Banking Industry


Banks Offering 3.875% Fixed Rate Mortgages

TARP Dollars Deployed
Two Washington State banks are now offering 30 year fixed rate mortgages at 3.875%.
SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane-based Sterling Savings Bank and Walla Walla-based Banner Bank are offering mortgages at interest rates below 4 percent to [...]

Markets Plunging On Geithner’s Remarks

Markets Plunging On Geithner's Remarks

Geithner Does It Again
The Treasury Secretary said Sunday that some banks will need large amounts of financial aid.  Geithner’s comments seemed to imply that his recently announced rescue plan for the banking industry is only a first [...]

HUD Imposes Dramatic Restrictions On FHA Cash Out Refinances

FHA Tightens Rules Again
First there was an increase in the required credit scores to be eligible for FHA financing.  (See FHA Increases Minimum Credit Score Requirement).  Now comes a major tightening of the rules on FHA cash [...]

Are Geithner’s Days Numbered? Banks And Investors Have Zero Confidence

First Impressions Hard To Reverse
The old saying in the recruiting business is that one is judged in the first 15 seconds of a job interview.  Irregardless of what happens for the rest of the interview, that first [...]

Banks Push Back On Bailout - Wells Fargo Calls Stress Test “Asinine”

Wells Fargo Discovers High Cost Of Government Help

Wells Fargo Chief Calls Stress Test Asinine
March 16 (Bloomberg) — Wells Fargo & Co. Chairman Richard Kovacevich criticized the U.S. for retroactively adding curbs to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, [...]

Banks Tighten Lending By Restricting FHA Cashout Refi

FHA Loans Become Tougher To Qualify For
Effective January 1, 2009 HUD announced that any FHA cash out refinance would require two appraisals when the loan to value exceeds 85% - see FHA Takes A Closer Look At [...]

Jumbo Mortgage Rates Reflect Default Risk

Economic Crisis Impacts All Borrowers
Jumbo mortgages, typically loan amounts above $417,000, are defaulting at a rapid pace as the economic crisis affects borrowers at all income levels.  Bloomberg is reporting that jumbo mortgages, typically associated with higher [...]

Defaults Everywhere - More Lending Is Not The Solution

Defaults Everywhere - More Lending Is Not The Solution

Mortgage Defaults Only Part Of The Problem
Mention loan defaults and most people probably think of mortgages.  Home foreclosures due to mortgage defaults are getting the bulk of press coverage and the most attention in Washington.  The credit [...]

Notable Links

Notable Links

Straight Talking Common Sense
Obama Must Destroy Detroit, So America Can Live - Evan Newmark

Dear President Obama,
Who said life was fair?
You’re in office less than a month and the markets already hate your presidency, your Treasury secretary and [...]