Posted by Lisa on December 29, 2009 · View Comments
First, since we all have short attention span, little time to read a long soliloquy, and just plain old fashioned “I need it now” mentality I will give you my request regarding this article, and all that I post, as they are worth the read, and worth commenting upon at the site of the source journal (Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Barron’s, LA Times etc.).
1) Read the article with the embedded web address HERE:
2) Post your comments on their site along with the article. If you wish to additionally comment here, great, but the writers at respective journals really need and want your feedback.
Regarding today’s WSJ article by PETER LATTMAN And RUTH SIMON: First, they want to solicit your comments. Now, I will give you my take… The fact that IndyMac- now “OneWest” owns its latest crowning jewel, First Federal increasing branch number by more than double is just another clue for Congress’s WHO DONE IT game. So, we take a peek inside at One West, and find that the owners are all strangely connected to high powered Senators, and one man specifically Sen. Charles Schumer, and others. Since Indymac was called out by Charles Schumer, and right after, a bank run occurred, the FDIC was told by the OTS to close it and run it. The FDIC was watched by the Office of the Inspector General “OIG”, who later put out a scathing, almost apologetic report on themselves that the regulatory system had failed here. How sad, not for them, but for depositors, as this was just an experiment on a slide in a lab for them. For us, it was life savings, money to fund businesses, home improvements, all taxes paid, all assured by the bank, INDYMAC, to be fully insured.
If you were in trouble at sea, needed a life raft & someone told you the only way to save yourself was to kill your fellow man, would you? I don’t think so. OneWest is the financial version of a cannibal. These four investors, weak men who would eat their own young if it meant a few million more in their bottom line. Michael Dell- the computer genius- well maybe in his garage he could develop a program that makes bank accounts ring bells to owners if they are under insured. George Soros, the self effacing billionaire can perhaps just be quiet and quit putting his self hating foot in his mouth, as cleverly stated in a Jewish World Review article from December 2, 2003 by Jackie Mason and Raoul Felder. Steven Mnuchin, maybe he can start a group for homeless with the great hypocrite, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for soon to be homeless former IndyMac depositors and show his company’s investment film, Avatar film to entertain everyone. Perhaps Christopher Flowers can just sing a rendition of Dave Matthews “Gravedigger”, as he has self proclaimed himself a “grave dancer”.
The FDIC negotiations were likely a series of lame duck meetings, followed by, the offer by the ONEWEST investors to “take this token for Indymac & there is more where that came from, if you find yourself in a jam”. OneWest can afford to take banks off the hands of FDIC, keeping them from looking even more like the idiots they are & everyone except the people who EARNED and paid taxes on the cash is happy. Trouble is, they will be called out by those of us who do not give up until we connect all available dots. I hope one of us becomes important enough to listen to in Washington by those who care & know who we are.
Something smells really rotten in D.C., and Wall Street. You decide.
Go write about your comments on this article on the WSJ website.
Posted by Lisa on December 19, 2009 · View Comments
First Federal Bank of California and Imperial Capital Bank of La Jolla closed
Both are sold immediately to other Southern California institutions. Regulators have closed 140 U.S. banks this year, 16 in California.
- Related By E. Scott Reckard
-
Two more loss-battered Southern California banks were shut down by regulators Friday and immediately sold to two of the largest financial institutions based in the region.
Stung by defaults on tricky adjustable mortgages, 80-year-old First Federal Bank of California was closed by federal savings and loan regulators, with its 39 branches to reopen today as part of OneWest Bank.
Pasadena-based OneWest, created early this year from the ashes of collapsed home lender IndyMac Bank, agreed to assume all of First Federal’s deposits, so no customers will lose money, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
In Friday’s other California failure, Imperial Capital Bank of La Jolla, rocked by troubled loans for apartments and commercial mortgages, was dealt off by the FDIC to City National Bank of Los Angeles, which is emerging as one of the survivors of the banking industry’s near-meltdown.
Like OneWest, City National agreed to assume all of the acquired bank’s deposits, even amounts that exceeded the FDIC’s caps on insurance coverage.
Imperial Capital’s nine branches — six in California, one in Maryland and two in Nevada — are to reopen Monday as City National offices.
City National was the largest commercial bank with headquarters in Southern California until Pasadena’s East West Bank agreed last month to take over a failed rival in the Chinese American niche, San Francisco’s United Commercial Bank. That deal beefed up East West, giving it $19 billion in assets to City National’s $18 billion.
The latest combinations gives City National more than $21 billion in assets and OneWest about $24 billion, although such comparisons matter little given the fact that the acquirers will have to spend much of their time downsizing by working through portfolios of distressed loans. Indeed, OneWest’s balance sheet is still stuffed with IndyMac loans that had been targeted for sale before the private market for mortgages dried up, although the FDIC is sharing losses on those loans.
