Finance and Economic

Pressure continues to mount on President Obama to select Elizabeth Warren as the nation’s first consumer financial protection regulator.

Warren, 61, has become something of a cause célèbre as the administration’s top pick to run the new agency charged with protecting consumers from abusive mortgage and credit card practices.

There’s even a Hollywood-produced Elizabeth Warren rap video circulating online called "Got a New Sheriff," featuring a rapping cowboy singing the Harvard professor’s praises.

Last week, 43 House Democrats sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to nominate Warren and requesting a meeting at the White House to discuss Warren’s appointment.

"You have an opportunity to appoint to head this body a true visionary — not the usual Washington careerist. You have an opportunity to appoint to this body the single best-qualified choice," said the letter, signed by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., among others.

Last week, Warren sat down with the head of a large and influential banking lobbying group, the Financial Services Roundtable. The group declined to comment on the meeting.

Warren, who has repeatedly declined interview requests on this topic, has also been meeting with various key administration players, including a meeting with senior White House advisers on Aug. 12th.

The public groundswell for Warren puts the White House in a tough spot. It’s not clear when President Obama will make his decision, but an announcement is isn’t expected this week.

"The administration is hesitating because they’re faced with the traditional problem that Obama has faced," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

If the White House passes Warren over, Zelizer says, they disappoint liberals whose support has been key throughout the administration business card templates. If Warren gets the nod, the White House must deal with "political difficulties on Capitol Hill where centrists have quite a lot of power and Republicans are becoming quite obstinate," Zelizer said.

Warren teaches contract and bankruptcy law as a Harvard University professor and she’s also written a number of personal finance books. More publicly, she chairs a congressional oversight panel that has garnered attention for its critical reviews of government spending to bail out Wall Street banks under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Treasury is in the planning stages of creating the consumer financial protection bureau, which will be housed inside the Federal Reserve, thanks to the new law cracking down on Wall Street banks.

Warren is not the only candidate under consideration to run the bureau. But she is the most polarizing. Senate banking chief, Seen. Chris Dodd, D-Conan., has warned her nomination would cause a protracted and lengthy battle in the Senate, adding he isn’t sure she could secure a Senate confirmation.

Banking groups and conservatives paint her as too liberal for a regulator job. They say an aggressive regulator would undermine bank safety by crafting rules that force banks to make risky loans. They’ve also accused her of lacking the chops to be a regulator.

Supporters say the consumer regulator job was written for her. Warren came up with the idea for the consumer financial protection agency and has spent her career championing consumers duped by "tricks and traps" of the financial industry, she often says.

Other candidates rumored to be in contention for the job are Michael Barr, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions, as well as Deputy Assistant Attorney General Gene Kimmelman. 

Source

The president’s signature foreclosure rescue plan is losing its punch, according to a federal report released Friday.

Only 36,695 troubled homeowners received long-term mortgage modifications in July under the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program, known as HAMP. This brings the total to 434,717 borrowers who have successfully made it out of the trial phase.

A month ago, 51,205 delinquent borrowers were given long-term assistance.

The number of people falling out of the program, however, is on the rise. Some 12,912 homeowners had their permanent modifications canceled in July, 272 of whom paid off their loans.

Obama officials acknowledge that the foreclosure rescue program will not help every troubled homeowner and that it may be a while before the housing market stabilizes. They are shifting their focus to initiatives that are targeted to those who have been hit by the recession and declining home prices.

"While there has been some stabilization in the housing market, it remains clear that we have more work ahead," said Raphael Bostic, assistant housing secretary. "We know that we must continue to provide support to underwater borrowers, unemployed homeowners, and to the nation’s hardest hit neighborhoods."

Foreclosure prevention programs have taken on renewed importance with the housing market on shaky ground again. A spike in foreclosures, combined with weak housing sales, could send home prices plummeting again.

In July, foreclosures were up 3.6% from the month before but down 9.7% from the year earlier period, according to RealtyTrac.

Defaults on the rise

The latest report comes two weeks after the government had to revise its June redefault figures sharply higher, after analysts called the initial numbers misleading.

The revision showed that nearly 20% of homeowners were at least two months delinquent nine months after receiving a permanent modification. The initial figure showed that 7.7% had fallen behind.

