After years of quietly building what has become the largest renewable energy business in the nation, FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE:FPL) has established itself as one of the nation’s cleanest electric power providers. More than anything else, this defines the company’s commitment to sustainable business practices.

FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE: FPL) is a leading clean energy company with 2008 revenues of more than $16 billion, approximately 39,000 megawatts of generating capacity, and more than 15,000 employees in 27 states and Canada. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla., FPL Group’s principal subsidiaries are NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the largest generator in North America of renewable energy from the wind and sun, and Florida Power & Light Company, which serves 4.5 million customer accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the country.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) said today that through August 2009 it has completed 33,172 trial and final

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Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., the New York unit of Germany's Deutsche Bank AG (DB), has a $42 million unsecured claim against mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. Taylor Bean filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on August 24 as it was forced to shut its mortgage lending operations on August 5. The filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court listed the claim as disputed and ranked it as the largest unsecured claim against Taylor Bean. Taylor Bean said the claim was related to Ocala Funding, an entity set up by Taylor Bean to borrow money for short periods to fund home loans. The filing also listed a $9 million claim from James G. Hicks of Lawrenceville related to money owed for the acquisition of a mortgage company made by Taylor Bean. The company said approximately 100 Taylor Bean bank accounts were frozen by Colonial ...

Yesterday, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it was forced to shutter its mortgage lending operations earlier this month. The Ocala, Florida-based company had captured 1.7% market share nationwide by creating $17 billion of mortgage loans from January to June, 2009. On that basis, it was the 12th largest mortgage lender in the U.S. Taylor was also one of the largest U.S. home loan providers not owned by a large bank. As a result, there was lack of significant amount of deposits that could help cushion its capital position in the troubled market environment. The company filed for bankruptcy due to recent actions taken against it by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and mortgage financiers Freddie Mac (FRE) and the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). Further, the negative developments at Taylor were related to ...

[Editor's Note: After more than a year of chaos and controversy, some of the leading U.S. banks saw their stock prices soar during the second quarter. As part of its mid-year forecast series, Money Morning examines the outlook for U.S. banks for the rest of this year. To see earlier stories from our mid-year forecast series, please click here.] By Martin Hutchinson Contributing Editor Money Morning

Can U.S. bank stocks continue their winning streak?

In February, I analyzed the top 12 U.S. banks to determine whether they really needed $1.5 trillion in taxpayer-provided bailout capital. I concluded that only a few of those banks seemed to be in any danger of collapse, and actually recommended several.

Policymakers and the market later came to agree with me: The Standard & Poor’s 500 Financial Index has more than doubled from its March low and several bank stocks have posted triple-digit …

On Thursday June 4, 2009, several news items hit the tape which raise some concerns for Bank of America (BAC) over the near term regarding the potential for enhanced legal fee expenses and enhanced credit issues.First, Angelo Mozilo, former chairman of the once top U.S. mortgage lender Countrywide Financial -- which was acquired by BAC last year (the name was scrapped about 10 months later) -- and several other executives were accused by The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of fraud. A criminal investigation has occurred based on emails in Mr. Mozilo warned of his company's "toxic subprime mortgages" at the height of the housing boom.On Sept. 26, 2006, there was an email that stated, "The bottom line is that we are flying blind on how these loans will perform in a stressed environment of higher unemployment, reduced values and slowing home sales." This ...

The market had another off day, as the Dow was down -2.18%.  The NASDAQ closed at 1664.19 while the S&P closed at 883.92, as the two indexes were down -3.01% and -2.69% respectively.  The 10-year yield finished the day at 3.116% as prices on treasuries rose.  Crude oil was down today and settled at $58.02, while gold was up at the end of the day settling at $925.9o. 

In earning’s news, Freddie Mac [FRE: 0.80, -0.06 (-6.98%)] announced afterhours yesterday a loss of $9.85 billion, or $3.14 per share in the first quarter, stretching the loss from a year ago of $151 billion.  The government controlled mortgage lender saw revenue decline from $1.41 billion last year to $771 million this year as Freddie Mac continued to suffer from rising mortgage delinquencies and losses stemming from it owning mortgage backed securities.  Provisions to cover credit losses rose to $8.8 billion from $7 billion

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U.S. regulators finally revealed the results of the long-awaited stress tests for the nation’s largest banks. Regulators urged ten of the country’s nineteen largest financial institutions to raise about $75 billion in new capital to withstand possible future losses. These institutions will attempt to raise capital by selling common stock among other methods.

Among the institutions needing more capital, Bank of America needs to raise $33.9 billion, Wells Fargo needs to raise $13.7 billion, auto and mortgage lender GMAC needs to raise $11.5 billion, Citibank needs to raise $5.5 billion, and Morgan Stanley needs to raise $1.8 billion. The other firms needing some additional capital are all regional banks: Regions Financial, SunTrust Banks, KeyCorp, Fifth Third Bancorp, and PNC Financial.

The banks needing additional capital will have until June 8 to develop a plan and have it approved by their regulators. If the banks can’t raise the money on their

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Auto and mortgage lender GMAC LLC (NYSE: GKM) reported a first-quarter loss of $675 million and now faces further pressure from bank “stress tests” and freefalling sales volumes that may push its former parent General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) into bankruptcy.

GMAC is one of the 19 lenders waiting for results of the government’s “stress test,” designed to determine which firms need additional capital to weather a deep recession. Results are due Thursday, and some analysts believe GMAC will be one of the banks ordered to find more capital within six months.

Despite receiving a $6 billion government bailout in December, GMAC reported net losses increased to $675 million from $589 million a year earlier, as the Detroit-based company set aside 78% more for loan losses than a year earlier. “The effects of a soft economy and weaker credit performance on legacy assets continued to put

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span style=”font-weight:bold;”Borrowers Who Are Current on Their Mortgage Are Asking:/spanbr /br / * What help is available for borrowers who stay current on their mortgage payments but have seen their homes decrease in value?br /br /Under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, eligible borrowers who stay current on their mortgages but have been unable to refinance to lower their interest rates because their homes have decreased in value, may now have the opportunity to refinance into a 30 or 15 year, fixed rate loan. Through the program, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow the refinancing of mortgage loans that they hold in their portfolios or that they placed in mortgage backed securities.br /br / * I owe more than my property is worth, do I still qualify to refinance under the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan?br /br /Eligible loans will now …

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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