What We're Hearing

It’s earnings season for the nation’s publicly traded depositories and it appears that Sandler O’Neill is slapping “sell” signs on a handful of of the banks it covers including: M&T Bank Corporation, Home Bancshares, Zions Bancorp, and BB&T Corp. Three of the four -- Home Bancshares being the exception -- rank among the nation’s top 60 residential lenders, according to the Quarterly Data Report. Meanwhile, not all mid-sized depository-based lenders are suffering. Hudson City Bancorp of Paramus, N.J. – which funds loans through both its branches and correspondent mortgage bankers – saw its 2Q earnings increase by 16% to $128 million. Company president Ronald Hermance noted that residential loan charge-offs are increasing at the thrift but said losses have been modest since Hudson City keeps its LTV ratios low...