The biggest casualties are wholesale lending units - which mortgage brokers depend on to fund their business. The latest wholesale operations to close this year include those of Accredited Home Lenders Inc., Homecomings Financial LLC and Wachovia Corp. In addition, CitiMortgage recently slashed its wholesale operations.
Among the largest recent mortgage-related collapses were Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac and Washington Mutual.
While the number of pure-play mortgage entities to fail this year is on track to drop significantly from last year, the number of bank failures is on the rise. Through Oct. 10, a total of 15 banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have failed.
But also on the rise are acquisitions.
Among the highest profile acquisitions were Bank of America Corp.'s purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. and MetLife Bank N.A.'s acquisition of First Horizon National Corp.'s mortgage operations. In addition, Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to acquire Wachovia Corp.
Several companies are still ailing or near collapse.
Among them are Impac Mortgage Holdings, which has suffered through a string of losses and raised doubts in May about its ability to continue in business; Residential Capital LLC, which has announced massive layoffs; and Thornburg Mortgage Inc., which continues to warn about its ongoing viability.
"The Troubled Asset Relief Program presents the potential to stem the rising number of failed financial firms," said MortgageDaily.com Publisher Sam Garcia. "In addition to injecting capital directly into struggling financial institutions, TARP may help unthaw the frozen secondary mortgage market."
