by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2010 11:54:00 PM

This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources. Changes and comments from surferdude808:

As anticipated last week, the FDIC released its enforcement actions for February, which contributed to major changes in the Unofficial Problem Bank List. The list includes 684 institutions with aggregate assets of $351.2 billion, up from 653 institutions with assets of $332 billion last week.

Additions are 35 institutions with assets of $20.3 billion while 4 institutions with assets of $1 billion were removed. Removals include the three failures this week -- Desert Hills Bank ($497 million), Unity National Bank ($301 million), and Key West Bank ($88 million), and one action termination against Citizens Bank, New Tazewell, TN ($150 million).

Most notable among the 35 additions are Citizens Bank, Flint, MI ($11.3 billion Ticker: CRBC); Mile High Banks, Longmont, CO ($1.3 billion); United Security Bank, Fresno, CA ($694 million Ticker: UBFO); First Central Savings Bank, Glen Cove, NY ($683 million); and Finance Factors, Ltd., Honolulu, HI ($654 million).

In addition, Bank of Florida Corporation (Ticker: BOFL), with consolidated assets of $1.5 billion, announced that its three banking subsidiaries -- Bank of Florida - Southeast, Bank of Florida - Southwest, and Bank of Florida - Tampa Bay, received a Prompt Corrective Action order from the FDIC. The other new addition via a Prompt Corrective Action is AmericanFirst Bank, Clermont, FL ($90 million).

A few institutions already on the list also received a Prompt Corrective Action order including AmericanWest Bank, Spokane, WA ($1.6 billion Ticker: AWBC.PK); Ventura County Business Bank, Oxnard, CA ($93 million Ticker: VCBB.OB); and High Desert State Bank, Albuquerque, NM ($82 million).

The list is compiled from regulator press releases or from public news sources (see Enforcement Action Type link for source). The FDIC data is released monthly with a delay, and the Fed and OTC data is more timely. The OCC data is a little lagged. Credit: surferdude808.

See description below table for Class and Cert (and a link to FDIC ID system).

For a full screen version of the table click here.

The table is wide - use scroll bars to see all information!

NOTE: Columns are sortable - click on column header (Assets, State, Bank Name, Date, etc.)



Class: from FDIC

The FDIC assigns classification codes indicating an institution's charter type (commercial bank, savings bank, or savings association), its chartering agent (state or federal government), its Federal Reserve membership status (member or nonmember), and its primary federal regulator (state-chartered institutions are subject to both federal and state supervision). These codes are:

N National chartered commercial bank supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

SM State charter Fed member commercial bank supervised by the Federal Reserve

NM State charter Fed nonmember commercial bank supervised by the FDIC

SA State or federal charter savings association supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision

SB State charter savings bank supervised by the FDIC

Cert: This is the certificate number assigned by the FDIC used to identify institutions and for the issuance of insurance certificates. Click on the number and the Institution Directory (ID) system "will provide the last demographic and financial data filed by the selected institution".

by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2010 07:03:00 PM

The hills are alive...
Not with the sound of money
But with banks failing
by Soylent Green is People
From the FDIC:New York Community Bank, Westbury, New York, Assumes All of the Deposits of Desert Hills Bank, Phoenix, Arizona

Desert Hills Bank, Phoenix, Arizona, was closed today by the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver....

As of December 31, 2009, Desert Hills Bank had approximately $496.6 million in total assets and $426.5 million in total deposits. ...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $106.7 million. .... Desert Hills Bank is the 40th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Arizona. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Valley Capital Bank, N.A., Mesa, on December 11, 2009.

Hey - the FDIC used #40 twice! This is really 41 ...

by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2010 06:07:00 PM

Spring training begins
Banks versus Bair's big sluggers
First inning triple.
by Soylent Green is People
From the FDIC: CharterBank, West Point, Georgia, Assumes All of the Deposits of McIntosh Commercial Bank, Carrollton, Georgia

McIntosh Commercial Bank, Carrollton, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. ...

As of December 31, 2009, McIntosh Commercial Bank had approximately $362.9 million in total assets and $343.3 million in total deposits. ...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $123.3 million. ... McIntosh Commercial Bank is the 38th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the sixth in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Bank of Hiawassee, Hiawassee, on March 19, 2010.

From the FDIC: Centennial Bank, Conway, Arkansas, Assumes All of the Deposits of Key West Bank, Key West, Florida

Key West Bank, Key West, Florida, was closed today by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. ...

As of December 31, 2009, Key West Bank had approximately $88.0 million in total assets and $67.7 million in total deposits....

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $23.1 million. ... Key West Bank is the 39th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the sixth in Florida. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Old Southern Bank, Orlando, on March 12, 2010.

From the FDIC: Bank of the Ozarks, Little Rock, Arkansas, Assumes All of the Deposits of Unity National Bank, Cartersville, Georgia

Unity National Bank, Cartersville, Georgia, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver....


As of December 31, 2009, Unity National Bank had approximately $292.2 million in total assets and $264.3 million in total deposits. ...

