New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo yesterday for using "false and misleading information" to foreclose on properties. more ›

In addition to being Guy Fawkes Day on Knifecrime Island, today has been dubbed Bank Transfer Day for Americans who are fed up with storing their money in financial institutions that took their bailout money but won't loan it back, forced people from their homes after exploiting them with predatory loans, and tack on fees despite overall poor customer service. Representatives from New York City's four major credit unions will be at the Occupy Wall Street camp in Zuccotti Park until 6 p.m. tonight to help ease customers through the transition. more ›

At a breakfast for ABNY this morning in Midtown, Mayor Bloomberg told a room of the 1% exactly what it wanted to hear: those kids in Zuccotti Park are misguided. "It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis," Hizzoner said, "It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp." You hear that Attorney General Schneiderman? Leave those innocent banks alone! more ›

In a conference with investors earlier today, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan announced that the company would cut $5 billion in annual costs by the year 2014. This means that the bank will lay off "at least" 30,000 jobs out of BOA's 288,000 current employees. "It's taking out work we don't need to do any more, and getting it out of the company," Moynihan tells the Times. The layoffs will occur over the next few years, giving BOA employees on the chopping block plenty of time to steal as many office supplies that they possibly can. more ›

Accompanying its article on how minorities were among the hardest hit victims of foreclosure in the New York City and surrounding area, the NY Times also created an interactive map showing how "foreclosure rates in the region were highest in areas with high minority populations." Minorities have been targeted by predatory lenders; the map also shows how the problem is small in 2005 but mushrooms in 2008. As for the situation at present, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation president Colvin Grannum lamented, "Rather than helping to narrow the wealth and home ownership gap between black and white, we’ve managed in the last few years to strip a lot of equity out of black neighborhoods," and City Councilman James Sanders (D-Queens) said of the blocks with boarded houses, "My district feels like ground zero. In military terms, we are being pillaged." more ›

The DAily News reports that as foreclosures and evictions rise all over the city, many of the victims are renters--NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy counts 38,000 were affected. And in many cases, "renters have been given just weeks to find new digs, while unscrupulous landlords collect rents for homes they no longer own." In one case, some tenants told a judge they had no idea their landlord didn't own the building anymore--and after paying their September rent, the landlord "told them she would keep their security deposits as payment for October rent." Even the bank's lawyer believes they are innocent victims! more ›

The Jets fan who spent $400,000 for the personal seat licenses to two seats at the 50-yard line at the new Meadowlands revealed himself to the Post, saying, "It's a function of wanting the best, both as a lifelong fan and as a business investment." David Findel, who has a mortgage lending company, will also need to spend another $14,000 a year on the seats themselves--"which come with a private VIP entrance, parking, a full spread of food and drink at a swanky restaurant and access to the field during the game." And Findel might not ever use the seats himself--he says he got them for his two kids. He also gave a shout out to the housing crisis, "Although part of the mortgage business is in turmoil, this is an opportunity to invest in my business - and to further demonstrate our loyalty to the New York Jets." more ›

Remember how the NY Times looks at apartment complexes in danger of defaulting on their mortgages last month? Well, Crain's continues that line of thought, noting that almost 600 buildings "have one or more factors that could lead to mortgage default." The Riverton Houses and Savoy Park in Harlem are both mentioned again, as is Stuyvesant Town. Per the Daily News, "Housing advocates told Crain's that buyers had unrealistic goals about rent increases. The same lenders caught up in the mortgage free-for-all in single-family homes lent them money anyway." Speaking of apartments in NYC, Britney Spears told Z100, "When I come back, it's like, 'Man, I wish I still had my apartment here.' But I love it. The energy is crazy." more ›

A day after Washington Mutual fell, Wachoiva began talks with Citigroup and other possible suitors, including Wells Fargo and Banco Santander of Spain, about a possible merger. The Wall Street Journal reports that "Wachovia officials don't believe they need to rush into a deal, and the bank isn't feeling immediate pressure on its financial condition," but the mortgage crisis has put pressure on many banks. Shares have fallen 78% in the Charlotte, NC-based company over the past year, and the NY Times says Wachovia holds $120 billion of risky option adjustable-rate mortgages, which allow borrowers "the option of skipping part of their payments and adding that debt to the principal of the loan." more ›

