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July 28, 2010
Zions Bank Unloads CDO Risk In Deal With Deutsche Bank
Shares of Zions climbed 2.5% to $21.78 in evening trading after the announcement.
Collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, are complex vehicles that often contain asset-backed securities such as mortgage-backed securities.
Is The Real Estate Market Turning Around?
"While May's report on its own looks somewhat positive, a broader look at home price levels over the past year" doesn't show that the housing market "is in any form of sustained recovery," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee. "Since reaching its recent trough in April 2009, the housing market has really only stabilized at this lower level."
The supply of homes available for sale in 27 major metropolitan areas at the end of June was up 3.7% from one month earlier, according to figures compiled by ZipRealty Inc., a real-estate brokerage firm based in Emeryville, Calif.
According to the FHA June single-family operations report, the total volume of mortgage in-force increased more than 24% to 6.4m in June compared to the same month one year ago. The total value of unpaid FHA mortgages was $865.5bn in June, up 30.3% from $663.8bn one year ago and up 3.3% from $837.8bn in May. ... But with that increase came a rise in serious delinquencies, 7.6% last year, compared to 8.3% in June. ...Based on applications received, the FHA said the seasonally adjusted annual rate of applications was nearly 1.9m, down 13% from the previous month's rate and the lowest since January's rate of 1.69m.
Finances for homeowners didn’t improve fast enough to prevent more than 1.65 million foreclosure filings in the first half, an increase of 8 percent from the same period in 2009, RealtyTrac Inc., a data company in Irvine, California, said July 15. A record 269,962 U.S. homes were seized from delinquent owners in the second quarter as lenders set a pace to claim more than 1 million properties by the end of 2010.
In August, Fitch expects 115 loans worth $1.3bn in balances to fall into special servicing and more to come through the rest of 2010, peaking in October at 181 loans at $2.1bn and totaling more than 772 loans worth $7.8bn. ...With more commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans on the verge of default this Fall, special servicers are being forced to accelerate them through the REO process to avoid building a shadow inventory similar to the one in residential.
... that the number of new transfers into special servicing will continue to outpace commercial loan workouts. But once properties are ready for liquidation, valuations on commercial real estate are missing the mark, according to Deutsche Bank. ...The analysts projected an 18% delinquency rate on CMBS. Since the beginning of 2010, the balance of loans at least 90-days delinquent has increased every single month.“The implications for special servicers are potentially dire,” according to the Deutsche Bank report. “If they wait too long to foreclose or restructure loans, the number of loans in their portfolios will continue to build, so even when they finally resolve an asset it might not even make a dent.”
Many community and regional banks have aggressively charged off loans, mostly in commercial and construction financing. Despite signs of stability in delinquencies, banks still have to reappraise properties that serve as collateral. And when appraisals come in lower, the bank has to write it down, whether or not the loan is delinquent which in turn, hurts capital.
Losses in the commercial portfolio continued to improve from the higher levels experienced last year, including a 10 percent linked quarter reduction in commercial real estate losses.
Credit Cards Transfer Money From Poor To Rich Households: Study
Credit cards do more than drain money from your wallet -- they may actually create an "implicit money transfer" from the poor to the rich, according to a new study from the Boston Federal Reserve.
The study, titled "Who Gains and Who Loses from Credit Card Payments? Theory and Calibrations", suggests that, as card use becomes more frequent, merchants have raised their prices to compensate for card-processing charges. (Hat tip to the WSJ)
As a result, the study suggests, the poor -- who usually lack access to reward-paying credit cards -- end up paying more for everyday goods.
Over the last two decades, the paper notes, the percentage of households using credit cards has remained stable at around 75 percent. But total card-spending has jumped from nine percent to 15 percent. The increased use of cards drives up fees paid by merchants, who raise prices to cover the costs of the cards.
As card-using households make more and more purchases with credit cards and jump to take advantage of card rewards programs, "cash-using" households bear the brunt of higher prices without any of the benefits of cards.
On average, each cash-using household pays $151 to card-using households and each card-using household receives $1,482 from cash users every year. Because credit card spending and rewards are positively correlated with household income, the payment instrument transfer also induces a regressive transfer from low-income to high-income households in general.
The authors suggest a few approaches policy makers could take to mitigate the damage caused by credit cards, including allowing merchants to adjust prices based on whether a purchase is made by cash or credit, a practice that is currently against the law.
Read More: Credit Card Fees, Credit Cards, Fed, Federal Reserve Bank Of Boston, Financial Overhaul,Income Inequality, Obama-Financial-Bill, Business News