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October
12, 2007
Mortgage
Lending
name='1'>Lending Plunges for Countrywide
Financial
Countrywide Financial
Corp. said that total mortgage loans it made or acquired from other
lenders in September fell 44 percent from a year earlier to $21 billion,
the Wall Street
Journal reported today. Investors have become
reluctant to buy many types of loans now considered too risky, so
Countrywide is concentrating on ones it can hold as long-term
investments or sell to government-sponsored investors Freddie Mac and
Fannie Mae. Bruce Harting, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, estimates that
the gain Countrywide made on sales of loans sold to Fannie and Freddie
in the third quarter was about 0.48 percent of the value of the loans
sold. By comparison, Countrywide made an average gain of 1.09 percent
for all loans sold in the year-earlier quarter. Countrywide also said
1.27 percent of the total unpaid balance of loans that it services were
in the foreclosure process as of Sept. 30, up from 0.51 percent a year
before. Excluding foreclosures, payments are 30 days or more overdue on
5.85 percent of the unpaid balance of loans it services, up from 4.04
percent a year earlier.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119210620581855929.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
In related news,
as Countrywide released its delinquency figures yesterday, public
outcries and protests directed at the lender are putting it increasingly
at the center of the mortgage storm that began this year, the
size='3'>New York Times reported today. A
protest yesterday in
size='3'>Boston organized by the
Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>America
size='3'>was the second this week organized by a borrower advocacy group
and aimed at Countrywide. On Tuesday, ACORN, the Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now, organized a protest in eight
cities.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/business/12mortgage.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='2'>Commentary: Hedge Funds Prepare for Wave of Subprime
Litigation
With at least a dozen
hedge funds embroiled in investigations into their collateralized debt
obligations, regulators are likely to cast a wide net in bringing suits
in the wake of the subprime lending crisis,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
The
face='Times New















Roman'
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>Securities and Exchange Commission has already hinted that
regulators are preparing to take the offensive against subprime hedge
funds, noting that the agency “is looking at all the actors and
their roles,” according to Commissioner Linda
Thompson. While federal regulators are still
gathering information and assembling their cases, the private civil
litigation has already begun, with investors targeting some of the first
banks to falter under the weight of subprime problems. Firms including
Bear Stearns, New Century Financial and Credit Suisse have all been hit
with shareholder suits alleging that they failed to disclose the risks
inherent in mortgage-backed securities.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=36745'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='3'>Moody's Cuts Credit Ratings on Nearly 2,000 Subprime
Bonds
In its largest wave of
downgrades, Moody's Investors Service slashed credit ratings on about
2,000 bonds backed by subprime home loans that were originally valued at
$33.4 billion, the Wall
Street Journal reported today. The latest
downgrades affected 7.8 percent of the original value of bonds backed by
first-lien subprime mortgages that were issued during 2006 and rated by
Moody's, a subsidiary of Moody's Corp. All of them are rated A and
below. In July, the rating service cut its grades on about $5 billion of
these types of bonds. It has also cut ratings on many bonds backed by
second-lien loans, which are second mortgages taken out on homes. The
company said that it doesn't expect another bigger round of cuts for
such bonds unless conditions in the housing market deteriorate
significantly.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119215840302157076.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='4'>New Century Examiner's Extension Bid Falls
Short
Bankruptcy Judge
Kevin Carey
size='3'>granted New Century Financial Corp.’s examiner more time
to probe the events surrounding the subprime mortgage giant's collapse,
but has declined to award the court-appointed official the full six
months he desired,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
Judge Carey set Jan. 15 as the deadline for Michael Missal to finish his
report on the lender's alleged misdeeds, giving the examiner leave to
continue probing New Century's books for an additional four months. The
examiner, a practice leader in the policy/regulatory area at K&L
Gates, had asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware
to extend the deadline for his report until March 2008, arguing that the
lengthy investigation could not be wrapped up in the original 90-day
time period.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=37302'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='5'>Harbinger Settles Dispute with Asarco over Access to
Financial Documents
Harbinger Capital
Partners settled a dispute yesterday with Asarco LLC over access to the
mining company's financial records, which could open the way for the
hedge fund to finance Asarco's exit from bankruptcy protection, the
Associated Press reported yesterday. In papers filed Wednesday with the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
w:st='on'>Corpus
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Chris
size='3'>ti
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Texas
said that it had changed the terms of a
confidentiality agreement that potential investors are required to sign.
