THIS JUST IN: Early Monday morning it appeared that New Century Financial Corp., the nation’s second largest subprime funder, was about to go down the drain — the bankruptcy drain. In an SEC filing the non-depository/REIT revealed that Morgan Stanley had pulled out of an agreement to provide $265 million in (essential) financing and that several other Wall Street firms were declaring the non-depository in default on warehouse lines or repurchase agreements. Barclays informed New Century that it had pulled its right to service loans. If New Century fails — which seems likely — it will be the largest subprime collapse in U.S. history. In trading Monday morning its stock had been halted..
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s estimate that mortgage fraud costs the lending business $1.2 billion a year is off the mark by more than $3 billion, according to a fraud analyst speaking at the Midwinter Conference in Park City, Utah…
According to new 4Q edition of the Quarterly Data Report, mortgage bankers funded $795 billion in loans during the quarter. Subprime production fell to $143 billion from $176 billion in 3Q.