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $67.2 million. ... Unity National Bank is the 40th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the seventh in Georgia. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was McIntosh Commercial Bank, Carrollton, earlier today.

It is Friday!

by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2010 02:49:00 PM

There are four elements to the Making Home Affordable Program Enhancements:

1. Temporary Assistance for Unemployed Homeowners While They Search for Re-Employment

2. Requirement to Consider Alternative Principal Write-down Approach and Increased Principal Write-down Incentives

3. Improvements to Reach More Borrowers with HAMP Modifications

4. Helping Homeowners Move to More Affordable Housing

The focus is on principal writedowns, but possibly the bigger impact will be from the fourth point - the HAFA program (short sales and deed-in-lieu).

The temporary assistance is just that - temporary. Hopefully the homeowner will find a job otherwise most borrowers will be moved on to #4.

4. Helping Homeowners Move to More Affordable Housing

Increase incentives to provide more homeowners with foreclosure alternatives

Increase payoffs to subordinate lien holders who agree to release borrowers from debt to facilitate greater use of foreclosure alternatives including short sales or deeds-in-lieu.

The new payoff schedule allows servicers to increase the maximum payoff to subordinate lien holders to 6 percent of the outstanding loan balance and doubles from $1,000 to $2,000 the incentive reimbursement that is available to investors for subordinate lien payoffs, subject to an overall cap of $6,000.

Increase servicer incentive payments from $1,000 to $1,500 to increase use of foreclosure alternatives and encourage additional outreach to homeowners unable to complete a modification.

Double relocation assistance payment for borrowers successfully completing foreclosure alternative to $3,000

Help homeowners who use a short sale or deed-in-lieu to transition more quickly to housing they can afford.

I think this change will impact the most borrowers (I think principal reduction will be a limited tool). Treasury is doubling the incentive for 2nd lien holders (may still not be enough), and increasing the incentive for servicers and borrowers.

This is the HAFA program that is scheduled to start in early April. This will probably only apply to around 3 million of the 8 million homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgage (initial guess). And probably only about half of those 3 million will receive a modification or use a short sale.

by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2010 11:41:00 AM

There are a number of changes to HAMP announced today. This includes help for unemployed homeowners and more outreach. David Streitfeld at the NY Times gives an overview: U.S. Plans Big Expansion in Effort to Aid Homeowners.

Here is a fact sheet from Treasury on these changes.

The key changes are principal reductions and larger payments to 2nd liens (including for HAFA short sales). For short sales, the 2nd lien payment has been doubled from 3% of the outstanding balance to 6% - although this is probably still below the typical recovery rate for 2nd liens.

From Treasury on short sales (and deed-in-lieu):

Increase payoffs to subordinate lien holders who agree to release borrowers from debt to facilitate greater use of foreclosure alternatives including short sales or deeds-in-lieu.

The new payoff schedule allows servicers to increase the maximum payoff to subordinate lien holders to 6 percent of the outstanding loan balance and doubles from $1,000 to $2,000 the incentive reimbursement that is available to investors for subordinate lien payoffs, subject to an overall cap of $6,000.

For 1st lien principal reduction, the incentive from the Federal Government (taxpayers) is to pay 15 cents on the dollar for reductions in the unpaid principal balance for LTVs (loan-to-values) between 115% and 140%. For LTVs above 140%, the payment is 10 cents on the dollar, and for reductions below 115%, the payment increases to 21 cents on the dollar.

The Treasury has some examples here for the various changes.

An example of principal reduction (optional):

Click on example for larger image in new window.

So this is 133% LTV. So the taxpayers will pay 15 cents on the dollar to the lender to reduce the principal by $33,000. This is a payment of $4,950 (the lender takes a loss of $28,050). This still leave the borrower with a LTV of 115%.

by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2010 10:00:00 AM

From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary

Twenty-seven states recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 7 states and the District of Columbia registered rate decreases, and 16 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the year, jobless rates increased in 46 states and the District of Columbia and declined in 4 states.
...
Michigan again recorded the highest unemployment rate among the states, 14.1 percent in February. The states with the next highest rates were Nevada, 13.2 percent; Rhode Island, 12.7 percent; California and South Carolina, 12.5 percent each; and Florida, 12.2 percent. North Dakota continued to register the lowest jobless rate, 4.1 percent in February, followed by Nebraska and South Dakota, 4.8 percent each. The rates in Florida and Nevada set new series highs, as did the rates in two other states: Georgia (10.5 percent) and North Carolina (11.2 percent).
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the high and low unemployment rates for each state (and D.C.) since 1976. The red bar is the current unemployment rate (sorted by the current unemployment rate).

Fifteen states and D.C. now have double digit unemployment rates. New Jersey and Indiana are close.

Four states and set new series record highs: Florida, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina. Three other states tied series record highs: California, Rhode Island and South Carolina.

by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2010 09:10:00 AM

For the MBS countdown I've been using the Atlanta Fed numbers and there was some rounding involved. Instead of $2 billion more to go, the Fed will buy $6.075 billion in MBS over the final week.

