Archive for the 'subprime mess' Category

On Wednesday the SEC released its second-ever ”ComplianceAlert.” (Gee, what ever happened to spaces between words?) The alert, addressed to SEC-regulated firms (e.g. broker-dealers and investment advisers), used a low-key tone but raised serious issues. For example, SEC examiners found some large broker-dealers to be surprisingly sloppy about verifying the values their trading desks assign to subprime mortgage-related products. It’s disturbing [...]

On Tuesday, Countrywide’s sex party house sold at auction for $475K, a substantial haircut from the $1.1 million Countrywide was in for. Keep in mind that as Floyd Norris pointed out last month, that doesn’t include any losses from second mortgages. Real Estate Disposition Corp handled the auction on Tuesday and will collect a 5% [...]

Later today, the National Association of Home Builders will release its monthly homebuilder sentiment index and by all accounts it is expected to be pretty gloomy. Given that backdrop, the 8K that Centex (CTX) filed late yesterday certainly seems interesting. While the filing tackles a number of different issues related to last week’s shareholder meeting, [...]

It’s been a tough few days for National City (NCC), the large Cleveland-based bank that has offices in 9 states. Yesterday, it took the unusual step of issuing this release to say that the bank was still solvent and that there was no unusual depositor activity. Of course, they weren’t the only bank to issue [...]

Exactly five months ago — on Feb. 12 — Indymac (IMB) sent this letter to its investors, which it also filed as an 8K. The 8-page letter was unusually frank, with Chairman and CEO Michael Perry stating “2007 was a terrible year for our industry, for Indymac and for you, our owners.” Six weeks later, [...]