The failures bring to 140 the number of U.S. banks that have gone under this year as many loans made during the housing boom earlier this decade have soured.
Of California’s 16 bank failures this year, First Federal and Imperial Capital rank No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, based on total assets.
OneWest is owned by a group of private equity investors that teamed up this year to buy IndyMac Bank from the FDIC months after the Pasadena thrift failed under the weight of defaults on lightly documented loans. The investors had said they hoped to buy nearby banks that also had run into problems with residential mortgages.
First Federal, a savings and loan originally based in Santa Monica, fit that description, having booked $547 million in losses over the last seven quarters on so-called pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages. Such loans, also known as option ARMs, allowed borrowers to pay so little each month that their loan balances could increase.
Babette Heimbuch, chief executive of First Federal and its parent company, FirstFed Financial Corp., tendered her resignation last week. The S&L had $6.1 billion in total assets and $4.5 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30.
In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, OneWest agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets, with the FDIC absorbing some of the losses on them.
OneWest also announced that it would join in what is becoming an industry-wide moratorium on home foreclosures during the holiday season.
City National, which recently moved its headquarters from Beverly Hills to Los Angeles, serves mostly wealthy individuals and small businesses. It has remained well-capitalized despite recent losses on construction and commercial lending.
Imperial Capital, with $4 billion in assets and $2.2 billion in deposits, failed to meet a Dec. 14 deadline set by state regulators to raise $200 million in capital. It had lost $112 million in the first three quarters of this year.
City National is taking on about $3.4 billion of Imperial Capital’s assets. The FDIC agreed to assume a portion of future losses on those assets. The agency said it would keep the remainder of Imperial Capital’s portfolio for now.
“Imperial Capital Bank is a very good fit for City National, given that eight of its nine locations are in communities we serve,” Russell Goldsmith, chief executive of the bank and its parent company, City National Corp., said in a statement.
Because some of Imperial Capital’s branches are close to City National locations, Goldsmith said he expected that some branches would be closed. But others, such as Imperial’s San Francisco site, will be added to City National’s existing 64-branch network, he said.
“We haven’t made any final determinations yet,” he said.
Neither acquiring bank released details about layoffs, which normally follow bank mergers because they tend to create overlap not only in the branches but also in back-office operations.
City National said it would keep Imperial Capital’s 140 employees on the payroll, with health benefits, through the holidays while studying the issue.
The failure of First Federal is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $146.3 million. Losses on Imperial Capital’s failure were estimated at $619.2 million.
Earlier Friday, regulators closed five banks in other states: RockBridge Commercial Bank in Atlanta; New South Federal Savings Bank of Irondale, Ala.; People’s First Community Bank of Panama City, Fla.; Independent Bankers’ Bank of Springfield, Ill.; and Citizens State Bank, New Baltimore, Mich.
scott.reckard@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Posted by Lisa on December 17, 2009 · View Comments
Manhattan Beach resident spearheads fight for IndyMac funds
By Muhammed El-Hasan Business Writer
Posted: 12/16/2009 04:51:48 PM PST
Lisa Marshall stands in front of OneWest Bank in Manhattan Beach, formerly IndyMac Federal Bank, where Marshall lost $60,000 when Indymac failed last year. Marshall started a web site called indymacdepositors.com in an effort to rally former customers to get their money back. (Robert Casillas/Staff Photographer)
Manhattan Beach resident Lisa Marshall, who works as a flight instructor at Long Beach Airport, has seen business nose-dive because of the recession.
And even as the economy slowly recovers, potential flight students are still reluctant to open their wallets.
As a result, Marshall is looking for additional work in sales and marketing, having landing a few job interviews but nothing more.
“I’m trying so hard, but it’s crazy,” Marshall, 45, said.
Given the weak job prospects, Marshall says she sure could use an extra $60,000.
Or closer to $62,000, to be more precise.
That is how much Marshall lost when IndyMac Federal Bank failed last year amid a worldwide financial meltdown.
Today, she heads an effort by former IndyMac depositors to recover their lost money by calling, writing and meeting with members of Congress.
In January of this year, Marshall started blogging about the need for depositors to take action through her Web site IndyMacDepositors.com.
Marshall said she has about 300 fellow depositors on her e-mailing list.
“I’m angry. It’s money I earned and paid taxes on,” Marshall said. “We’re trying to turn anger into focus.”
That focus suffered a major setback last week when the House of Representatives Rules Committee voted 8 to 4, with one abstention, to reject an amendment, to a massive financial reform bill, that would have
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allowed IndyMac depositors to recover money they lost when the Pasadena-based thrift collapsed on July 11 of last year.
