U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) on Monday called for federal regulators to probe billions of dollars of loans made by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta to Countrywide Financial. By the end of September, Countrywide had borrowed $51.4 billion from the FHLB system, 37 percent of the Atlanta bank’s outstanding advances, leading Schumer to [...]

As concern that American International Group. Inc. may have greater exposure to the U.S. subprime market than originally disclosed has mounted, sending shares to a 2 1/2 year low this past week, it appears the company’s mortgage insurance segment will change its underwriting guidelines to exclude offering MI to subprime borrowers. Here is a copy of [...]

In a filing with the SEC this morning, H&R Block said that its troubled mortgage unit Option One Mortgage Corporation had received an additional $350 million in funding for servicing advances from a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, PLC. The tax preparation company, which has seen its financial fortunes sink under the wieght [...]

A report issued late Wedensday by Moody’s Investors Service said that Freddie Mac may face credit losses greater than its recent forecast as the mortgage and housing crisis continues to worsen. From the press statement (subscription req’d), some pretty straight shooting insofar as ratings analysts go: Freddie Mac now expects credit losses to rise through at least [...]

Happy Thanksgiving: For those HW readers here in the US, warm wishes for a wonderful holiday — we’ve actually had some of that so-called “wintry mix” in the DFW area today. I’m thankful for many things this year, family and friends at the top of that list. But I’m also thankful for the more than [...]

Fitch Ratings on Wednesday downgraded 6 CDO asset manager ratings (also called CAM ratings), citing “adverse credit developments in the residential mortgage-backed securities sector and their consequences for structured finance collateralized debt obligations.” The rating agency also affirmed 7 CAM ratings, and placed an additional 4 asset management operations on negative ratings watch. Included among the [...]

Countrywide Financial, which has seen its stock hammered over the latest slate of bad mortgage industry news during the past week, issued a press statement yesterday seeking to reassure investors over its own financial stability and future. From the press statement: Consistent with the commentary provided in connection with the Company’s third quarter 2007 earnings conference call [...]

Update: Fitch did more than warn of CDO cuts — it also downgraded $29.8 billion of subprime-exposed CDOs (hat tip to CR on this). Fitch Ratings today warned of its latest negative adjustment to the CDO market, saying it had placed ratings on $5.4 billion worth of collateralized debt obligations on negative watch. The CDOs in [...]

Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday that it has assigned CIT a primary servicer rating for subprime product of ‘RPS3′; the agency maintains ratings on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the highest rating. CIT operates its servicing platform for mortgage loan and other certain consumer portfolios from Marlton, NJ and Oklahoma City, OK. [...]

In the wake of its market-shaking $2.0 billion loss yesterday, lawyers are moving swiftly to make their own claims — two separate lawsuits appeared today, one alleging a lack of risk control and the other claiming a violation of securities laws. Both are seeking class action status. Reuters covers one claim, which contains allegations of appraisal [...]