Bank of America's Countrywide Bet May Bolster Mortgage Market

Bank of United States Corp. bought $2 billion of preferable stock from Countrywide Financial Corp. to stabilise the nation's biggest mortgage loaner as radioactive dust from the U.S. lodging slack paralyzes recognition marketplaces worldwide.

``Countrywide is no longer on the endangered company list,'' Hood Ziegel & Co. analyst Dick Bove wrote in a short letter to clients yesterday. ``This investing do sense for both companies. Depository Financial Institution of United States will now presumably be the preferable loaner to Countrywide.''

Depository Financial Institution of America, the second-biggest U.S. bank, acquires shares that output 7.25 percentage and can be converted into common stock at a terms of $18, Calabasas, California-based Countrywide said yesterday in a statement. Countrywide shares climbed 21 percentage in drawn-out trading followers the announcement.

While Countrywide acquires hard cash needed to maintain making loans, the extract also may assist to reassure investors that the mortgage marketplace is safe after rising default rates sparked a planetary recognition crunch and forced the U.S. Federal Soldier Modesty to cut adoption costs for banks. The Fed's Aug. Seventeen move, designed to direct more than hard cash to companies starved for short-term financing, came a twenty-four hours after Countrywide tapped $11.5 billion of exigency recognition lines.

``With last week's Federal action and today's announcement, it looks that the mortgage working capital marketplaces will go back to more than normal degrees of activity and liquidness sooner than we thought,'' Fox-Pitt Kelton Inc. analyst Leslie Howard Shapiro wrote in a short letter to investors yesterday.

The proclamation sent Countrywide shares to $26.33 as of 7:07 p.m. yesterday, after they gained 3 cents to $21.82 in New House Of York Stock Exchange composite trading. Countrywide had dropped 49 percentage for the year, including the diminution that followed the Aug. Fifteen Merrill Lynch & Co. study predicting the company's hard cash deficit might coerce it into bankruptcy.

Off the List

Converting the preferable stock would give Depository Financial Institution of United States 111 million common shares, or a 16 percentage interest in Countrywide, Bove estimated. The dealing will be ``additive'' to Depository Financial Institution of America's earnings, he said.

``We were able to travel to California, expression at their trading operations and their books,'' said Henry Martin Robert Stickler, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Depository Financial Institution of America. ``We determined the value is greater than what the marketplace was giving them recognition for.''

The ballot of assurance sent shares of mortgage loaners up in after-hours trading. Thornburg Mortgage Inc. gained as much as 10 percent, IndyMac Bancorp added 7 percentage and American Capital Mutual Inc. advanced about 2.5 percent. Accredited Home Lenders Retention Co., which slashed 1,600 occupations yesterday in an attempt to sit out the mortgage meltdown, rose almost 9 percent.

Worth Less

Countrywide, which made $421.1 billion of loans last year, have struggled to maintain its terms after investors stopped buying mortgages and short-term debt investors refused to refinance its commercial paper.

The company may necessitate to raise more than working capital because falling terms for place loans inch the secondary market, where they're bought and sold by Wall Street traders, have got pared the value of its mortgage portfolio, according to Sean Egan, managing manager of Egan-Jones Ratings Co. in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

The assets are probably deserving ``less than its outstanding obligations,'' he said.

In January, Countrywide shares were buoyed by guess that it might be acquired by Depository Financial Institution of America. The stock tumbled after Depository Financial Institution of United States Head Executive Military Officer Kenneth Jerry Lee Lewis said he had reserves about the pattern of loaning through mortgage brokers, as Countrywide does.

``We like the product, but we don't like the business,'' Jerry Lee Lewis said Jan. 31. Six calendar months later, in a June 19 interview, he said the lag in place gross sales was ``just about over'' and predicted that the economic system would pick up in the 2nd one-half of this year.

Back to Normal

In yesterday's statement, Jerry Lee Lewis said Depository Financial Institution of America's investing in Countrywide ``will be a measure toward a tax return to more than normal liquidness in the mortgage markets.''

Countrywide chief executive officer Angelo Mozilo said the bank's investing ``strengthens our balance sheet, enabling us to place Countrywide for future growth.''

Depository Financial Institution of United States won't acquire any Countrywide board seating in connexion with its investment, Stickler said.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the greatest investment banker of U.S. chemical bonds backed by mortgages, announced yesterday that it will fold its subprime-lending unit and fire 1,200 employees. Accredited Home announced 1,600 occupation cuts, and HSBC Holdings Plc said it would get rid of 600 occupations in the U.S. and stopping point a mortgage business office in Indiana.

To reach the newsman on this story: Thomas Bradley Keoun in New House Of York at
.

Dollar Falls Against Euro on Speculation Fed Will Lower Rates

The dollar drop against the Euro for the first clip this hebdomad on guess the Federal Soldier Modesty will take down its mark charge per unit for loans between Banks to comfort credit- marketplace turmoil.

The U.S. dollar dropped against 12 of the 16 most-active currencies after Senate Banking Committee President Saint Christopher Dodd said yesterday Federal President Ben S. Bernanke agreed to utilize ``all of the tools at his disposal'' to reconstruct stableness in fiscal marketplaces roiled by the subprime mortgage crisis.

