CFOs Blame Brokers, Lenders for Subprime Mess

Chief financial officers view mortgage brokers and lenders as the main culprits in the subprime mortgage crisis, according to a recent survey by Financial Executives International, Florham Park, N.J., and Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business, New York.Of the 220 corporate CFOs interviewed the week of Sept. 24, 86% blamed brokers and lenders for the crisis, followed by 40% who blamed credit rating agencies, the organizations said. The third-quarter CFO Outlook Survey also revealed that the CFO Optimism Index for the U.S. economy dropped to 62.85, a three-year low. FEI can be found online at http://www.financialexecutives.org, and Baruch can be found at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu.