Wells Fargo To Modify More Option ARMs Remember when Wells Fargo took over Wachovia, wrote down the option ARM’s, and thought that was the end of the problem? It wasn’t: at least 531 Illinois homeowners will be offered mortgage loan modifications by Wells after an investigation into allegedly deceptive marketing of Option ARM’s. Illinois and [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Option ARM’
Wells Changes Name, CitiMortgage Bake Sale, Credit Suisse FU2 Bond, Fed’s Yellen: Money Is Meaningless
How Does an ARM Adjust? Holders of adjustable-rate mortgages across the country are demonstrating to complain that the rate used to calculate their loans has actually gone up. In some cases loan payments went up by 9%. “What is this ‘COFI’?” asked one borrower in California. “Next thing you’ll tell me is that the value [...]
10yr Treasury Auction Goes Well, Foreclosure Stats & Analysis
Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized? Is that like economists and analysts continuing to go back to the news about the economy hoping something is better? Yesterday’s Beige Book, which summaries the economic activity in the 12 Fed regions here in the US, [...]
Jumbo Securitizations, Google Mortgage, GDP Down -1%, New Home Sales +10%, Option ARM Resets
In news that is sure to “spook the herd”, the New York Times reports that “Google plans to begin offering loan quotes online as early as this month, a lawsuit filed in federal court this week claims. The suit was filed by LendingTree, which offers consumers mortgage quotes and conditional loan offers online, against Mortech, [...]
Option ARM Adjustments Threaten Housing Recovery
Bloomberg reports that Option ARMs are a threat to the housing recovery as many will adjust in 2010 and 2011. Option ARMs are loans that allow the borrower, if they choose, to make a payment based on a 2-4% rate which means they’re paying less than the total interest due and the deferred interest gets [...]
Indymac to Be Bought by US Bank? GMAC Receives Banking Charter.
After failing and being seized by the FDIC earlier this year, Indymac is now on the block to be bought within 90 days. The FDIC has taken on the role of investment bank as the bank failures mount. After the Indymac failure depleted the FDIC fund, FDIC head Sheila Bair took on a new approach, [...]
Wachovia Option ARMs Go Bad (After 27 Years)
Lots of people forwarded me this week’s NY Times story tracing the careers of Herbert and Marion Sandler, a husband and wife banking team that founded World Savings in 1963, introduced Option ARMs in 1981 then sold their firm to Wachovia in 2006 and made about $2.6 billion. Option ARMs are mortgages with many payment [...]
US Bank Posting $1.2b Writedown, No Mention of Downey
US Bank is posting $1.2b in writedowns for the fourth quarter according to WSJ. This is due largely to loan losses. It’s unclear whether this includes the losses from recently acquired Downey Savings following the FDIC’s seizure of Downey. Downey was one of the top originators of Option ARM loans, which led to their demise [...]
Downey Savings Seized by FDIC, Sold to US Bank. Customer Loans, Deposits Safe
Downey Financial, a Newport CA based savings and loan, was seized by the FDIC Friday and sold to US Bank in a deal the FDIC brokered. As of October 22, Downey’s loans no longer collecting interest were 15.7 percent of bank assets. Most of these bad loans were from their portfolio of about $7 billion [...]
Gordon Gekko Returns
It seems the Wall Street banner atop The Basis Point (and accompanying link) has done its job helping resurrect the love/hate relationship we all have with Gordon Gekko. Now, in a rush to capitalize on the global financial crisis, there’s a sequel to Wall Street floating around Hollywood: Film and television studios are rushing to [...]