The excluded legislation was proposed by Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, but offered by Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, because Harman does not sit on the Rules Committee.
That amendment would have used Consumer Financial Protection Agency funds to extend the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. safety net from $100,000 to $250,000, for the 8,700 IndyMac depositors who had funds in the bank in excess of $100,000.
IndyMac failed before the FDIC raised its limit to $250,000 on Oct. 3 of last year. So the legislation would, in effect, retroactively expand FDIC insurance for IndyMac deposits.
Total losses by IndyMac depositors amount to more than $270 million, with those who had more than $100,000 in the bank receiving from the FDIC 50 cents on the dollar for the excess funds.
“Congress has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Detroit and Wall Street, but today turned its back on Main Street,” Harman said in a statement after the vote. “My amendment to make IndyMac depositors whole would have cost pennies in comparison, and would have helped thousands of Americans, including hundreds in the South Bay, make mortgage payments, send their kids to school or enjoy a secure retirement.”
When IndyMac collapsed, it was the largest savings and loan association in the Los Angeles area and the seventh largest mortgage originator in the United States.
According to Harman spokesman Eben Kaplan, the IndyMac debacle is worthy of the proposed legislation because of the bank’s large size, “some evidence” that the thrift had misled depositors about the safety of their money and possibly falsified financial statements by the financial institution.
Before its collapse, IndyMac had two branches in the South Bay, one in Manhattan Beach and another in Torrance.
The thrift has since been renamed OneWest Bank.
Marshall said she started her Web site “on principal because I thought it was outrageous what had happened to us.”
“I’ve been amazed through this whole process when people don’t know where to start, they don’t start anything,” she said. “People just have to start somewhere. You say, `Hey, call your congressperson,’ and they do. And they never did it before.”
Marshall helped advertise her Web site by picketing in front of IndyMac branches and the Pasadena headquarters after the collapse.
Carlene Eckhart, a Manhattan Beach resident who along with her husband lost thousands when IndyMac failed, participated in those demonstrations.
“You really have to give Lisa a tremendous amount of credit,” Eckhart said. “She has done so much for the group. For those of us who don’t know how to use word processing or really use the Internet, she would send us attachments of letters we could print out and mail.”
With last week’s failure in the House, Marshall said her group’s next step is to reach out to senators who may be able to help the depositors’ cause.
“I just considered this good practice to get this through the Senate,” Marshall said. “Although I was disappointed, you can’t be too shocked because you just have to try things and see what works.”
muhammed.el-hasan@dailybreeze.com
Link to this site: http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/ci_14011396
Posted by Lisa on December 11, 2009 · View Comments
PRESS RELEASE
2400 Rayburn Building, Washington, DC 20515 http://www.house.gov/harman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Eben Kaplan
December 10, 2009 (202) 226-7282
HARMAN VOTES AGAINST RULE TO BRING REGULATORY REFORM BILL TO HOUSE FLOOR, PROTESTING ABANDONMENT OF INDYMAC INVESTORS
~ Lawmaker says Congress “turned its back on Main Street” ~
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Venice) today voted “no” in a procedural rule vote to bring the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173) under consideration by the House. Her vote was a protest against the exclusion by the Rules Committee of her amendment to make whole 8,700 former IndyMac Bank customers who lost millions in deposits when the bank collapsed in July of last year. Harman’s proposal—presented as an amendment to H.R. 4173—would have used Consumer Financial Protection Agency funds to extend the FDIC safety net to investors who lost deposits in excess of $100,000 but below the new FDIC limit of $250,000.
IndyMac was the largest savings and loan association in the Los Angeles area and the seventh largest mortgage originator in the U.S. The bank’s failure on July 11, 2008 was the fourth largest in U.S. history and the second largest of a regulated savings and loan association.
“Congress has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Detroit and Wall Street, but today turned its back on Main Street,” said Harman. “My amendment to make IndyMac depositors whole would have cost pennies in comparison, and would have helped thousands of Americans, including hundreds in the South Bay, make mortgage payments, send their kids to school or enjoy a secure retirement.”
###
______________
Eben Kaplan
Communications Director
Congresswoman Jane Harman
Washington, DC 20515
202-226-7282 (Direct)
202-713-6510 (Mobile)
Subscribe to Rep. Harman’s e-newsletter.
