Monday January 5, 2009 Navivest

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has announced that it has signed a letter of intent to sell failed mortgage lender IndyMac, which was the seventh largest savings and loan and the second largest independent mortgage lender in the country when it failed and was seized by the FDIC on July 11, 2008, to a private equity consortium.

The transaction is being structured as a sale of New IndyMac to IMB HoldCo, which is controlled by IMB Management Holdings. IMB Management Holdings LP formed IMB Holdco LLC as a thrift holding company, which will be the parent of the purchased New IndyMac.

Steven Mnuchin, a former executive at Goldman Sachs, who is currently the Chairman of Dune Capital Management, leads the consortium. The new CEO of the new IndyMac will be Terry Laughlin, who was most recently, the Chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch Bank

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by Edward Hugh: Barcelona Yesterday, the Ukraine received a USD16.5bn loan from the IMF and the IMF at the same time said that it would agree with the Hungarian government on a rescue package in the coming days. Under normally circumstances this would be good news for CEE assets. However, it seems like the markets are totally giving up on CEE. This morning the Hungarian stock markets have dropped more than 10% despite the promise of an IMF package. ......it is worrying that the CEE markets continue to sell-off despite IMF’s clear commitment to support the region’s markets and economies. One might in fact see the lack of positive response to IMF’s rescue packages for Hungary and the Ukraine as an indication that these packages are in fact making the markets even more nervous that something “is seriously wrong in CEE”. Lars Christensen, Chief Analyst Danske Bank, CEE: Markets fail to respond ...

Bank of America (BAC) today 10/06/08, pre-announced Q3 2008 earnings result after the markets closed. The company reported revenues net of interest expense of $19.90 billion. This was a 21% increase from the $16.47 billion that the bank reported a year earlier. Analysts were expecting revenues of $20.61 billion.

Net income came in at $1.18 billion, or $0.15 per share, down from $3.70 billion, or $0.82 per share, a year earlier. This represented a 68% drop in profits.

According to the company, “Net interest income on a fully taxable-equivalent basis rose 33 percent to $11.92 billion from $8.99 billion in the third quarter of 2007 due to the acquisitions of LaSalle and Countrywide, loan and deposit growth, and the impact of rate movements.”

Troubled mortgage lender Countrywide, which Bank of America (BAC) acquired on July 1st of this year, added $259 million in operating earnings in the quarter. This increased Bank of

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by Edward Hugh: BarcelonaThe euro fell against the dollar yesterday - by the largest amount registered in any single day since the introduction of the single currency in 1999. The drop was effectively a response to the growing signs of strain in Europe's banking sector. Activity in support of banks was widespread throught the day, and across the whole system. The euro fell 2.5 percent to $1.4077 by mid morning in New York, down from $1.4434 on Monday. Early this morning in Europe it was trading in the $1.41 range.This current pressure on the euro is more the result of signs of liquidity problems in the banking sector than it is a response to the growing weaknesses in the eurozone real economies, which, as we saw at the end of last week, are really pretty substantial in their own right. What follows is simply ...

Financial News OnlineJason Corcorcan in Moscow17 September 2008 Russian brokerage KIT is holding talks with strategic investors after defaulting on its debt as analysts suggested a number of small to medium-sized bank are facing similar difficulties refinancing on the repo market.KIT, a second tier investment bank, was forced to look for a buyer after it defaulted on a repo deal. Investment banking sources said a buyer had been found and announcement would be made by close of play today.A KIT spokeswoman declined to comment and said a statement would be made at 5pm Moscow time.Analysts said KIT's problems were contagious and the state would have to intervene quickly to restore liquidity and confidence in the market.David Nangle, director of financial research at Renaissance Capita, said: "There are other banks and boutiques with exposure to repos whereby ...

As the WSJ reported today, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America is just the latest chapter in a stunning redesign of the financial world.  Stand-alone investment banks are dying rapid deaths, with three down in 2008 already (who can forget the spectacular demise of Bear Stearns?).  In their place, a new king is rising - commercial banks.

The key difference between an investment bank and a commercial bank is the source of their cash flow.  A commercial bank like Bank of America or Wachovia takes consumer deposits, which are insured by the federal government to prevent depositors from pulling out all at once (a major catalyst of the Great Depression in the 1930s that is now prevented by tighter regulation and insurance).  Investment banks take no such deposits, and as a result benefit from lighter government

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After a weekend in which the deepening U.S credit crisis sent one top investment bank to bankruptcy court and a second into the arms of a “White Knight” suitor, U.S. stocks yesterday (Monday) recorded their worst day since the 9/11 terrorists attacks seven years ago. Indeed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 504 points, its biggest one-day point decline since Sept. 17, 2001 – the day the markets reopened for trading after the attacks on New York and Washington. Wall Street entered last weekend anticipating a government bailout of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH), but exited with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (MER) agreeing to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. (BAC) for nearly $50 billion – and with Lehman announcing it will seek bankruptcy in a bid to avoid a total ...

It’s hard to believe 7 years have passed since that sad day. But so it has. It was another strange day to say the least. Market internals reveal terrible breadth despite the headline index numbers. But a late day rumor suggested Bank of America will buy Lehman or maybe just a piece like Neuberger Berman. That accounted for the big time stick save in the last half hour. LATE BREAKING: As I go to post this, another rumor is circulating of an imminent Fed rate cut. This is “not” what the market needs right now since rates are already ridiculously low. If true, the dollar would fall and commodities rally along with stocks. I can’t imagine it helping bonds other than short term. Then, if that's not enough, the Washington Post reports the Fed is working ...

Three Financial Groups In Trouble The impact of the credit crunch saw two banks and a financial and industrial group fail on Friday in three different countries in the most damaging day so far since the crisis started last August.US banking regulators on Friday swooped in to take over mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc, the second-largest bank failure in US history and the fifth bank to close this year. In Denmark the country’s central bank bailed out the Roskilde Bank after it had encountered severe liquidity strains following asset write-downs. And in London, media reports said the $A4 billion Dawnay Day financial and industrial group had become a victim of the credit crunch after talks over the weekend agreed to the appointment of administrators to some of its companies and businesses later today, and a string of asset sales. The three separate problems show that the credit crunch hasn’t gone away: ...

LOS ANGELES - IndyMac Bank’s assets were seized by federal regulators on Friday after the mortgage lender succumbed to the pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures. The bank is the largest regulated thrift to fail and the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, regulators said. The Office of Thrift Supervision said it transferred IndyMac’s operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation because it did not think the lender could meet its depositors’ demands. IndyMac customers with funds in the bank were limited to taking out money via automated teller machines over the weekend, debit card transactions or checks, regulators said. Other bank services, such as online banking and phone banking were scheduled to be made available on Monday. “This institution failed today due to a liquidity crisis,” OTS Director John Reich said. The lender’s failure came the same day that financial markets plunged when investors tried ...