Office Of Thrift Supervision U S

After selling her Orange County home, Cheryl Hodgson parked an escrow check for about $360,000 with IndyMac Bancorp. Less than a month later, the Pasadena-based thrift was seized by the federal government -- and Hodgson lost $130,000. "I looked around at the interest rates and saw that IndyMac was offering a really good rate," Hodgson said. "You would think someone at the bank could have explained to me that I was putting in money well above the insurance limit."

A federal thrift regulator bungled its oversight of Downey Savings & Loan, allowing the Newport Beach thrift to pile on billions of dollars in high-risk mortgages and eventually collapse, according to a government report. The regulators from the beleaguered Office of Thrift Supervision also botched their oversight of Pomona-based PFF Bank & Trust, which collapsed along with Downey last fall, according to reports issued this week by the U.S. Treasury Department's inspector general.

A new incentive for lenders to refinance more mortgages is being considered by regulators who oversee the U.S. thrift industry, which suffered a record $5.2-billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2007 as the housing market deteriorated, the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision said Wednesday. The OTS said it was looking at a program to create "negative equity certificates," which would help borrowers stay in their homes and help thrifts recoup losses if a home's value falls dramatically.

As the mortgage crisis deepened in California last year, officials in Washington put the fate of thrifts in the West in the hands of a veteran regulator who had a memorable role in the last major crisis in the savings and loan industry. Darrel W. Dochow was the head of supervision and regulation at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington when Lincoln Savings & Loan of Irvine failed in 1989, at the time the largest and costliest thrift failure ever.

Companies that collect mortgage payments could earn $500 for every loan they modify to avoid default under a plan developed by the federal regulator of the nation's savings and loans. As millions of adjustable-rate home loans approach reset dates on which monthly mortgage payments will soar, Office of Thrift Supervision Director John M. Reich says his agency's plan could help lower the default rate for homeowners who are in good standing but face financial problems after their loans reset.

Federal regulators said Friday that they had allowed four thrifts besides failed IndyMac Bank to improperly backdate infusions of capital. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, John Reich, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, did not identify the four S&Ls. The thrift regulator is an arm of the Treasury Department. The Times reported Dec. 23 that Treasury investigators had found that Darrel W.

A federal banking official who played a role in both the 1989 failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan and last year's collapse of Pasadena's IndyMac Bank is retiring. Darrel W. Dochow had earlier been relieved of his duties as Western regional director of the federal Office of Thrift Supervision. That action came in December after the Treasury Department's inspector general found that IndyMac had been allowed to report its finances in a way that delayed disclosure of the extent of its problems.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner named John E. Bowman acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulates the savings and loan industry. Scott M. Polakoff, formerly acting director, is on leave, pending a review by the Treasury Department of the OTS' actions last year "related to post-period capital contributions," the agency said Thursday in an e-mailed statement. Bowman was deputy director and chief counsel at the OTS.

The U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision has approved the merger of California Federal Bank with Golden State Bancorp Inc. Golden State, parent of Glendale Federal Bank, and San Francisco-based California Federal are merging in a complicated transaction creating the second-largest U.S. thrift after Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. The OTS approved the arrangement in an Aug. 12 letter, signed by Assistant Regional Director Nicholas Dyer. The letter was released Thursday.

The Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulates U.S. savings and loans, is firing a warning shot across the bow of thrifts looking to boost the amount of certain types of home loans that are a high percentage of, or even exceed, a property's value. San Mateo-based Bay View Capital Corp. had to postpone its agreement to buy PSB Lending Corp. after the company said regulators warned they were reviewing the guidelines that govern thrifts.