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July 17, 2008
FBI Probing IndyMac for Possible
Fraud
Failed bank IndyMac is under investigation by the FBI for possible fraud
involving its mortgage lending, Reuters reported yeterday. U.S. banking
regulators seized mortgage lender IndyMac on Friday after withdrawals by
panicked depositors led to the third-largest banking failure in U.S.
history. The FBI is looking at whether fraud was committed in areas
including securitizing loans, insider trading and whether firms properly
disclosed the value of their assets.
href='http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080717/bs_nm/indymac_fbi_dc_4&printer=1;_ylt=AtkZOm5E5RgXHzMtcJ9MbHKb.HQA'>Read
more.
Final Deal on Housing-Rescue Bill,
Treasury Plan in Sight for Lawmakers
Congress rushed yesterday to complete its work on a housing-recovery
package as lawmakers began dropping reservations about the measure amid
concerns over the nation's housing market, CongressDaily
reported. Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) yesterday
met with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, House Financial Services
Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Senate Banking Committee ranking
member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to try to strike a deal. The Banking and
Financial Services staffs have been working to iron out differences,
especially over a Treasury plan that would give the department new
powers to give capital to government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac. One issue to be resolved is a Senate Republican push to
cap the Treasury line of credit available under the plan crafted by
Paulson. Critics argue that the plan's open-ended line of credit for the
mortgage-financing giants amounts to a blank check that could leave
taxpayers on the hook. While GOP leaders backed off their initial
support for the Treasury effort Tuesday in the face of initial
opposition from some GOP Financial Services Committee members, some
Republican lawmakers said that a strategy is emerging to let members
vote their will on the bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) said that he is optimistic the bill could clear soon. Sen. Tom
Coburn (R-Okla.), who has delayed many measures in the chamber, said he
has no intention of holding up the plan.
IRS Set to Close Tax Loopholes for
Non-U.S. Banks
The Internal Revenue Service will close loopholes in its agreements with
foreign banks that Swiss lender UBS AG and its clients allegedly
exploited to shield $20 billion in assets from U.S. taxes, Bloomberg
News reported yesterday. Barry Shott, the IRS's deputy commissioner of
international affairs, said that the crackdown will make it harder for
Americans to conceal assets in offshore shell companies. The agency for
the first time will require accounting firms to report any activity that
may constitute fraud as defined by the United States, he said. The IRS
is putting the finishing touches on the new rules before the Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations releases a report on secret
accounts at Zurich-based UBS and Liechtenstein's LGT Group.
href='http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=afaIyKMEym.g&refer=home'>Read
more.
KB Homes, Countrywide Sued
Again
Another lawsuit has been filed against homebuilder KB Home and the
mortgage lender Countrywide Financial relating to a joint venture
between the two companies that provided mortgages to KB's buyers, the
Wall Street Journal reported today. The suit, filed by homebuyer Hugo
Zaldana in U.S. District Court in San Francisco Tuesday, alleges the
venture was essentially a 'sham' entity designed to skirt the federal
Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The mortgage venture often used
an appraiser that was owned by Countrywide and relied on pricing
information from KB, said Peter Fredman, a lawyer for the homebuyer.
That may have compromised the appraisal and lending process, he
said.
Judge Rebuffs Attempt to Halt Pacific
Lumber Plan
Bankruptcy Judge Richard Schmidt rejected Pacific
Lumber Co.'s bondholders' attempts to put a freeze on the restructuring
plan proposed by creditors Mendocino Redwood Co. and Marathon Structured
Finance Fund LLP, Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday. Judge
Schmidt said Tuesday that the plan will go into effect on July 25
despite the group's intention to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Fifth Circuit. Judge Schmidt said he feared the reorganization plan
would disintegrate if he issued an indefinite stay. The Bank of New
York, acting as trustee for a group of Pacific Lumber Co. noteholders,
said last week that it would appeal an order confirming the bankrupt
company's reorganization plan on the grounds that it is allegedly unfair
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=62525'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Forecasts Predict Tougher '09 Sales
for Auto Makers
Two separate forecasts predicted that the nation's automakers, mired in
a downturn, appear headed for a tougher year in 2009, the Wall
Street Journal reported today. Global Insight recently lowered its
forecast for U.S. vehicle sales this year to 14.4 million cars and light
trucks, down from a previous 14.7 million vehicles. At the same time it
cut its outlook for 2009 to 14.2 million vehicles from 14.7 million.
