Wells Fargo Plunges Into Mortgage Muck

[kentuck]

"...had been seen as better managers of credit than many other big banks," Really? Just how bad is this mortgage mess? Maybe the government can bail them out?...At least until the Democrats take over??
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http://channels.isp.netscape.com/pf/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1333&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20071128%2F0101953687.htm&sc=1333&floc=NI-mo1

Wells Fargo Plunges Into Mortgage Muck
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - After avoiding major trouble most of the year, Wells Fargo & Co. has finally bogged down in the mortgage muck that's muddying one major bank after another.

Wells Fargo, the fifth-largest U.S. bank, waded into the mess by saying it will recognize $1.4 billion in losses in the fourth quarter on home equity loans that aren't being repaid as the real estate slump deepens in California, the Midwest and other major markets.

Until Wells Fargo's disclosure late Tuesday, the San Francisco-based bank had been largely unscathed by the turmoil that has battered a long list of other major lenders.
``Clearly, this is a disappointment because (Wells) had been seen as better managers of credit than many other big banks,'' said RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Morford. ``But now they have a big blemish on them, too.''

After gaining 34 cents to finish at $29.83 in Tuesday's regular session, Wells Fargo shares plunged $1.40, or 4.7 percent, in the extended trading that followed a Securities and Exchange Commission filing outlining the bank's home equity loan losses.

``Maybe people are going to be freaked out about Wells Fargo's losses, but they shouldn't be,'' said Punk, Ziegel & Co. analyst Richard Bove. ``Wells Fargo isn't superhuman and they made some bad loans just like everyone else.''

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. There will be...

No major financial institution, insurance company or corporation who will not be hammered by their playing in the derivatives market. This was a market, so heavily pioneered by Enron, that was designed to trip up people and institutions who thought they were smarter than they really were. And it worked.

[grasswire]

2. oh boy

I had just read a big article last week about how Wells Fargo had avoided the boggy bottom. Apparently it was propaganda.

[Cassandra]

3. "Wells Fargo isn't superhuman"

but borrowers are supposed to be. Notice the instant forgiveness for those "geniuses" making the really big bucks but no sympathy for those that were preyed upon.