Financial Crisis Monitor

We finally came full circle relative to subprime, mortgage blues, and the subsequent recession. What we could not see in 2006 are new laws enacted today. Under sweeping financial overhauls that have now passed the House and Senate, home buyers won’t be able to get a mortgage without producing pay stubs or other [...]

WASHINGTON – The government says the number of troubled banks kept growing last quarter even as the industry as a whole had its best quarter in two years.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says the number of banks on its confidential “problem” list leaped to 775 from 702 in the January-March period. But banks overall posted [...]

continuing to react to the mortgage crisis be creating new laws, one more law is on the books. Earlier Thursday, senators dealt a blow to the nation’s largest credit-rating agencies, approving tough new rules for the industry and voting to remove the government’s formal endorsement of a handful of firms.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) [...]

The New York attorney general has begun an investigation into eight banks to determine whether they provided misleading information to agencies that rate mortgage securities, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office issued subpoenas late on Wednesday notifying the banks of his investigation, the Times reported on its Web [...]

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to end mortgage kickbacks and so-called “liar loans,” two lending practices that played a role in the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market.
By a 63-36 vote, the Senate adopted a measure that would prohibit mortgage lenders from offering incentives to brokers who steer customers [...]