C-BASS-Owned Fieldstone Files for Ch. 11

The C-BASS-owned Fieldstone Mortgage of Maryland -- which closed its doors last week -- has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.According to the Mortgage Industry Directory, Fieldstone ranked 26th among all subprime lenders last year, funding $5.2 billion. According to its bankruptcy filing, its creditors include Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, and Countrywide Financial, among others. C-BASS (Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization LLC), in turn, is owned by two publicly traded mortgage insurance companies, MGIC and Radian, which have been trying to sell the company and its servicing unit, Litton Loan Servicing of Texas. In February, C-BASS bought Fieldstone, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, for $260 million. This past summer, in the wake of the margin calls, MGIC and Radian wrote down their interest in C-BASS by $1 billion. Fieldstone can be found online at http://www.fieldstoneinvestment.com.