NEW YORK (Fortune) — They own or guarantee $5 trillion worth of mortgages­ - nearly half of all the country’s outstanding home loan debt - and they’re crashing. But not everybody is convinced they should be.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are struggling with an investor loss of confidence so great that, while they’re unlikely [...]

One of America’s largest mortgage lenders has collapsed, as the credit crisis grows.
IndyMac Bank is the second largest financial institution to fail in US history.
Regulators feared the California-based bank did not have enough cash to cope after panicked investors withdrew more than $1.3bn in 11 days and seized its assets.
The business will reopen on Monday [...]

NEW YORK (Thomson Financial) - Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said he sees no reason for the bank to either raise capital, or to cut dividends, as feared by the financial markets.
Speaking at a public meeting in Los Angeles Wednesday, he said he believes the U.S. economy could begin to recover [...]

This may be old news to some of you, but it was news to me: Bank of America “plans to dump the Countrywide name early next year.”
This from today’s L.A. Times: “… Bank of America still plans to dump the Countrywide name early next year in favor of the Bank of America brand, Bank [...]

 
Wachovia (WB) may be forced to buy Prudential out of its stake in a retail brokerage joint venture, the NY Post says. The deal, struck in 2003, gives Prudential the option to force Wachovia, which is already strapped for cash, to buy it out of its share of the venture. New York Post:
Under the terms [...]