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Finance group to boost mortgage package sales
Mortgage securitisation continues to show signs of taking off in New Zealand with Christchurch's Property Finance Group planning to more than double its programme to $800 million over the next 12 months. Mortgage securitisation is how non-bank lenders such as finance companies and building societies can fund their lending. It involves the packaging up of a large number of loans into a vehicle that can be sold in units to institutional investors. In a regulatory filing to the NZAX market yesterday, Property Finance Group said it intended to securitise up to $450 million in residential loans, $300 million in commercial property loans and about $50 million in reverse mortgage loans in the next 12 months. To date the company has securitised about $370 million worth of mortgages.
Mortgage demand boosts Equitable
Mortgage supplier Equitable Group Inc.'s (TSX: ETC) first-quarter profit has jumped 37 per cent to $8 million, from $5.8 million in the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share were up 34.7 per cent to 66 cents, compared with 49 cents a year ago. "Equitable performed very well in the first quarter, achieving outstanding results based on substantial growth in assets," Andrew Moor, the company's chief executive, said Tuesday. "This performance reflects continued demand in Canada's real estate market for residential and commercial mortgage financing as well as Equitable's ongoing attention to business fundamentals." Moor said total interest revenues increased 38.4 per cent to a record $40.4 million. .
Mortgage Defaults Hurt Countrywide, IndyMac Profit (Update1)
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Countrywide Financial Corp. and IndyMac Bancorp said profit fell, and Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc. had a loss, the worst first-quarter earnings reports yet caused by the surge in subprime mortgage defaults. Net income dropped for the second straight quarter at Countrywide, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, declining 37 percent to $434 million, or 72 cents a share. IndyMac said earnings fell 34 percent as defaults forced the company to slash the value of home loans it planned to sell. Friedman Billings wrote down mortgage holdings and stakes in subprime lenders, resulting in the third loss in the past 12 months. Shareholders are paying a rising toll for irresponsible lending as lax standards across the industry and weakness in the U.S.
Mortgage defaults hurt lenders
Countrywide Financial Corp. and IndyMac Bancorp said profit fell, and Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc. reported a loss, the worst first-quarter earnings reports yet caused by the surge in subprime mortgage defaults.
Net income dropped for the second straight quarter at Countrywide, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, declining 37 percent to $434 million, or 72 cents a share. IndyMac said earnings fell 34 percent as defaults forced the company to slash the value of home loans it planned to sell.
Friedman, Billings wrote down mortgage holdings and stakes in subprime lenders, resulting in its third loss in the past 12 months.
Shareholders are paying a rising toll for irresponsible lending as lax standards across the industry and weakness in the U.S.
BancorpSouth first quarter earnings down from last year
Tupelo-based BancorpSouth, Inc., parent of BancorpSouth Bank, reported earnings of $33.6 million in the first quarter, down from $37.7 million for the corresponding quarter a year ago. Earnings amounted to 42 cents per share for the quarter ending March 31, compared to 48 cents per share for the period a year ago.
BancorpSouth, Inc. is a financial holding company with approximately $13 billion in assets. BancorpSouth Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BancorpSouth, Inc., operates approximately 283 commercial banking, mortgage, insurance, trust and broker/dealer locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas and The Signature Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BancorpSouth, Inc., operates seven commercial banking, mortgage and broker locations in Missouri.
Have healthier US mortgage lenders hit bottom?
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. housing slowdown has battered mortgage lenders and put many out of business, yet some of the survivors say the worst may be over. "You have less competition, (and) rational competition," said Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, the largest mortgage lender, on a Thursday conference call. "Your margins are going to improve.... That appears at least to me at the moment to be a trend, and one that we can see for the next several years," he said. Countrywide, a Calabasas, California company with 18 percent of the U.S. mortgage market, and IndyMac Bancorp Inc. (NDE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, a Pasadena, California lender with 3.9 percent, said on Thursday quarterly profits fell a respective 37 percent and 34 percent.
FHLB 11th Dist Cost-Of-Funds Index Down To 4.299% In March
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The cost of funds in the 11th District, a gauge of thrift deposit and financing costs and a key benchmark for adjustable-rate mortgage securities, was down to 4.299% in March. The rate was 4.376% in February and 4.392% in January. The cost-of-funds index measures deposit and financing costs for thrifts in California, Nevada and Arizona. The data are reported by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, which compiles the data on a monthly basis. (END) Dow Jones Newswires April 30, 2007 18:32 ET (22:32 GMT) Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. .
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