription required.)
S&P Considers Adding Volatility
As Rating Point
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is weighing a proposal that would
take volatility and credit stability into account when it determines
ratings, a move that could make it much harder for some structured bonds
to achieve high ratings and lead to further downgrades in hard-hit
bond-market sectors, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
S&P said in a statement that the proposed change 'is to more closely
align the meanings of its ratings with Standard & Poor's perception
of investors' desires and expectations in the wake of the high degree of
credit volatility recently displayed by certain derivative securities.'
It added that , if the proposal goes through, it would apply to new and
existing bonds and 'could result in downgrades of significant numbers'
of complex, structured bonds.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121625729362060515.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Subscription required.)
SEC Order Might Exclude Market
Makers
An emergency order issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission
affecting short sales in 19 stocks, slated to take effect Monday, could
be modified to exclude market makers [a firm who quotes both a buy and a
sell price in a financial instrument or commodity, looking to make a
profit on the bid/profit spread], the Wall Street Journal
reported today. The SEC staff said that the proposed change would exempt
market makers in the 19 stocks and their derivatives from needing to
borrow shares in advance of short sales 'in their market-making and
related hedging activities' in the stocks. Any changes to the emergency
order must be approved by the commission, which is expected to sign off
on the proposed market-maker exemption this week.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121634782213564427.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Subscription required.)
Citigroup Posts $2.5 Billion Loss on
Fresh Write-Downs
Citigroup today said that it lost $2.5 billion, or 54 cents a share, in
the second quarter, largely caused by $7.2 billion of write-downs of the
company's investments in mortgages and other loans, the New York
Times. Citigroup said that another contributing factor to the loss
was a weakness in the consumer market, which cost Citigroup $4.4 billion
in credit losses and $2.5 billion to increase reserves. Citigroup's
revenue was $18.7 billion, down 29 percent, mostly because of its
write-downs. In addition to mortgage bond deteriorating, Citigroup was
hurt by a drop in the credit quality of companies that reinsure its
bonds.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/19citi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
JPMorgan Reports a Drop of 53
Percent in Quarterly Net
JPMorgan Chase said yesterday that its second-quarter income dropped 53
percent, as credit card and home loan losses spread to borrowers with
the strongest credit histories, the New York Times reported
today. The bank set aside an additional $1.3 billion to cover future
loan losses as the housing market and the economy worsen. JPMorgan
marked down the value of unsold buyout loans and complex mortgage
investments by about $1.1 billion. The company also said that it would
take about a $540 million charge to cover the first wave of losses and
litigation costs related to its acquisition of Bear Stearns in
March.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/business/18bank.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
International
Japanese Condominium Builder Files
for Bankruptcy
Zephyr Co., a Tokyo-based builder of condominiums, sought
protection from creditors after sales of homes in the Japanese capital
declined, Bloomberg News reported today. Zephyr, with debt of 94.9
billion yen ($892 million), filed for bankruptcy protection after its
Kondo Sangyo unit collapsed on May 30. Kyoei Sangyo Co., a construction
company based in western Japan, also sought protection from creditors
today. Condominium developers are struggling after units for sale in the
Tokyo area dropped for a 10th month in June as price increases and
slower wage growth deterred some potential buyers. Bankruptcies in the
real estate industry rose by 24 percent in June from a year earlier,
according to Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. The companies had combined debt
of 142.63 billion yen, seven times more than a year earlier. Zephyr has
about 20 billion yen of corporate bonds outstanding, according to
Bloomberg data.
href='http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=anyJVfCoxVgU&refer=japan'>Read
more.