Banking Links
Expect Homeowner Mortgage Bailouts To Continue On Massive Scale - Mortgage Balances Exceed Home Values For 1 of 5 Homeowners - Bloomberg
Looming Credit Downgrades For Citi and BofA - FT
Easy Money Fuels Canada’s Housing Boom - WSJ
What Caused the Housing Bubble - Lax Monetary Policy or Poor Regulation? - Credit Slips
No End in Sight [...]

One Tiny Bank Fails in Minnesota - Total Failures Reach 16 In 2010
Regulators closed one bank today in Minnesota.   The failed bank had total assets of $18.2 million and total deposits of $16.3 million.   The cost to the FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund for the closing of this tiny failed bank is estimated at $3.1 [...]

Banking Links - February 5, 2010

The Acquisition Ken Lewis May Live To Regret - The Merrill/Bank Of America Saga - Bloomberg
Losses on Mortgages Cause $5 Billion Quarterly Loss At GMAC Financial - MLive
Is The Fed Causing Mortgage Rates To Rise As Purchases of MBS Ends? - Bloomberg
Homeowners With ARMs Blindsided By Rate Increases - WSJ
European [...]

Banking Links - February 4, 2010

Why “Strategic” Mortgage Defaults Will Continue - NYT
Conforming Mortgage Delinquencies Continue to Skyrocket - Trader Mark, SA
Small Private Investors In Commercial Real Estate Face 100% Losses As CMBS Market Remains Frozen - WSJ
FHA Facing A Crush of Foreclosures As Delinquencies Increase - NYT
Proposed Banking Regulations May Never Become Law - [...]

7 Banking Institutions Closed On December 18, 2009  -  FDIC Forced To Retain $1.9 Billion In Failed Bank Assets - Depositors Lose $3.2 Million

As the number of banking failures increase, the FDIC appears to be encountering increasing difficulty in finding buyers for failed banks,  despite agreeing to cover a large percentage of potential losses by [...]

One Tiny Bank Seized
Regulators continued their leisurely pace of bank closings this week, shuttering only a tiny one branch bank in Florida.  With hundreds of banks technically insolvent, loan credit quality declining and non performing loans at all time highs, regulators seem to be hoping that zombie banks can somehow recover if they are left [...]

Banking Failures Hit 115 For 2009

The last week of October went out with a bang as regulators closed the largest number of banks in one week for 2009.  All nine failed banks were subsidiaries of FBOP Corporation of Oak Park, Illinois.   FBOP was not closed and not subject to the actions taken today by regulators.
U.S. [...]

FDIC Ends TLGP But Leaves Door Open For “Emergency Financing”
The FDIC issued a final ruling to phase out the Temporary Loan Guarantee Program (TLGP) by October 31, 2009.  In order to conclude the TLGP  in an orderly manner, however, the FDIC established a “limited emergency guarantee facility” for institutions that might be unable to refinance [...]

In remarks to the International Institute of Finance, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair cited the need for critical financial reforms that combine stronger regulation and market discipline.   Ms. Bair stated that the “first task” should be to scrap the “too big to fail” doctrine by establishing a new resolution mechanism to handle the failure of large [...]

Foreclosure Rescue & Loan Mod Scams Prey On Desperate Homeowners
The FDIC has issued a warning to homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments and may be facing foreclosure to avoid foreclosure rescue and loan mod scams.   Unscrupulous individuals and companies are promising  desperate homeowner that they can stop foreclosures or get mortgage payments [...]