The Bush administration's $700 billion request to bail out bad mortgages was formally sent to Congress today. From the Washington Post:

The package, the most sweeping government intervention in the markets since the Great Depression, was $200 billion higher than lawmakers had been told yesterday to expect. It also does not include the $200 billion that officials said earlier this month the government will spend on the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. more ›

After the U.S. federal government moved to take over mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this past weekend, stock markets around the world rallied--trading in Tokyo ending 3.4% higher and in Hong Kong, it ended 4.3% higher. And in Europe, stocks also rose 3-4%. more ›

Sources say that the federal government may take over mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend. The Wall Street Journal says this "would represent perhaps the most significant intervention by the government in the financial industry since the housing bust touched off turmoil in the credit markets a little more than a year ago." The NY Times adds the move, which includes the feds standing behind Freddie's and Fannie's debt, "could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and make any rescue among the largest in the nation’s history." Earlier this year, the feds bailed out Bear Stearns by orchestrating its sale to JP Morgan Chase. more ›

Last week, it was reported that developer Donald Trump was going to buy TV personality Ed McMahon's home out of foreclosure, allowing McMahon to continue to live in it while paying rent. But now it turns out there's some competition for the $4.6 million mansion, with a second anonymous buyer emerging. Trump said, "I hope they take good care of Ed McMahon because he deserves it. The only reason anybody other than me would be interested in this house is because I showed an interest in it first. I just heard that the person negotiating doesn't have financing, and the deal would be subject to getting financing, something which I, obviously, don't need." McMahon had a $4.8 million mortgage out on the property from Countrywide, which said the 85-year-old was $644,000 behind on payments in February. more ›

It's not surprising, but it's jarring to see the numbers: Personal bankruptcies filed by New Yorkers during the first 7 months of the year has increased 31% over last year's first 7 months. According to Crain's New York, it's "fueled in large by the number of homeowners who could not keep up with monthly payments on subprime loans," which is different from the usual reasons of "catastrophic events such as accidents, illnesses or divorce." An example of those facing bankruptcy include a 28-year-old math teacher who says he was "scammed" into investing in $1.5 million in real estate without putting money down, "I make $50,000 as a schoolteacher. There's no way I should have been approved for loans that big." more ›

Today, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is making remarks at the New York Public Library about the economy, and, according to text of the speech, he'll say he believes Congress will pass a bill to "boost confidence" in failing government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which, as Bloomber News puts it, "account for almost half of the $12 trillion mortgage market." Paulson has also been making a number of public appearances recently--Face the Nation, CNBC, various Times reporters and editors-- to boost confidence in the bill itself. In other financial news, with new CEO Robert Steel (former Treasury Undersecretary), Wachovia is announcing $8.9 billion in losses; the bank said it was leaving the wholesale mortgage business yesterday. more ›

The Dow plummeted 358 points to end at 11,453, after bad news about brokerages and the ever increasing price of oil. Bloomberg News summed it up this way:

U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June since the Great Depression, as record oil prices, credit-market writedowns and a slowing economy threatened to extend a yearlong profit slump.

It's the New York banking equivalent of the Enron meltdown: Bear Stearns has agreed to sell itself to JP Morgan Chase at a fire sale price. When Bear Stearns' 14,000 employees left work Friday afternoon, the bank's stock had already plunged almost 50% in value, closing at $30 a share. But today they found out something much, much, much worse: their company has been purchased for a piddling $2 a share. That's $236MM for a company that was "worth" $3.54 billion on Friday. That's a 93% discount on Friday's closing price, and a 99% discount off January 2007's price of $170/share. Given that Bear Stearns' midtown headquarters had been valued as high as $1.5 billion, the firm's liabilities must have been enormous. more ›