Today's Fresh Blogs...

• IndyMac Net Drops 57 Percent

  Published: July 31, 2007, 9:35 am

  Tags: Secondary Markets, Loan Origination, Default Reo, Loan Servicing

  uncertainty with respect to secondary market spreads and execution … Our largest production group, the Wholesale Division, had a solid rebound during the quarter, increasing earnings to $23 million from $13 million last quarter, as the mortgage banking revenue margin (MBR) for that group improved to 88 bps from 66 bps last quarter,

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• Update: C-BASS Faces Unprecedented' Margin Calls

  Published: July 31, 2007, 9:09 am

  Tags: Secondary Markets, Default Reo, Loss Mitigation, Loan Servicing

  Following up on a story I posted on last night, C-BASS this morning put out a press release acknowledging liquidity challenges at the scratch-and-dent operation, and said that the company was “exploring all options” in terms of finding additional liquidity. From the press release: While nothing fundamentally has changed at C-BASS,

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• MGIC, Radian: C-BASS May Be Written Off

  Published: July 30, 2007, 9:05 pm

  Tags: Miscellaneous, Secondary Markets

  Both Radian and MGIC said late today that more than $1 billion invested by the companies into Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization (C-BASS) is at risk and may be written off due to continuing turmoil in the subprime mortgage markets. C-BASS is probably the single largest scratch-and-dent mortgage operation in the nation. Here’s

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• HSBC Sees US Mortgage Losses Beat Back By Gains in China

  Published: July 30, 2007, 4:41 pm

  Tags: Miscellaneous, Secondary Markets, Loan Origination, Loan Servicing

  HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe’s largest bank, said today that first-half profit rose 25 percent, driven largely by investment gains in China. The gains there were enough to offset continued weakeness in the company’s US-based mortgage lending operation, HSBC Finance, according to the company’s earnings statement. From Bloomberg:

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• Halo 3: 4 Player Online Co-Op Confirmed In Amsterdam

  Published: July 31, 2007, 3:20 pm

  Tags: Bungie, Halo, Microsoft, Amsterdam, Climax, Cooperative, Covenant, Flood Threat, Galaxy, Gamer, Halo 3, Installment, Mankind, Master Chief, Official Conference, Official Press, Press Conference, Sadness, Secondary Source, Worldwide Availability, Xbox Live

  yet, so you have to trust a secondary source that translated it, but everything looks like it’s on the up and up. Let’s just hope the Bungie and Microsoft guys weren’t smoking something and take back their statements later. I have dropped an image in after the article break that further proves the story. During a official

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• American Home Mortgage Faces Liquidity Crisis; Is Bankruptcy Next?

  Published: July 31, 2007, 4:10 pm

  Tags: Secondary Markets, Loan Origination, Default Reo, Loan Servicing

  American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. issued a formal statement this morning confirmed what most in the industry had known since yesterday — that the lender was facing a liquidity crisis that had forced the company to cease funding new loans. In a press release, the company said it is facing what it called “unprecedented”

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• The Opposite of Containment: Another Bear Stearns Hedge Fund in Trouble

  Published: July 31, 2007, 10:56 pm

  Tags: Secondary Markets

  the tree’ applies to secondary markets just as it does to human genetics.

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• Fitch Affirms $20B & Downgrades $2.4B of U.S. Subprime RMBS, Details New Rating Criteria

  Published: August 1, 2007, 3:51 pm

  Tags: Secondary Markets

  Fitch released what amounts to nearly a book’s worth of a press release today, covering a slew of new RMBS downgrades and detailing new ratings criteria. Citing what it called “very high levels of delinquency and default,” the agency said affirmations affected 232 classes with an outstanding balance of $20 billion; downgrades hit

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• Fitch: U.S. Securities Firms Show Solid Results Despite Subprime Challenges

  Published: August 1, 2007, 3:35 pm

  Tags: Secondary Markets

  as does fallout in the secondary market following pending rate resets of vintage mortgage pools.” Part of the implication here is that the “limited exposure” argument only works when trouble is limited to a single credit class — a broader hiccup in the secondary market across all credit sectors would implicate

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• Report: IndyMac Considering Shut Down of Conduit Production

  Published: August 1, 2007, 3:30 pm

  Tags: Miscellaneous, Secondary Markets, Loan Origination

  American Banker reports on the latest from IndyMac (subscription required and highly recommended, hat tip to AB reporter Kate Berry): IndyMac Bancorp Inc. … is taking a hard look at how it acquires loans and to whom it sells them. The $32 billion-asset thrift company … said it is considering shuttering its conduit production unit. It

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• NMN: FlexPoint Funding Exits Wholesale

  Published: August 1, 2007, 2:52 pm

  Tags: Miscellaneous, Secondary Markets

  National Mortgage News reports: FlexPoint Funding, a hard-money lender based in Irvine, Calif., has shut its wholesale division, industry sources have told MortgageWire. At deadline time, the company and its officials, including senior executive Dan Rawitch, could not be reached for comment. Executives familiar with the firm said FlexPoint also

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• Moody's To Revise Alt-A RMBS Rating Methodology

  Published: August 1, 2007, 4:10 pm

  Tags: Secondary Markets

  Moody’s Investors Service said late yesterday that it will revise its ratings criteria for Alt-A RMBS, reflecting what it called “collateral weaknesses that have surfaced in Alt-A pools securitized in 2006.” To put this into perspective: similar revisions in the ratings criteria for subprime securities — which many critics

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• Fitch Downgrades $2.4 Billion of US Subprime RMBS, Details New Rating Criteria

  Published: August 1, 2007, 3:02 pm

  Tags: Secondary Markets

  Fitch released what amounts to nearly a book’s worth of a press release today, covering a slew of new RMBS downgrades and detailing new ratings criteria. Citing what it called “very high levels of delinquency and default,” the agency said affirmations affected 232 classes with an outstanding balance of $20 billion; downgrades hit

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• Accredited Home Says Its Survival in Doubt, Bankruptcy Possible

  Published: August 2, 2007, 12:05 pm

  Tags: Secondary Markets, Loan Origination, Default Reo, Loan Servicing

  As covered in a Rueters story, Accredited Home Lenders Holding Company raised questions of its ability to continue to operate in a delayed 2006 10-K filing with the SEC late yesterday. The full SEC filing in question, while a 2006 report, covers significant ground on the first seven months of 2007 as well, and states that due to “adverse

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• IndyMac CEO: Private Secondary Markets Panicked and Illiquid'

  Published: August 2, 2007, 5:01 pm

  Tags: Secondary Markets, Loan Origination

  Unfortunately, the private secondary markets (excluding the GSEs and Ginnie Mae) continue to remain very panicked and illiquid. By way of example, it is currently difficult, at present, to trade even the AAA bond on any private MBS transaction. In addition, to give you an idea as to how unprecedented this market has become I received a call

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