The program ends in a few days, and Adam Quinones at Mortgage News Daily was kind of enough to send me his spreadsheet (thanks!). Here is his story: Fed's MBS Purchase Program: One Week To Go

Since the inception of the program in January 2009, the Fed has spent $1.244 trillion in the agency MBS market, or 99.5 percent of the allocated $1.25 trillion, which is scheduled to run out next Wednesday. With one week left in the program, there is now only $6.1 billion in funding remaining.

by Calculated Risk on 3/26/2010 08:18:00 AM

From the BEA:

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 ... Real personal consumption expenditures increased 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter.

The headline GDP number was revised down to 5.6% annualized growth in Q4 (from 5.9%). The following table shows the changes from the "advance estimate" to the "second estimate" to the "third estimate" for several key categories:

	Advance	Second Estimate	Third Estimate
GDP	5.7%	5.9%	5.6%
PCE	2.0%	1.7%	1.6%
Residential Investment	5.7%	5.0%	3.8%
Structures	-15.4%	-13.9%	-18.0%
Equipment & Software	13.3%	18.2%	19.0%

Note that PCE and Residential Investment (RI) - the two leading categories - were both revised down for Q4. This suggests that final demand was weaker in Q4 than in the previous two estimates.

by Calculated Risk on 3/25/2010 08:37:00 PM

1) From David Streitfeld and Sewell Chan at the NY Times: U.S. Plans to Expand Aid to Troubled Homeowners

One major element of the program ... will strongly encourage lenders to write down the value of loans for borrowers in modification programs. Until now, modification programs have focused on lowering interest rates.

2) From the WSJ: Europeans Agree on Bailout for Greece

Leaders of the 16-nation euro zone ... backed a deal under which they and the International Monetary Fund would jointly bail out Greece should the country's debt troubles intensify.

The agreement won't immediately trigger a Greek rescue, but it lays the groundwork for both the first intervention by the IMF in a euro-zone country and a major relaxation of the tight restrictions on country-to-country bailouts that have been a feature of the currency union since its birth.

3) Tallest office tower in Seattle is "underwater", from Eric Pryne at the Seattle Times: Columbia Center misses mortgage payment

When [Beacon Capital Partners] bought the Columbia Center in April 2007 it was 89 percent leased. The firm paid $621 million, according to county records, and borrowed a total of $480 million to help pay for the tower.

... At the Columbia Center ... almost 600,000 square feet — nearly 40 percent of the building — is listed as "available" on online commercial real-estate database Officespace.com. ... Its assessed value now is $380 million.

4) From Mary Ann Milbourn at the O.C. Register: 130,000 in Calif. due to lose jobless benefits

As many as 130,000 Californians are expected to exhaust their unemployment benefits within the next three weeks, based on estimates from the state Employment Development Department. About 3,300 already have fallen off the unemployment rolls.

Currently, the unemployed in California are eligible for up to 99 weeks of benefits — 26 weeks of regular unemployment plus four extensions and so-called FedEd relief.

Loree Levy, an EDD spokeswoman, said it was the first time in two years that the department is seeing large numbers of people running out of benefits.

by Calculated Risk on 3/25/2010 05:55:00 PM

Senior administration officials will update reporters on the Obama administration’s housing policy on Friday at 10 AM ET. This will include Michael Barr and Herbert Allison, both from Treasury, FHA Commissioner David Stevens, and Diana Farrell of the National Economic Council.

Complete details will be available tomorrow, but I've been told ...

1) Principal reduction will be optional, but it will at the top of the waterfall.

Note on current "Waterfall": Right now according to HAMP guidelines, "servicers must apply the modification steps enumerated below in the stated order of succession until the borrower’s monthly mortgage payment ratio is reduced as close as possible to 31 percent ...

Step 1: Capitalization of accrued interest and expenses.

Step 2: "Reduce the starting interest rate in increments of .125 percent to get as close as possible to the target monthly mortgage payment ratio. The interest rate floor in all cases is 2.0 percent."

Step 3: Extend the term and reamortize.

Step 4: If necessary, the servicer must provide for principal forbearance to achieve the target monthly mortgage payment ratio.

2) Servicers will be required to completely underwrite each loan.

3) Apparently after the new underwriting, the FHA might take out some of the loans. This will be interesting to see the details ...

4) TARP funds will be used to make this work (not clear how much or for what purpose).

5) These changes will apparently take effect in September.

And from the WaPo: Obama administration to order lenders to cut mortgage payments for jobless

The Obama administration plans to overhaul how it's tackling the foreclosure crisis, in part by requiring lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed, senior officials said Thursday.
...
The administration's newest push also seeks to more aggressively help borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, by encouraging lenders to cut the loan balances of millions of these distressed homeowners and possibly refinance into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration.
...
For one, the government will for the first time provide financial incentives to lenders that cut the balance of a borrower's mortgage. ...

Second, government will double the amount it pays to lenders that help modify second mortgages ...

Third, the administration is increasingly turning to the Federal Housing Administration to help underwater borrowers who are still keeping up their payments. ...