Bloomberg - "IndyMac, Rivals Make `Major Changes' in Home Lending" (8-2-07)

"IndyMac Bancorp Inc. is joining rival lenders in making 'very major changes' to home-loan standards and charging higher rates because of a slump in mortgage securities, the company's chief executive officer said. The market for mortgage bonds has become 'very panicked and illiquid,' CEO Michael Perry wrote in e-mail to employees yesterday. National City Corp. this week stopped buying second mortgages from other lenders and making some stated-income loans. Wachovia Corp., the fourth-biggest U.S. bank, today decided to stop making Alt A mortgages through brokers."

Bloomberg - "American Home Ends Loans; GE, CIT Seek Exit: Subprime Scorecard" (8-2-07)

"The table below tracks sales, shutdowns, bankruptcies and transactions tied to home lenders. At least 70 mortgage companies have halted operations, gone bankrupt or sought buyers since the start of 2006, according to Bloomberg data. Overdue payments on U.S. subprime mortgages rose to the highest level since 2002 during the first quarter of this year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association."

Telegram.com - "Cold feet becoming the factor" (8-2-07)

"The widening fallout in the U.S. mortgage industry has reminded investors of a risk they had forgotten: the fear of risk itself. As unpaid mortgages and bankrupt lenders bring the weakest segments of the mortgage industry to its knees, investors have begun dumping debt and other investments that would seem to have nothing to do with home loans."

Reuters - "Accredited Home says survival in doubt" (8-2-07)

"Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. (LEND.O: Quote, Profile, Research), a subprime mortgage lender that agreed in June to be acquired, said its survival is in doubt and that bankruptcy is possible, sending its shares down as much as 52.5 percent. In its delayed 2006 annual report filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, San Diego-based Accredited said it could not guarantee it would remain a 'going concern' as market conditions worsen for subprime lenders."

Business Week - "The Pain Moves Beyond Subprime" (8-2-07)

"On July 31 the stock market resumed a downdraft that had begun a week earlier, and once again bad news from a financial company triggered the sell-off. Shares of American Home Mortgage Investment (AHM) plunged 88% after the Melville (N.Y.) lender to homeowners with decent credit histories warned that it's facing serious liquidity issues and may be forced to close. For the year, the widely followed KBW Bank Index of the 24 largest lenders has fallen 10%, caused mostly by the meltdown in the subprime mortgage industry. And because financial shares make up 20% of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index—its biggest component—the pain has spread. Without them, the S&P would have been up 5.6% in 2007 through July instead of the 2.6% it logged."

Business Week - "Accredited warns about solvency" (8-2-07)

"Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., a nonbank mortgage lender, may not be able to remain solvent as the subprime mortgage market rapidly deteriorates and lenders seek to cut their potential losses, the company said in a regulatory filing Thursday. 'We face significant challenges due to adverse conditions in the non-prime mortgage industry, and we cannot assure you that we will continue to operate as a going concern,' the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission."