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NEWS ABOUT: mortgage backed securities

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Bank of America Agrees to $8.5B Settlement

With another $8.5B to come

(Newser) - Bank of America has, as expected , reached an agreement for an $8.5 billion settlement with a group of disgruntled investors who lost truckloads of money buying mortgage-backed securities from Countrywide Financial, the bank announced today. It’s the largest payoff yet from a financial services firm, the Wall Street ... More »

Banks to Pay SEC for Financial Crisis Fraud

They're near deal to settle allegations on mortgage-bond deals

(Newser) - A number of top Wall Street banks are on the verge of settling fraud allegations with the SEC for the mortgage-bond shenanigans that led to the financial crisis, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The cases are being handled individually, since each bank faces substantially different charges, with the first... More »

Senate Probe: Goldman Sachs Shafted Clients, Lied to Us

Recommends perjury charges for Blankfein

(Newser) - Goldman Sachs may have criminally misled its clients when it sold them mortgage-backed securities without mentioning that Goldman itself would profit if they failed, the Senate’s Subcommittee on Investigations has concluded, recommending that the Justice Department and SEC consider pressing charges. The panel also recommended perjury charges against CEO... More »

Treasury to Sell Off $142B in Toxic Assets, Make Billions

'Notably improved' market means $15B-$20B profit for taxpayers

(Newser) - The Treasury Department will start selling the $142 billion portfolio of mortgage-backed securities, the "toxic" assets it bought up during the financial crisis , the Wall Street Journal reports. The securities are mostly 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. And having bought the securities... More »

White House: Let's Kill Fannie, Freddie

Obama administration wants to get out of the mortgage market

(Newser) - The Obama administration will propose dissolving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reducing the federal government’s role in the mortgage market, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The White House is set to release three plans for moving forward without the government-owned mortgage giants, which originated nine out of... More »

Investors Sue Countrywide Over 'Massive Fraud'

Their triple-A-rated securities are now junk, they claim

(Newser) - Investors are suing Bank of America’s Countrywide mortgage unit, claiming they were fraudulently led into purchasing supposedly triple-A-rated mortgage-backed securities that turned out to be junk. Between 2005 and 2007, the investors bought hundreds of millions of dollars of securities that were supposed to be “conservative” and “... More »

Investors Flee Banks Over Mortgage Mess

Analysts estimate huge losses

(Newser) - Investors sent bank stocks plunging yesterday, as they finally started to worry about the mortgage robo-signing scandal. Up until now, investors have mostly assumed the crisis would blow over. But on Wednesday, 50 states announced investigations into mortgage servicing practices, and yesterday a San Francisco hedge fund circulated a report... More »

New Probe: Did Banks Dupe Credit Raters?

New York AG Andrew Cuomo investigates 8 big banks

(Newser) - More bad news for bankers: New York's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, is investigating whether banks deliberately misled rating agencies ahead of the housing market collapse. So far, authorities have focused on dealings between banks and clients who purchased mortgage-backed securities, notes the New York Times . Cuomo's crusade broadens the scope... More »

It's Time to Stop the Looters on Wall Street

And financial reform is the only way to do that

(Newser) - The SEC's charges against Goldman Sachs reveal a whole new kind of fraud at work in the financial crisis, writes Paul Krugman of the New York Times . If Goldman had simply sold securities while betting they would fail, it would be “reprehensible” but not illegal. But selling securities deliberately... More »

Goldman Sachs Investor Made Billions on Housing Mess

Paulson not charged in SEC's takedown

(Newser) - As the housing market imploded, John Paulson laughed all the way to the bank, pocketing billions on his correct prediction of impending doom. But when the SEC charged Goldman Sachs yesterday with defrauding investors by not disclosing Paulson's bets against the mortgage-backed securities Goldman was peddling, one name was noticeably... More »

NPR's New Pet: A Toxic Asset

Reporters buy a window into the financial crisis

(Newser) - Despite being widely blamed for the financial crisis, the bundled mortgage bonds commonly known as "toxic" assets still exist, and trading is beginning to recover. In hopes of getting a new perspective on the financial crisis, NPR's Planet Money decided to buy a toxic asset. After some searching—the... More »

Fed Earns Record $45B

Efforts to save economy result in windfall

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve's efforts to keep the economy afloat last year earned it the highest profits in its 96-year history. The Fed—which funds itself and turns its earnings over to the Treasury—made a total of $45 billion last year, dwarfing the profits of many big banks. Interest on... More »

The Next Mortgage Lender Bailout: The FHA

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

(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 »

Wall Street Cleverly Carves Up Bad Assets

So cleverly, in fact, that regulators are getting worried

(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 Journal... More »

Commercial Real Estate May Set Off 2nd Crisis

Another mortgage-backed securities market gets into trouble

(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 »

Troubled Securities Threaten to Drown Banks

Feds set to seize Texas' Guaranty

(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 »

Hotels Owners Walk Out on Mortgages

(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 have... More »

Wall Street Pay Packages Roar Back, Led by Goldman

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

(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 »

Credit Rating Agencies Off-Base But Bullet-Proof

(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 »

Bailout Honchos Weigh Toxic-Asset 'War Bonds'

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

(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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