Monday, March 19, 2012

Wall Street banks seek to become landlords

Welcome to the morning roundup. Here's a look at what's news in banking and finance this morning.


Wall Street landlords. Major Wall Street banks are bidding on pools of foreclosed homes owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, seeking to turn them into rentals before ultimately reselling them, the Wall Street Journal reports. The tactic could ultimately end up costing taxpayers if the bulk sales lead to significant discounts.

Stress tests aren't the end. Yes, most of the country's biggest banks passed the Federal Reserve's stress tests last week. But since capital requirements are on the verge of increasing nearly 60 percent, those results won't be the end of the pain for major banks, Bloomberg says.

2008 changed Wells. In a sit-down interview with the Los Angeles Times, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf says 2008, when the bank bought Charlotte-based Wachovia, "changed the landscape" of the company, but that the bank doesn't need to change its business model.

Treasury turns profit. The U.S. Treasury is expected to announce today that it made a $25 billion profit on its purchases of mortgage bonds, which began in September 2008, the Wall Street Journal reports. Last week, the Treasury sold the last of the bonds. The $25 billion is the largest profit the government has made on a program tied to the financial crisis.


1 comments:

Dolley said...

It would be nice if you explained HOW the Treasury made money on those mortgage bonds - and they role they had in MBS/ABS. These bonds have an inurance policy that pays off when the borrower goes into foreclosure. (AIG failed paying these policies) The role of the servicer is to PUSH the borrower into foreclosure so the investor gets the payout. So our own Us Treasury was betting AGAINST homeowners and cashing in on their home loss. In fact, prior to Sept. 2010, you could go to the SEC website and easily find the trust your loan was in. Then the SEC DELETED the records...because homeowners were coming into court with proof that the foreclosing bank did not own the note. (you can't have both a note and a stock certificate for the same asset) This allowed the bank to "hide" where the mortgage went, but required them to recreate the (often destroyed) note - hence the need for robo signers. So maybe this "profit" is good news to you...for many homeowners, not so much.