WA State wants to throw Countrywide out?
June 25th, 2008 by Mark FlandersContinuing trouble for two of the Country’s largest mortgage lenders
KIRO TV reported that Governor Gregoire is making moves to remove Countrywide Mortgage’s license to do mortgage business in the state of Washington this morning. This is just the most recent problem Countrywide has had to deal with. Countrywide is currently being sued by the State of Illinois (for defrauding borrowers) and being sued by the State of California. I wonder what the Bank of America stock holders think of their purchase now. I guess they wouldn’t be able to call it Countrywide anymore.
Edit 6/26/2008 – Gov. Gregoire announces $1,000,000 fine for Countrywide
Edit 6/26/2008 - The Department of Financial Insitutions has added this banner to the front page on their website.
Washington Mutual is facing difficulties of it’s own. Union members picketed WAMU’s last shareholders meeting in reaction to the news that WAMU has arranged a $7 billion (yes, billion) cash infusion to try to hold back the floodwaters of bad loans on their books. The shareholders question if $7 billion is enough. You can read the details in the Seattle PI.
In a related article, the PI reported the rather stunning numbers involved in Washington Mutual’s move into credit cards for borrowers with “blemished” credit. Although WAMU insists it is a “very prudent, fiscally conservative approach”, the article reports that the bank added 660,000 new credit card customers in the first quarter of 2008. Mr. Dreman, of Dreman Value Management, LLC (whose company owns 28.8 million shares of WAMU stock) stated “They’re up to their necks in everything bad”.
I’ll ask the obvious question. Does it make sense to use new high risk credit card accounts to offset the losses from high risk mortgages?
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Great Blog! I have been selling real estate in Bend Oregon since 1981 and find it refreshing to find a helpful blog like yours! Keep up the good work!
WaMu is dealing with “what will kill me first?”
“Cash flow” apparently is the gator that is closest to the boat. Bad credit risk assessment got them into this mess, but taking on more of it only tells me that credit risk is being trumped by something.
They obviously need the cash. That $7B is going pretty quick. Is anyone going to give them a refill?
If you go read their press releases and 10-Qs from 2007, you will see that Killinger will be hanging out with Mozillo in Paraguay before long. How anyone could release that information with the knowledge they had of their own institution is just plain criminal (or should be).
I also don’t buy that he didn’t see it coming. If an airline pilot with an engineering background can see it, the CEO should be able to. If not, then where was the BOD? What kind of monkey is running the nation’s largest S&L?
Collateralized interest. The practice should be banned from accounting.