The government did not provide redefault statistics for July in the current report. Officials said the data would be released quarterly.

Analysts at Barclay’s Capital said last month said 60% of homeowners may ultimately redefault instant personal loans guaranteed.

Status of trial mods

Some 96,025 people in trial modifications were canceled in July, bringing the total to 616,839 since the program began in the spring of 2009.

Homeowners usually are kicked out of the trial program because they do not make the required payments, meet the qualifications or submit the needed paperwork. Going forward, loan servicers will gather the necessary documents and review homeowners’ eligibility before entering them in trial modifications.

Once their trials are canceled, about 45.4% of homeowners receive alternate modifications, often one from their loan servicer. Some 9.8% had foreclosure proceedings started against them and 1.8% lost their home in foreclosure.

Only 255,934 troubled borrowers remain in the trial phase, some 24,577 of whom entered the program in July. Nearly 118,000 have been in trials for at least six months, though loan servicers should address these homeowners in the next month, administration officials said.

Another new program

Launched with great fanfare, the president’s foreclosure prevention plan calls for servicers to reduce eligible troubled homeowners’ monthly payments to no more than 31% of their pre-tax income. However, it has come under persistent fire for being slow to launch and for not helping enough people.

Meanwhile, the government is set to roll out yet another fix for the housing market. Borrowers can start applying for the FHA Short Refinance option starting Sept. 7.

The program allows those who owe more than their homes are worth to refinance into a Federal Housing Administration-backed loan provided they are current on their mortgages and their lender agrees to write off at least 10% of their principal balance. The initiative is open to those who do not currently have an FHA loan and who have a credit score of 500 or more.

In recent months, the administration has stressed the wide range of housing programs it has underway, including initiatives to keep interest rates low and to provide tax credits to first-time homebuyers.  

Source

Attorney Diana Carey was appointed Thursday to act as trustee in the involuntary Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy of Mercer Island entrepreneur Frederick Darren Berg, according to court documents.

As trustee, Carey will be monitoring the operation of Berg’s companies and his personal assets.

Such appointments are not unusual, according to Mark Calvert, trustee in the separate Chapter 11 bankruptcy of a group of seven Meridian Mortgage Investors Funds operated by Berg guaranteed payday loans. Both cases were filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.

“It gives people comfort when a trustee is involved that the value of the assets will be maximized for the benefit of the creditors,” Calvert said.

Source

The majority of people in a new poll say the Hewlett-Packard Co. board was right to force CEO Mark Hurd to resign over an ethics scandal.

Of the respondents, 55 percent said HP (NYSE: HPQ) did the right thing in forcing Hurd to resign, while 33 percent said he should not have been forced out. The remainder were undecided.

Hurd spent 25 years in Dayton with NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR) before leaving to join HP in 2005. While at NCR, he also headed up the data warehouse division that was spun off into Miami Township-based Teradata Corp. (NYSE: TDC).

One person who voted in the survey said, "CEO's today, as never before, must demonstrate through their behavior exemplary values; integrity, responsibility and accountability to name a few."

Another person took the opposite view, saying "The HP board needs to be replaced. They failed on Fiorino, they failed on Dunn, the other board member who resigned, and now we are led to believe they failed on Hurd. No one knows exactly what Hurd did anyway. And the company lost $8 billion in value on the stock drop?"

In further breaking down the results, 47 percent said they agreed with what HP did because CEO's should be held to the same standard as other employees. However, 28 percent said he should only have been reprimanded.

"I don't think we have the whole story. It is possible the Board wanted him out and this was a objective means to achieve their goal," said another person who commented on the poll.

The BizPulse Survey ran Aug. 11 to Aug. 14 on the Dayton Business Journal Web site and had 186 responses. While not a scientific poll, it reveals the attitude of the business community in the days following the announcement of Hurd's departure.

For more on this story, including Hurd's full connections to Dayton through the years, click the following DBJ stories in our continuing coverage:

Mark Hurd - Rise and fall of a CEO

Report: Mark Hurd agrees to pay settlement

Hewlett-Packard stock plummets on CEO scandal

HP CEO Hurd to get $12M severance payout

Full text of Mark Hurd's separation agreement with HP

HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns amid sexual harassment scandal

Source

Salem Hospital has agreed to pay $6 million for the campus formerly used by the Oregon School for the Blind. The state announced the sale of the 8.37-acre site in Salem on Tuesday.

