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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: mortgage backed securities

mortgage backed securities stories: 75 news summaries

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The Next Mortgage Lender Bailout: The FHA

Critics think fallback agency will need a rescue in next couple of years

Oct 9, 09 8:38 AM CDT
(Newser) - Another mortgage lender specializing in low income borrowers is in trouble: the Federal Housing Administration. The agency which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could soon share their fate, as borrowers default on the low-downpayment mortgages it insures, critics told a House subcommittee yesterday. “It appears destined for a... More »

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mortgage • Freddie Mac • Fannie Mae • Federal Housing Administration • mortgage backed securities • mortgage insurance

Wall Street Cleverly Carves Up Bad Assets

So cleverly, in fact,
that regulators are getting worried

Oct 1, 09 7:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - Wall Street’s financial magicians have come up with a way to transform toxic assets into shiny new ones. In popular new deals called “re-remics,” a sour mortgage-backed security is split in two, one containing all the good mortgages, the other all the bad, the Wall Street ... More »

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Wall Street • accounting • mortgage backed securities • ratings agencies • re-remic

Commercial Real Estate May Set Off 2nd Crisis

Another mortgage-backed securities market gets into trouble

Aug 31, 09 7:27 AM CDT
(Newser) - Just as the economy starts to recover, a second mortgage disaster may be looming. The commercial real estate sector is tanking, with many properties unable to generate enough cash to make mortgage payments. Lo and behold, those commercial mortgages have been sewn into securities—comparable to the packages of home... More »

MORE ABOUT:
mortgage • debt • mortgage debt • mortgage backed securities • commercial real estate • financial crisis

 Troubled Securities 
 Threaten to Drown Banks 

Feds set to seize Texas' Guaranty

Aug 21, 09 10:48 AM CDT
(Newser) - Bad loans have been killing off banks at the fastest rate in 17 years—but now, securities purchased from other banks are a mounting threat, the Wall Street Journal reports. Thousands of banks nabbed securities dependent on mortgages and the financial industry. “Under most scenarios, they were good and... More »

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bank • securities • mortgage backed securities • financial institutions • housing crisis • bank failure

(Newser) - Homeowners aren’t the only ones walking away from their underwater mortgages. With the hotel market at its lowest point since the early '90s, many owners, who owe more on their money-losing properties than they’re worth, are simply walking away, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many say they... More »

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foreclosure • hotel • mortgage backed securities • mortgage delinquency

Wall Street Pay Packages Roar Back, Led by Goldman

Goldman set to pay $700K per employee at current levels

Jul 2, 09 5:32 AM CDT
(Newser) - It didn't take long: After a year of public apologies and vows to change, big pay packages are back on Wall Street. Goldman Sachs is set to pay about $700,000 per employee in 2009 based on current figures, nearly double last year's figure and even higher than before the... More »

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executive compensation • Goldman Sachs • junk bonds • bonuses • mortgage backed securities • trader • salaries

(Newser) - Until the day Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, all three of the major credit-ratings agencies swore its debt was safe, rating it A or better. They rated AIG at AA. And they gave 75% of the $3.2 trillion of subprime mortgage securities iron-clad AAA ratings. Moody’s, S&P and... More »

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subprime mortgages • Lehman Brothers • AIG • mortgage backed securities • Standard and Poor • Moody's • Triple-A credit rating • credit rating • ratings agencies • Fitch Ratings

Bailout Honchos Weigh Toxic-Asset 'War Bonds'

Treasury's new idea would allow private investors to profit from bailouts

Apr 9, 09 8:11 AM CDT
(Newser) - Responding to charges the bank bailout privatizes profits while socializing losses, the Obama administration is exploring creating mutual-fund-type instruments that would allow private citizens to invest in toxic assets. The bailout funds, akin to war bonds, would allow the taxpayers who funded the bailout to profit along with Wall Street,... More »

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Treasury Department • mortgage backed securities • bailout • Obama administration • Main Street • financial crisis • Timothy Geithner • toxic assets

(Newser) - Commercial real-estate borrowers are defaulting on their loans at an ever-faster pace, and experts now believe the crisis could match or exceed the early-1990s slump, the Wall Street Journal reports. That catastrophe killed off 1,000 banks and savings institutions, with lenders taking $48.5 billion in charges. This... More »

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bankruptcy • recession • mortgage backed securities • commercial real estate • mortgage delinquency • financial crisis

OPINION

 Geithner: 
 'These 
 Policies 
 Will Work' 

Treasury sec lays out $1T plan in op-ed

Mar 23, 09 7:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - Tim Geithner caps a weekend of lobbying for the administration's $1 trillion Public-Private Investment Program in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, arguing that "the financial system as a whole is still working against a recovery." For the Treasury secretary, all the previous measures will fail... More »

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Treasury Department • mortgage backed securities • Obama administration • Treasury secretary • financial crisis • Timothy Geithner • TALF • Public-Private Investment Program

