What We're Hearing

We’re hearing that PennyMac may not be the only mortgage vulture fund that would like to go public. (Of course, it’s still unclear whether PennyMac’s IPO is going to actually happen.) There’s at least one other established vulture firm that’s contemplating such a move. Stay tuned to the National Mortgage News website and weekly print edition for updates. Meanwhile, we still haven’t heard confirmation on which investor wound up with Wells Fargo’s $600 million portfolio of non- and sub-performing subprime loans. Publicly traded Wall Street firms and depositories begin reporting second quarter earnings shortly and it will be interesting to see what disclosures are made in regard to writedowns on MBS, ABS, CDOs and the like. Plenty of executives have told us stories about how recent changes in Financial Accounting Standards Board accounting rules have taken the pressure off banks to sell their troubled mortgage assets. As for the FDIC’s “Legacy Loan Program,” don’t hold your breath...