Cisneros quits Countrywide board
Cisneros had served on the board since 2001. He earned $358,966 as a Countrywide director in 2006, according to a company filing. His departure was announced before Countrywide on Friday announced a $1.2 billion loss in the third quarter, triggered by the worst U.S. housing slump in more than 15 years. But because the company said it would be profitable in the fourth quarter and in 2008, its shares rose more than 32 percent Friday to close at $17.30.  In San Antonio, Cisneros, 60, is executive chairman of CityView, a company that provides financing for urban home builders.

Giant mortgage lender's third-quarter results will offer a view into the depth of the problems facing lenders, housing industry and the economy as a whole
The company has already disclosed some of the bad news. It will take a charge of $125 million to $150 million in order to cut staff and close offices as it scales back the business. The number of mortgage loans and their value during the quarter are both down by more that 40 percent.The lender's downturn is stunning nonetheless. The drop in loans is the equivalent of General Motors selling 40 percent fewer autos or American Airlines carrying 40 percent fewer passengers. Even in the difficult periods that both of those companies went through earlier this decade, neither approached that kind of downturn.

The mortgage lender and a long-time adversary claim they can change foreclosure prevention with a new bailout program
It's an unlikely pairing: the nation's biggest mortgage lender and one of its harshest critics. But with thousands of troubled borrowers facing foreclosure, the two adversaries put aside some of their differences and joined forces. Countrywide Finance, announced it's partnering with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), a gadfly/community advocacy group that has been its arch enemy for years..."For the first time," he said, "we're going to be looking at the interests of the borrowers first.

Countrywide: The Good, The Bad, Or The Ugly?
Countrywide’s announcement on Tuesday that it was starting a $16 billion program to help borrowers keep their homes landed with a dull thud on Wall Street. Yet even though the preservation program may not directly enhance Countrywide’s bottom line it could help boost the health of the U.S. housing and mortgage markets. But investors were not impressed. The Calabasas, Calif.-based company’s shares slid 4.0%, or 63 cents, to $15.05 on Tuesday afternoon.

House Democrats unveil anti-predatory-lending bill
House Democrats on Monday introduced legislation that would require all mortgage loan originators to be licensed, and would create new restrictions on their activities -- including prohibitions on steering borrowers into loans that are "not in the consumer's interest." The product of months of hearings, "The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007" would create new minimum standards for all mortgages -- including a requirement that lenders make good-faith determinations of a borrower's ability to repay...The bill introduced today by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Democratic North Carolina Reps. Brad Miller and Mel Watt would stop short of creating full assignee liability.

Make builders, lenders fix the housing mess
So this time around we have home builders admitting that employees regularly lied or broke federal lending rules in order to sell houses to unqualified buyers. That, of course, inflated revenues. For example, Beazer Homes (BZH, news, msgs) has admitted that it violated federal housing rules by arranging for nonprofit organizations to lend potential buyers their down payments -- and then repaid the nonprofit by rolling the "down payment" into the buyer's mortgage. On Oct. 11, the company told Wall Street that it expects to pay about $15 million in fines. The stock actually rallied on that news because Wall Street analysts had been projecting the company would face much steeper financial penalties.

Entries Tagged 'Housing And Urban Development' ↓
HUD officials have noticed that some FHA lenders are charging borrowers points and paying $4,000 to $5,000 to brokers for simply bringing a customer to their office. Brokers that are not approved by the FHA cannot take a loan application or close an FHA loan. HUD rules do allow nonapproved brokers to refer borrowers to FHA lenders.

Attorney General Abbott Urges Top Lenders, Loan Services To Address Growing Housing Crisis
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today proposed a series of foreclosure prevention measures to three of the largest mortgage lending and loan servicing companies. At a meeting convened by the Attorney General, the industry leaders were asked to implement several important measures that are designed to prevent Texans from losing their homes to foreclosure. By the end of next year, approximately $600 billion worth of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages are expected to reset into higher monthly payments for homeowners across the country. During today’s meeting, Attorney General Abbott urged Countrywide Mortgage, Houston-based Litton Loan Servicing and Dallas-based EMC Mortgage to implement several measures designed to preserve homeownership in Texas, improve consumer communication, and resolve complaints.

Countrywide slashes jobs as bad loans rise
The largest U.S. mortgage lender also said it eliminated 4,935 jobs last month, leaving it with 55,932. It has said it plans to cut as many as 12,000 jobs, or 20 percent, by December to cope with a deepening U.S. housing slump...Moore, the North Carolina treasurer, on October 8 wrote to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox questioning Mozilo's increasing his stock sales just as the subprime lending crisis was heating up. Mozilo received about $387 million from pay and stock option gains from 2002 to 2006, regulatory filings show. His stock sales resumed this week after a two-month hiatus. "There is a tremendous amount of smoke around the motivations and trading practices of at least the CEO of Countrywide, perhaps the whole senior management," Moore said on CNBC television.

Real Estate Disaster the Result of Greedy Lenders and Homebuilders, Says Watchdog Group
According to the release, the single biggest contributor to the 2007-2008 real estate disaster has been mortgage lenders being most concerned about making fast profits, regardless of the long term impact on the economy. This boils down to nothing more than greed, which AW says manifested itself in three primary ways: pay option adjustable rate mortgages, stated income loans and massive appraisal fraud on the part of homebuilders... Massive appraisal fraud occurred when homebuilders conspired with appraisers to over-value builders' new houses by as much as 25 to 35 percent. As a result, says AW, homeowners in existing neighborhoods naturally assumed their homes were worth more money than they actually were. AW says that now "our big worry is formerly hot real estate markets adjusting down 25% to 35% to pre-frenzy levels by this time next year."