 Feds Seize 
 Wholesale Credit Unions 

Regulators move to stabilize credit union industry as condition reaches critical

Mar 21, 09 6:19 AM CDT
(Newser) - Federal regulators have taken control of two major wholesale credit unions, which provide services to thousands of credit unions nationwide, to stabilize the industry, Bloomberg reports. The institutions, which have combined assets of $57 billion, failed the so-called stress test, showing an unacceptably high level of risk from mortgage-backed securities.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
credit crisis • mortgage backed securities • financial institutions • credit unions • financial crisis • National Credit Union Administration

 Toxic Asset Plan to Offer 
 Subsidies to Investors 

Plan will offer loans, subsidies to investors willing to suck up bad assets

Mar 21, 09 6:08 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Treasury will unveil a plan to take up to $1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and other troubled assets from financial institutions early next week, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plan, the cornerstone of efforts to rescue the banking system, calls for the creation of an entity to buy... More »

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Treasury Department • credit crisis • mortgage backed securities • financial crisis • toxic assets • TALF

ANALYSIS

MBA Programs Face Their Role in Financial Crisis


Mar 17, 09 3:50 PM CDT
(Newser) - Executives have taken a lot of blame for the financial crisis, whether for focusing on short-term gains in stock price or placing too much faith in ultra-complex financial instruments, writes Bradford Plumer for the New Republic. But what about the business schools that taught them to manage that way in... More »

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recession • business school • mortgage backed securities • MBA Programs • financial institutions • Indiana University • financial crisis • credit default swap

Fed Bailout Spawns More 'Zombie' Banks

Fed lifelines preserve banks that, frankly, are better off dead

Feb 26, 09 9:40 AM CST
(Newser) - The Federal Reserve’s aggressive lending to banks has helped avert financial collapse, but it may have created some monsters as well, the Wall Street Journal reports. A research paper from the University of Chicago suggests that while federal aid has succeeded some in thawing frozen credit markets, it has... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Ben Bernanke • Federal Reserve • credit market • mortgage backed securities • credit market chaos • toxic assets • Term Securities Lending Facility

Finance Geeks Behind Crisis Hard at Work on a Fix

The inventors of the CDO turn their math minds to better valuations of assets

Feb 23, 09 11:04 AM CST
(Newser) - The finance-desk math wizards who created the securities behind the market meltdown are now betting they can think their way out of the mess, the Wall Street Journal reports, working to design new systems for pricing bad assets fairly so governments can buy them off of banks’ balance sheets. “... More »

MORE ABOUT:
finance • mortgage backed securities • collateralized debt obligations • securitized loan pools • valuation • financial crisis • toxic assets

Analysis

Credit Crunch Pinches Entire Lending System

Undercapitalized banks stand to benefit from $1T infusion

Feb 20, 09 12:35 PM CST
(Newser) - Banks aren’t lending, and to change that the government is propping up not just the banks but also the vast, largely unseen financial system that fuels them, the New York Times reports. Banks rarely keep the loans they make anymore; instead, debt is packaged into securities and sold,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Federal Reserve • credit market • securities • mortgage backed securities • financial sector • Obama administration • banking industry • Timothy Geithner • TALF

ANALYSIS

 How the
 Crisis Changed
 Bernanke 

Extraordinary times have changed the Fed chairman's language and policy

Feb 19, 09 12:33 PM CST
(Newser) - Crises change people, and the changes wrought by the financial meltdown on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke were well evident at a Press Club lunch yesterday, writes Dana Milibank for the Washington Post. Previously known for bland answers, this academic now tempers his economist-speak with straight talk and supplemented official data... More »

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Ben Bernanke • Federal Reserve • nationalization • bank • mortgage backed securities • emergency lending • financial crisis

ANALYSIS

Mortgage Plan Relies on Incentives, Lacks Muscle

Proposal does does little to address securitized mortgages

Feb 19, 09 9:14 AM CST
(Newser) - The Obama administration’s foreclosure-prevention plan contains more carrots than sticks, relying heavily on incentives designed to prod mortgage servicers to modify at-risk loans, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plan offers monetary rewards to mortgage companies that lower interest rates on delinquent mortgages, and reduces principal for borrowers who... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • foreclosure • mortgage backed securities • housing crisis • mortgage defaults • mortgage delinquency • Obama administration • financial crisis • President Obama

OPINION

Cramer Changes Course:
Have Faith in Geithner

It's cheaper than nationalization, and gets banks moving again

Feb 13, 09 9:46 AM CST
(Newser) - Geithner’s got it, James Cramer writes in New York—much to his own surprise. Cramer notes that he's railed against the Treasury chief for months, but he's now come around just as others have abandoned him. “The press, the pols, the Wall Streeters—they are all dumping their... More »

MORE ABOUT:
nationalization • Jim Cramer • mortgage backed securities • taxpayer money • financial crisis • recapitalization • Timothy Geithner

ANALYSIS

America's Biggest Banks Are Zombies

Many are already insolvent, and feds will need a bolder plan

Feb 13, 09 8:30 AM CST
(Newser) - In the corridors of Wall Street and Washington, a worrying consensus is growing: Some of the nation's largest banks are in fact insolvent. If banks reassessed the value of the complex mortgage-backed securities that taint their balance sheets, they would outweigh all assets on hand, writes Steve Lohr of the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
debt • mortgage backed securities • banks • financial crisis • insolvent • toxic assets

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