Flagstar, Irwin Sink on Heavy Losses

The stocks of Irwin Financial Corp. and Flagstar Bancorp Inc. were trading lower Wednesday morning after both firms reported third-quarter losses related to home loans.Irwin lost $18 million, including "discontinued operations," in the third quarter, compared with net income of $5.5 million in the second quarter. Chairman and chief executive officer Will Miller said the "mortgage crisis continued to take a heavy toll on our results." Irwin significantly increased its reserve in the third quarter for future home equity losses. Flagstar Bank, which reported a $32.1 million loss for the third quarter, said a decrease in gains on the sale of mortgage servicing rights, losses on loan sales, and an increase in the provision for loan losses was responsible for the downturn. The companies can be found online at http://www.irwinfinancial.com and http://www.flagstar.com.