Posted by Lisa on December 10, 2009 · View Comments
See this article in the Pasadena Star News
Click for Article
Cheers
Posted by Lisa on December 10, 2009 · View Comments
From Ron Bucell, Florida…
I sent this letter(via fax) to Pete Sessions (I was not able to get thru phone to speak to anyone)
Yesterday I wrote regarding the above subject and will include a copy of the letter in this correspondence that follows.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
WE THE DEPOITORS, CREATED THE BUSINESS’S, THE JOBS AND THE CAPITAL, AND THEN INTRUSTED OUR MONIES INTO BANKS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN REGULATED AS REQUIRED BY LAW. AND BECAUSE THE AGENCIES DID NOT WATCH OVER THE BANKS AS IS REQUIRED BY LAW, (THE BANKS, THE BROKERS, MORTGAGE BUYERS WERE ALLOWED TO BREAK THESE LAWS) WHICH CAUSED CAUSED THE FAILURE AT INDYMAC.
And when this failure at Inidymac occured it became appearant to the government that the FDIC coverage of 100K was not sufficient and should be permanantly changed to 250K per eligible account/depositor.
Therefore it would only be just to make the new coveerageage retroactive to cover the Indymac depositors.
If you and others vote yes to do this ( using TARP) monies I promise to put the monies back into the economy.
A Plea for help !!!
Not only was I an Indymac depositor (for business use & for personal future retirement savings) who lost 167,000.00 in monies deemed uninsured,
- but I was a small business owner, whom has started 5 successful different business over
over the last 30 plus years and whom has created and employed 100+ workers over that
time frame.
- as a result i have had to close my current businesses and can no longer employ workers.
- I have never asked for or taken ( nor would I ) any public assistance or government monies
of any kind nor would I.
- I and my wife now drive a 16 year old van and clip coupons and sell things on ebay to get by.
- As required by law, i I have declared & paid taxes on interest earned on paper
( Principal and Interest on monies that I have not and will never see ).
Kind of Ironic, that you have to pay taxes on Interest credited to an an account whose
balance was reduced by 167,000.00 ( which was more than 10x the amount of interest earned)
-
Before opening the account I was told by Indymac supervisor and also by a supervisor
at the FDIC (whom i called prior) that I plus all named ITF (in trust for’s) would each
receive 100k insurance coverage. Unfortunately this is incorrect, (as i learned from a
newly created FDIC calculator program that did not exist prior) when the person whose
account it is names ITF’s then that person no longer counts as one of the names eligible
for for 100k insurance coverage.
———————–
- And some how by sheer luck the buyers of the indymac bank paid a price equal to an amount that just covered the 50% advance paid out to depositors. How would FDIC officals know immediately after taking over the bank how much they would be able to seell it for.
- And then the new owners (whose paid and put up pennies on thee dollar) were given a cap of 20% losses on any non-performing loans whereby the govt would pay an additional losses.
- so if the govt was guaranteeing 80-90% of the asset value why were depositors only given 50% and then told there would be no more monies paid out.
————————
– the FDIC agenicies that are supposed to watch over banks were asleep and corrupt (in telling Indymac to falsify deposit records) which directly allowed thee greedy/corrupt bankers and mortgage brokers to line their pockets which commissions
on inflated asset value….
— Then the govt rewarded those with mortgages who got in over their heads, reducing their interest to near zero and extending their payments out as much as 40 years.
— The govt also reward first time home buyers with an 8000 tax credit, that should go to all home buyers
It should not have gone to just first time home buyers since they are the ones with the least credit who got themselves into
crazy mortgages with variable rates…
The govt also then bailed out insurance companies who owned thesee assets and were suppoosed to be in part responsible
for mortgage insurance on 1st and 2ndmortgages…
—————————
WE THE DEPOITORS CREDITED THE BUSINESS’S, THE JOBS AND THE CAPITAL, AND THEN INTRUSTED OUR MONIES INTO BANKS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN REGULATED AS REQUIRED BY LAW. AND BECAUSE THE AGENCIES DID NOT WATCH OVER THE BANKS AS IS REQUIRED BY LAW, (THE BANKS, THE BROKERS, MORTGAGE BUYERS WERE ALLOWED TO BREAK THESE LAWS) WHICH CAUSED CAUSED THE FAILURE AT INDYMAC.
And when this failure at Inidymac occured it became appearant to the government that the FDIC coverage of 100K was not
sufficient and should be permanantly changed to 250K per eligible account/depositor.
Therefore it would only be just to make the new coveerageage retroactive to cover the Indymac depositors.
If you and others vote yes to do this ( using TARP) monies I promise to put the monies back into the economy.
Sincerely
Ronald Bucell
Posted by Lisa on December 8, 2009 · View Comments
Special thanks to Congresswoman Jane Harman from California for introducing and Amendment to HR 4173 that would retroactively increase the FDIC insurance limit to $250,000 beginning July 11, 2008. This would now include all those depositors who had funds with IndyMac Bank when it failed.
<< Click on the image to the left to read the Amendment.
Bravo Congresswoman Harman!
Posted by Lisa on December 4, 2009 · View Comments
Read the whole LA Times article about citizen’s decline in the use of banking system.
Read more