Archive for January, 2010
Despite increasing pressure to take more aggressive steps to keep troubled borrowers in their homes, the Obama administration said Wednesday that it had no immediate plans to alter its foreclosure-prevention program by increasing its reliance on reducing loan balances.
The administration's statement came as attorneys general and banking regulators in 14 states warned that policy makers needed to do more to stem the tide of foreclosures.
The Obama program, announced in February as a cornerstone of the administration's efforts to stabilize the housing market, has been running into increasing criticism as delinquencies have mounted.
In Fort Mill, a city of 10,000 residents about 20 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., local leaders saw the subprime-mortgage industry as a way to help retool the economy from its withered roots in the textile industry. But more than 700 jobs at Senderra, HSBC Holdings PLC and other mortgage operations that popped up during the housing bubble have since disappeared or moved away.
Unemployment in Lancaster County, where Senderra got a tax break as a job-creation incentive, hit 18% in November, the latest month for which figures are available. The U.S. unemployment rate was 10% in December.
President Obama plans to propose new limits Thursday on the size and investments of large banks, a senior administration official said, as the White House intensifies its push to reframe its financial reform agenda as an effort to rein in the companies widely blamed for causing the economic crisis.
Although the details of the new proposal could not be learned, the president plans to announce a series of measures aimed at limiting the risks that large banks can take, according to the official, who spoke before the formal announcement on condition of anonymity.
HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan said it would be a "terrible shame" if the nation lost out to competing nations because of Government interference.
"I think when you start moving taxation for political reasons, the trouble is, it's an industry that can move," he said.
"I know a large number of bankers are moving out of the UK. They can move because they have opportunities in Switzerland and other places to set up their business.
"I do believe we should have a robust financial services industry here in the UK because the City has all the rights to win.
The wealthy have money problems, too — yeah they do.
Even refinancing a mortgage for their fancy digs or getting a new loan can be near impossible these days thanks to skittish lenders. And the higher the loan value, the more they worry.
Still, that people with high six-figure incomes, stellar credit histories and gobs of assets get mortgage requests turned down seems weird.
"It's amazing really," said Susan Bruno, a financial planner with Beacon Wealth Consulting in Rowayton, Conn., "but it makes sense when you think about it."
