FT.com – Australia's competition watchdog has launched legal action against ANZ over an alleged price-fixing agreement between the bank and one of its mortgage brokers.
Friday Update w/ Aaron Freedman
Countrywide says it cut 500 mortgage jobs (Reuters)
Reuters – Countrywide Financial Corp , the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said it had eliminated about 500 jobs nationwide as it tries to cope with a credit shortfall stemming from the U.S. housing downturn.
Capital One slashes jobs, mortgage industry swoons (Reuters)
Reuters – The U.S. mortgage industry took another battering on Monday, as Capital One Financial Corp said it will shut a lending unit it bought less than a year ago, while two mortgage companies took steps to bolster liquidity as losses piled up.
S&P, Nasdaq gain on rate-cut speculation (Reuters)
Reuters – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose on Tuesday as a signal that the Federal Reserve might cut its benchmark interest rate soon muted persistent concerns about withering credit markets.
Did Countrywide Get a Hand from the Fed? (BusinessWeek Online)
BusinessWeek Online – The question was all over Wall Street last week: Was the credit crunch threatening the survival of Countrywide Financial (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/15/07, "mortgage Lenders: Close to the Edge?")? A bankruptcy filing by the largest U.S. mortgage lender would have jolted the economy, squeezing Countrywide's many creditors and tormenting the already wounded mortgage and housing markets.
Capital One to shut unit, cut 1,900 jobs (AP)
AP – Capital One Financial Corp. said Monday it will cut 1,900 jobs and shutter its wholesale mortgage banking business, a move that comes as lenders continue to struggle in the nation’s housing and mortgage markets.
Lone Star says entitled to end Accredited merger (Reuters)
Reuters – Private equity firm Lone Star Funds said on Monday it is seeking a court order to terminate its roughly $400 million purchase of Accredited home Lenders Holding Co , saying the subprime mortgage lender has not met the conditions required to close.