Hundreds of people across the country have been arrested by law enforcement officials targeting crooked mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and other industry officials, Justice Department officials said Thursday.
Losses in the fraud cases total about $1 billion, the FBI estimates.
The housing crisis grew worse in May, as more than 73,000 American families lost their homes to bank repossessions, up a staggering 158% from the 28,548 households that were dispossessed in May 2007.
It's kind of sobering for people who have been listening to the company these last six to nine months that they had everything under control,'' said David Hendler, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. in New York. ``They've got to start thinking about selling a strategic stake or selling the firm because there's just not enough business to go around
didn't even really make the headlines, but Minyanville states the obvious:
Months ago this news would have taken out the financials. Bears believe it’s only a matter of time before investors realize the continued stress in the credit markets
Pandit, who took Citi's reins in December, said Friday he expects to shed $400 billion of assets he inherited within the next three years. Two-thirds of the divestitures will come from the company's troubled consumer banking division.
If Citi were $400 billion thinner today, it would have about $1.79 trillion of assets, just ahead of Bank of America Corp. (BAC), which cracked the scales with $1.74 trillion of assets at the end of its first quarter on March 31. When Bank of America completes its planned acquisition of Countywide Financial Corp. (CFC) later this year, it would surpass Citigroup, even with Countrywide's rapidly deteriorating mortgage assets.
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Ambrac reports loss of $6.93/share after $3.1B in subprime charges.
Ambac Financial Group Inc., the bond insurer that lost 93 percent of its stock market value in the past year, posted a wider loss than analysts estimated after $3.1 billion in charges for subprime-mortgage securities.
U.S. foreclosure filings jumped 57 percent and bank repossessions more than doubled in March from a year earlier as adjustable mortgages increased and more owners lost their homes to lenders.
there had been a "collective failure" to grasp the extent of leverage in the financial system and the risk that it could be unwound in a disorderly fashion. Conditions may get worse as the limping U.S. economy leads to more credit losses
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