Regulators today seized two California banks with six branches in Orange County. Los Angeles-based First Federal Bank of California failed. Its 39 branches, including five in Orange County, and all its deposits are being turned over to OneWest Bank in Pasadena, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Consumer…

Latest in bad debt dumping from National Mortgage News: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is contemplating securitizing at least $10 billion of delinquent and underperforming whole loans belonging to failed banks in the first quarter, according to investment banking sources who have been briefed about the plan. These sources,…

Bloomberg reports: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. barred the former controller of New Century Financial Corp., once the third-largest subprime lender, from working as a contractor for the agency after he was sued for alleged securities fraud, a person familiar with the matter said. David Kenneally worked until this…

Time magazine named Fed Chief Ben Bernanke as Person of the Year 2009. Does he deserve it? Yes No View Results Post from: Mortgage Insider
Read more here – Did Bernanke save us all?

This could be one of the biggest bad-debt sales in history — Paul Muolo of National Mortgage News writes: Every so gingerly, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are beginning to contemplate selling their nonperforming mortgages — roughly $250 billion worth of single-family product — in the open market. But…

Pacific Coast National Bank of San Clemente was closed today by federal regulators. Customers with money in Pacific Coast need not fear for their deposits — they will all be assumed by Sunwest Bank in Tustin. The two branches of Pacific Coast National Bank will reopen on Monday as…

The government’s mortgage insurance program, which has become a key pillar of the housing recovery, reported this week a steep drop in cash reserves, increasing the likelihood of a taxpayer funded bailout. I’m a day late to this news, but I wanted to blog on the Federal Housing Administration’s…

First Dupage Bank of Westmont, Illinois, was closed today, becoming the 106th failure of an FDIC-insured lender this year. Read more HERE. Other banks that failed today are: Riverview Community Bank of Otsego, Minnesota. Read more HERE. American United Bank of Lawrenceville, Georgia. Read more HERE. Partners Bank of…

Tad Lowrey, chief executive of CapitalSource Bank in Los Angeles, said the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s plan to make banks prepay $45 billion in fees is an ingenious way for government to borrow from banks and have the cash necessary to deal with more bank failures. “I’m not very…

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which protects consumer deposits at banks, said in a much anticipated release: The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation today adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) that would require insured institutions to prepay their estimated quarterly risk-based assessments for the…