We’re hearing some great color around the IndyMac sale that we thought we’d share with HW readers — our original story announcing the completion of the sale is right here, for those that missed it.
Obviously, the sale completion had been delayed, but it’s not entirely clear why; the deal was supposed to close in late January or early Feburary. It’s now late March, officially. We’re hearing from sources close to the deal that the hold up was due to details over financing the transaction between the FDIC and FHLB. Press representatives at OneWest had no comment on this, however.
We’re also hearing — confirmed from a source inside one of the investment groups behind OneWest — that Freedom Financial, the reverse mortgage wing owned by IndyMac and bought by the investment group, will be going through some stiff layoffs of at least 20 percent of staffing. But we’re hearing, as well, that the new owners are committed to the reverse mortgage space for the long-term.
Lastly, many readers may have missed this, because we sure did. In the FDIC’s statement, the cost to the deposit insurance fund is now estimated to be a whopping $10.7 billion. Read that again: ten point seven billion dollars. The FDIC had originally estimated a cost of $4 to $8 billion.
Want to know what likely accounts for the extra loss? Sure you do. We think it’s the $1 billion or so due Fannie Mae for loan repurchases; HW correspondent Teri Buhl had first reported on the issue late last year, and we’ve been told that the repurchase liabilities for those loans stayed with the FDIC.