The Legislature voted in 2009 to close the school and sell the property. Proceeds from the sale will be split equally between a fund to provide resources and educational services to visually impaired students and the School for the Deaf payday loan.

Pending the results of Salem Hospital's 60-day due diligence period, the sale could close by mid-October.

Source

Ann Moore, the chief executive of Time Inc. — the world’s largest magazine publisher — is stepping down from the company to be replaced by Jack Griffin, a group president of Meredith Corp., according to published reports.

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and New York Post all reported the CEO shakeup Wednesday evening, citing unnamed executives at the companies.

A Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) subsidiary, Time Inc. publishes about 115 magazines worldwide including Time and Sports Illustrated and accounts for almost a quarter of total advertising revenues of U.S. consumer magazines. Measured by circulation, it’s the world’s largest magazine company, followed by Meredith, which is based in Des Moines, Iowa.

A Time Warner spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment. CNNMoney is a joint venture of CNN and Time Inc.

A 32-year veteran of Time Inc., Moore was appointed CEO in 2002. She has presided during a time when magazines suffered an unprecedented decline in advertising revenue due to competition from online media and the recession.

In recent years, Time Inc. has made major staff cuts and shed some of its magazine titles.

Griffin ran Meredith’s magazine brands — including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Family Circle — as well as its Internet and digital properties.

Meredith announced his departure from the company on Monday, saying he had left "to pursue another opportunity."

Griffin would inherit Moore’s role just as Time Inc. reported a 50% surge in its quarterly operating profit Wednesday.

That surge was primarily due to substantial cost-cutting measures, including a restructuring of the company’s pension expenses.

Time Inc.’s quarterly revenue remained virtually unchanged. Advertising sales were up 4%, but other revenue failed to grow primarily due to flat subscription growth and an ongoing impact from the sale of Southern Living at Home last fall, the company said.

Nearly all of Moore’s career has played out at Time Inc., where she worked her way up the corporate ladder. She started as an analyst shortly after earning her Harvard M.B.A. in 1978 and later became publisher and then president of People. 

Source

First Commonwealth Financial Corp., Pittsburgh, has planned a public offering of $75 million of its common stock, according to a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday. First Commonwealth (NYSE:FCF) said it intends to use the net proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Macquarie Capital Inc. and Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. are serving as underwriters; First Commonwealth said it plans to grant them a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15 percent of the shares offered to cover over-allotments, if any.

First Commonwealth is based in Indiana, Pa., about 45 miles east of Pittsburgh. It has assets of $6.1 billion and operates 115 retail branches, 65 of them based in the Pittsburgh area.

Last Thursday, First Commonwealth reported second quarter net income of $13.5 million, or 15 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $18.6 million or 22 cents a year ago, and well above Wall Street’s average estimate of 5 cents.

For the six months ended June 30, First Commonwealth earned $374,000, compared with a $16.9 million loss for the first half of 2009. Earnings per share were zero; First Commonwealth posted a 20 cent loss per share for the first half of 2009.

Source

First Franklin Corp. slid to loss of $558,000, or a loss of 33 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2010.

In the same quarter a year ago, the Cincinnati-based bank recorded net income of $7,000, or 1 cent per share.

In a statement, CEO Jack Kuntz attributed the lower performance during the quarter to lingering effects of the recession. But he also noted a number of higher expenses and one-time charges, including a loan loss reserve increase of $260,000; an increase in compensation of $224,000; $175,000 in costs related to the company’s proxy fight with Lenox Wealth Management; and a $300,000 external fraud loss.

“Although the economic upheaval combined with other expense burdens has impacted our financial performance, I remain optimistic and encouraged by our core business metrics,” he said in a news release.

First Franklin’s net interest income increased to $1.7 million from $1.5 million in last year’s second quarter, he said.

First Franklin is the parent of Franklin Savings, which has seven banking offices around Hamilton County and is the 18th-largest bank in Greater Cincinnati.

Source