Harbinger previously called the agreement too restrictive. Asarco said
it agreed to remove what Harbinger saw as the most onerous requirement
-- a provision regarding communications with creditors. The
size='3'>Tucson
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ariz.
company had required investors to speak with only the full creditors'
committee or its representatives. Investors could speak with individual
creditors only with Asarco's permission.
href='http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071011/asarco_bankruptcy.html?.v=1'>Read
more.
name='6'>Calpine, Creditors Challenge Shareholders over
Appeal
Calpine and its official
unsecured creditors’ committee opposed the the
equityholders’ committee's request for permission to appeal the
court's confirmation of the company’s disclosure statement,
Bankruptcy Law360
reported yesterday. The company and creditors said that
if the shareholders persist with their appeal and postpone the
company’s emergence from chapter 11 until after Jan. 31, Calpine
will lose its $800 million exit financing. Judge
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Burton R. Lifland
size='3'>approved Calpine’s disclosure statement on
Sept. 25. Days
later, the equity committee notified Judge Lifland that it would try to
appeal his order to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
New York. In court documents, the equity committee claimed that
Calpine's financial advisor made a low estimation of the
company.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=37292'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='7'>Bankruptcy Trustee Files Suit against Sentinel
Executives
The bankruptcy trustee of
Sentinel Management Group, the Northbrook-based cash-management firm,
has filed a $350 million complaint against the company's founders and
executives, including Philip and Eric Bloom, the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Chicago Tribune
size='3'>reported today. The insiders, who also included former trader
Charles Mosley, operated through 'a pattern of criminal conduct' and
committed a 'long-term, massive fraud' against Sentinel and its
customers, according to the 57-page complaint filed by trustee Fred
Grede. Among other things, during the year before the bankruptcy filing,
defendants improperly transferred at least least $20 million in
'ill-gotten' gains to themselves in the form of 'bogus' fees, bonuses,
dividends, account withdrawals, salaries and false payments, according
to the lawsuit. The complaint seeks actual damages of $350 million, as
well as punitive damages.
href='http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-071011sentinel,0,2607618.story?track=rss'>Read
more.
name='8'>Beazer Homes Reports Surge in Cancellations of
Orders
Beazer Homes USA Inc.
said that 68 percent of its prospective home buyers canceled their
orders in the company's fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 30.,
the Wall
Street
size='3'>Journal reported today. The
cancellation rate was almost double the 36 percent of customers who
canceled orders and gave up deposits in the prior quarter. Beazer, which
had 2006 revenue of $5.46 billion and is one of the 10 biggest U.S. home
builders by sales, is one of the first to detail results from September,
when analysts believe the housing market bore the full brunt of the
summer's credit market turmoil. Disclosing interim results of an
internal investigation by a board audit committee, Beazer also said it
expects to restate financial results dating back to 1999 to show a $25
million rise in income after correcting accounting problems. In
addition, Beazer said it will likely have to pay a settlement to
regulators for lending-law violations involving the use of down-payment
assistance to help borrowers take out mortgages insured by the Federal
Housing Administration.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119210834369455953.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Rejects Sharper Image Settlement
A federal judge on
Thursday rejected a proposed settlement that would have required
troubled Sharper Image Corp. to distribute $19 coupons to millions of
consumers who bought air purifiers alleged to be defective in a
class-action lawsuit, the Associated Press reported yesterday. As
Sharper Image scrambles to survive a sales slump that has saddled it
with huge losses, the decision by U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga
in
size='3'>Miami dealt the
company another setback. In arguments
supporting the settlement proposal, Sharper Image depicted it as the
best consumers could hope for because the company is on the verge of
bankruptcy, according to Altonaga's 61-page ruling.
face='Times New


Roman'
size='3'> Sharper Image has lost $113
million since January 2005.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/11/AR2007101102121.html'>Read
more.
name='10'>Wrestler's Doctor Files for Bankruptcy
The
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Carrollton
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ga.
allegedly prescribed excessive amounts of testosterone to professional
wrestler
size='3'>Chris
for bankruptcy, the
size='3'>Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported
today. Dr. Phil Astin III listed assets as $10,000 or less and estimated
liabilities as much as $50,000 as he sought chapter 7 protection from
creditors, according to papers recently filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy
Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Astin has been under house
arrest since shortly after Benoit killed his family and himself at
their
size='3'>Fayetteville home
in late June. A federal indictment charges Astin with seven counts of
overprescribing drugs to two persons other than Benoit.
href='http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/fayette/stories/2007/10/11/astin_1012_web.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13'>Read
more.
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