Questions on ResCap, Springleaf, Nationstar and Uncle Sam

What the heck ever happened to Uncle Sam’s subprime (real estate) lender, Springleaf Financial? Good question. A year ago Uncle and a group of private investors filed with the SEC to spin off the subprime lending and servicing division of American International Group, by selling $500 million worth of stock to the public – through a REIT structure. Well guess what?  Answer: a year has passed and there’s been no IPO. (Springleaf’s previous name was American General Finance, a once well regarded nonprime lender/servicer based in Evansville, Ind.) Springleaf owns $13.4 billion of residential real estate loans and $3.5 billion of consumer finance loans. Over the years it has mostly declined to talk to the media. But the story gets more interesting: A unit of Fortress Investments manages the company and one of Springleaf’s servicing partners is Nationstar, which recently went public. But wait: isn’t Nationstar trying to buy Residential Capital Corp./GMAC from Uncle Sam? Indeed it is. Stay tuned.