Those clever FDIC/Indymac folks! They are sending out letters to their HELOC borrowers, saying, “IndyMac Federal Bank will be selling your home equity line of credit to a third party within the next 90 days.” (Who? We’d all like to know!) “To help facilitate this transaction, IMFB is willing to pay the greater of $500 [...]

I don’t make enough money, so how am I supposed to get a loan these days? Fortunately “entrepreneurs” never cease to amaze me.

Indymac Bank made the biggest headlines recently, but so far in 2008, seven banks have failed and have been taken over by the FDIC. When this happens, the FDIC will guarantee $100,000 per account. But what if they run out of money? They insure $4.4 trillion in deposits and currently hold about $44 billion in [...]

What Capital Markets employee hasn’t dreamed of being a rodeo clown? “They put themselves in the line of danger every time they go to work. With names like Shane, Flint, Cody, Scooter, and Tex, they evoke the nostalgia of the old west. Rodeo clowns make perhaps $100 to $225 for a show, usually setting their [...]

In a press release 4 days ago, IndyMac said they were shutting down their retail and wholesale lending units but keeping their 33 branch banking network. The next day, a private equity firm purchased IndyMac’s retail lending operations for an undisclosed amount. Today, the Office of Thrift Supervision shut down IndyMac’s retail banking operations and [...]

CONGRESS BETTER DO SOMETHING It appears that Congress can’t quite decide what to do on the current mortgage legislation. The broad thinking suggests that if they can’t do something prior to their summer recess, when they return the November election will consume their time. Although doing nothing is an option, let’s hope they don’t take [...]

Following IndyMac’s announcement that they’re exiting retail and wholesale lending, Illinois-based Prospect Mortgage announced the purchase of IndyMac’s retail lending network for an undisclosed amount. Prospect owns Metrocities Mortgage, a nationwide mortgage bank who claims 5.6 billion in fundings for 2006 (irrelevant number in current market context); Opteum Mortgage, a mortgage broker headquartered in New [...]

Some experts believe that, as a typical consumer, my financial well-being can be measured by 5 basic indicators: job creation, changes in real wages, changes in home prices, changes in equity prices, and access to credit. Let’s see… mortgage bankers (and others in many other industries) are seeing “negative” job creation, my real wages are [...]

TREASURIES UP AS FANNIE/FREDDIE FREEFALL Yesterday shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both plummeted after an analyst with Lehman Brothers wrote in a report that the two companies may need to raise billions of dollars if accounting rules (FAS 140) are changed. Most experts feel that they will not have to come up with [...]

In an announcement today, IndyMac said they are closing their retail and wholesale lending units, and plan to lay off about 3800 employees in coming months to reduce expenses by about 60%. They will keep their reverse mortgage unit and their loan servicing/retention businesses which, combined, will generate about $5b to $10b in new loans [...]