Similarly, Standard & Poor's Corp. said it lowered its sales
forecasts. It now expects 2008 sales of 14.4 million vehicles, and a
drop in 2009 to 14.1 million. It had previously expected sales in 2008
and 2009 of 14.6 million and 14.5 million, respectively.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121625552256360427.html'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Commentary: Fed's Crisis Role Spurs
Questions of Overreach
The current financial and economic crisis is leading to expansion of the
Federal Reserve's role into what some critics point to as turning the
central bank into a sort of all-purpose guarantor of the financial
system, the Washington Post reported today. Some experts fear
that as the Fed gains a broader portfolio of responsibilities and
expectations, it risks losing its focus on managing the nation's
monetary policy and could create risks to the central bank's
credibility. Last weekend, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke offered Fed lending
to the housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and did not
resist in gaining a new role for the Fed in setting those firms' capital
requirements. In March, the Fed engineered the buyout of Bear Stearns
and offered emergency lending to all investment banks.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/16/AR2008071602655_pf.html'>Read
more.
GMAC Obtains Waiver for Bank, Ensuring
Access to Funding
GMAC Financial Services got a much-needed boost yesterday as it
maintained its hold on GMAC Bank LLC, ensuring its access to a cheap
funding source that is vital to the group's financial health, the
Wall Street Journal reported today. The Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. (FDIC) decision grants a 10-year waiver to GMAC that
will allow the group control of GMAC Bank, an industrial loan
corporation, for at least 10 years. The decision by the FDIC allows
GMAC, the financing arm of General Motors Corp., to raise funds at
competitive rates at a time when its ability to access credit markets is
constrained by higher borrowing costs and scarce availability of
capital. The auto maker has a 49 percent stake in GMAC after a group of
investors led by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP
bought 51 percent of GMAC in 2006 for about $14 billion.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121622842585659053.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Fitch Slashes Bank of America
Rating
Fitch Ratings downgraded its issuer default rating on Bank of America
Corp. two notches due to its sizeable home equity loan portfolio with
exposure to problematic U.S. housing markets in California and Florida,
the Wall Street Journal reported today. Fitch believes that
pending litigation surrounding loans made by Countrywide acquisition and
CSFB, the latter it purchased so-called option ARM mortgages from, adds
additional risks. Officials in three states have filed separate legal
actions against Countrywide. The actions -- by the attorneys general of
California and Illinois, and the Washington State Department of
Financial Institutions -- came on the same day that Countrywide
shareholders voted to approve the sale of the company to Bank of
America.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121622369510858865.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
International
EU Gives Poland Extension to
Reorganize Finances of Shipyards
The European Commission yesterday granted Poland an extension of two
months to work out new plans to salvage two historic Polish shipyards
after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pressed for more time, Agence
France-Presse reported. Following Polish promises to present a viable,
alternative plan by Sept. 12, the commission said that it was postponing
a state-aid decision on the Gdynia and Szczecin shipyards, which could
have threatened them with bankruptcy. However, the commission rejected
Warsaw's latest restructuring plans, without which Europe's state-aid
watchdog cannot consider past public support to the yards as
legal.
href='http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080716/bs_afp/eupolandshipbuildingcompetitionpublicaid_080716191306&printer=1;_ylt=AlUIrXzSY.nrQ.iLvfmf4FioOrgF'>Read
more.