Posts Tagged ‘subprime’
We cannot blame the credit crisis on poor people any longer, as if anyone actually believed that anyway. Rating agency Moody’s said last month that it was revising upwards the expected losses on 90% of Alt-A mortgage securities. It describes the collapse as ‘unprecedented for its asset class’. These are not the subprime households who would probably have been better off without a mortgage in the first place. Alt-A borrowers tend to be middle-income earners.
The SEC claims to be awake and actually doing something. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission expects to file additional subprime-related enforcement actions and has dozens of “very active” investigations underway, an SEC official said on Friday. Will this result in questions the SEC does not want to answer? Only a few days after Washington told the SEC they “failed miserably in their mission” the SEC has a brilliant idea, if doing something is to be believed.
According to a TIME 24/7 article this morning, “Someone who took out a subprime loan in 2003 is the “patient zero” who began the great recession.” A single borrower set off the series of events that may lead the economy into its greatest downturn since The Great Depression? Blaming the financial meltdown on one borrower is probably the most ridiculous thing I have read since mortgage lending hit the skids. I have a novel idea, “Why don’t we call the mortgage lender or the underwriter “Zero”?
This is a recap. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. said in a financial report that it has agreed to pay $550 million to settle separate class action lawsuits stemming from subprime loss disclosures. The Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, the lead plaintiff in one lawsuit brought on behalf of stock purchasers, agreed to a proposed settlement totaling $475 million in cash. The other suit was brought by employees, and was settled for $75 million.
Now that mortgage rates are low what does it take to refinance your home? A recent analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance found that the average score for borrowers whose loans were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was 748 out of a possible 850. Clearly many borrowers with impaired credit will not be able to refinance as lenders are unwilling to part with money to refinance the credit-impaired sector. The problem is a two-pronged issue that often requires borrowers to hurt their credit before a work-out is considered.