``The dollar is likely to fight against the euro,'' said Kengo Suzuki, currency strategian at Shinko Securities Co. inch Tokyo. ``It's go a inquiry of when the Federal will take down rates and this is a negative development for the dollar.''

The dollar drop to $1.3489 against the Euro at 7:10 a.m. inch Greater London from $1.3466 late yesterday in New York. Against the yen, it traded at 114.64 from 114.43. The U.S. currency may worsen to $1.3550 per Euro and 112 hankering next week, Suzuki said.

Dodd spoke yesterday after a meeting with Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in American Capital after broadening losings on mortgages to U.S. householders with mediocre recognition made fiscal establishments loath to put on the line loaning to each other.

``A cut in the Federal finances charge per unit may be what necessitates to be done,'' said Richard Grace, senior currency strategian at Commonwealth Depository Financial Institution of Commonwealth Of Australia in Sydney. ``We could see the dollar come up under some downward pressure.''

Interest-rate hereafters demo bargainers see 90 percentage likelihood the Federal will take down its benchmark charge per unit to 4.75 percentage from 5.25 percentage by adjacent month. The Federal adjacent rans into Sept. 18.

`Take Time'

The New House Of York Federal yesterday lowered the fee that chemical bond traders pay to borrow its Treasury Obligations to a record low pressure in a command to ease a deficit in the marketplace for loans backed by the securities. The Federal said in a statement the move is ``temporary.''

The Federal on Aug. Seventeen decreased the charge per unit it bear downs Banks for direct loans by 0.5 per centum point to 5.75 percent. The cardinal depository financial institution also dropped linguistic communication indicating a prejudice toward fighting rise prices and highlighted a rising menace to economical growth.

Paulson said yesterday in an interview with CNBC that volatility in recognition marketplaces related to subprime mortgage losings will ``take time'' to subside.

``The marketplace is anticipating some Federal charge per unit cuts,'' said Adam MacKillop, who merchandises U.S. chemical bonds at Barclays Capital Japanese Islands Ltd. inch Tokyo. ``That's going to be dollar-negative.''

`Bought Excessively'

Gains in the hankering were curbed as charts bargainers utilize to foretell terms motions signaled a 3.8 percentage progress this calendar month against the dollar was too fast. The 14-day relative strength index for the dollar-yen was 28. A degree below 30 bespeaks the yen's mass meeting may reverse.

``The hankering have been bought excessively,'' said Nobuaki Tani, a client director of the Market Trading Office at Resona Depository Financial Institution Ltd. inch Tokyo. ``There's a hazard those long places could be unwound, pushing the hankering down'' to 114.80 against the dollar and 154.50 per Euro today, he said. A long place is a stake that a currency will rise.

The BOJ will throw rates at the last among major economies, according to 43 of 46 economic experts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The output on three-month euroyen hereafters for September, at 0.82 percent, bespeaks bargainers are betting the BOJ will raise rates a quarter-percentage point to 0.75 percentage at its September meeting. The cardinal depository financial institution last raised rates in February.

To reach the newsmen on this story: Francis Edgar Stanley White Person in Tokio at
; Bokkos Harui in Capital Of Singapore at

SEIU Report on Nova Student Loan Program Sparks Concern and Underscores Need for Transparency

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A report released today by SEIU unveiled concerns with Nova Southeastern
University’s loan practices that involve
potential conflicts of interest, including many of the same concerns
currently being investigated by the New York Attorney General at other
universities, including a Nova financial aid call center run by a
private lender and additional bureaucracy for students who wish to use
non-preferred lenders.

CONCERNS:



Nova law school dean Joseph D. Harbaugh sits on the board of directors
of Access Group, one of the school’s
preferred lenders. A 2001 report by Harbaugh discussed how he brought
in the Access Group as a consultant for law students to discuss
budgeting and debt, with the goal of keeping student debt down.


As identified in the Miami Herald, Sallie Mae runs a Nova student loan
call center. Sallie Mae also appears to run Nova’s
graduate student loan website. Although the webpage has the NSU logo
and Office of Student Financial Assistance web banner at the top of
the page, the site is run through the Sallie Mae “e-fao.com”
site and says “powered by Sallie Mae”
in the lower right corner.


Students who wish to use a lender other than one on the preferred list
must complete additional paperwork. Nova’s
Guide to Student Financial Aid cautions students that choosing a
lender not listed on Nova’s preferred list
may result in a longer processing time.


Carl Buck, the Vice President of Peterson’s,
a subsidiary of Nelnet, presented a free seminar to Nova students on “The
Secrets of Financial Aid” in Fall 2006.

Nova should take this opportunity to be more transparent in how it
structures its student loans. The Florida state Attorney General has
started an investigation of Florida state schools and is calling on
universities across the state to sign an agreement to manage loans
without conflicts of interest.

A report released today unveiled concerns with Nova Southeastern
University’s loan practices that involve
potential conflicts of interest. SEIU researchers uncovered the
worrisome report on Nova’s student loan
practices as part of the growing concern over Nova’s
commitment to the community, as more than 100 low-wage service workers
were turned away from their jobs after forming a union.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo started investigations into the
relationship between colleges and lenders nation-wide, revealing that
preferred lender lists can increase costs for students.