The Lane Guide Blog

Lane REO Index Hits Highest Level Ever!

2011-11-18T08:05:00.000-08:00

(Reno, NV) by Lane Guide Staff -- The Lane REO Index, the performance measure based upon the industry REO portfolios, has reached the highest level ever recorded. The Index for 3^rd Quarter of 2011 reached 268.4 for the calendar quarter ending September 30^th.

Lane REO Index -- 3rd Quarter 2011

According to Richard Lane, president of Lane Guide, “expect the Index to continue to rise in the upcoming quarters, as our measure of pre-foreclosure activity continues to gain significantly. We saw a peak in the 2^nd Quarter data on our ForeclosureTrack charts which correlated with the increase in REO inventories in the current reporting period.”

The Lane REO Index was created in the 3^rd Quarter of 2007 and was indexed at 100 at the time of the first TARP program. Therefore, the current measure of 268 equates to roughly a 2.7 times increase in the total bank inventory of foreclosed properties.

TRENDS

The breakdown by property type shows a significant increase in commercial (non-farm) properties in the REO inventories over the past year, now equal to the numbers for residential conventional properties. The numbers are based upon the dollar valuations of portfolios, and not the number of actual properties held.

New LaneGuide Data -- Commercial REO’s Match Residential

2011-11-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

November 17, 2011 (Reno, NV) by LaneGuide Staff -- The 2011 Q3 data has been published and shows an increase in commercial (non-farm) REO dollar inventory and residential conventional nearly equal. This is further evidence that the commercial REO sector is growing past the $10B mark for the first time.

2011 3rd Quarter Industry REO Inventory Breakdown

Lane Guide tracks the total changes in the industry, based upon the FDIC quarterly Call Report data, from quarter-to-quarter, and offers the collective industry-wide reports at

http://www.laneguide.com/PublicContent/industryTrack.aspx

Additionally, Lane Guide has the data and quarterly change factors available to subscribers for each institution along with asset manager/REO department contacts along with other vital banking departments.

Hey Big Fish: Where Did All the Little Banks Go?

2011-11-09T22:51:00.000-08:00

November 9, 2011 (Reno, NV) by Lane Guide --

Ever wonder why they don’t put the bank names on the side of the branch with stick-on letters? It would be so much easier change the bank names each month. You might be interested to learn how the BIGGEST banks got so big, by swallowing up smaller ones, of course.

In the tank with the mega banks

The chart below to see how these largest mega-banks have by purchase, government actions, succession or serendipity have ended up, swallowing up, so many local and regional banking institutions. Thousands upon thousands of small communities have lost their local bank to the conglomeration.

“The Big Banking Fish”

J.P. Morgan Chase	2239 Institutions acquired
Wells Fargo Bank	2219 Institutions acquired
Bank of America	1488 Institutions acquired
Regions Bank	1015 Institutions acquired
U.S. Bank	1011 Institutions acquired
PNC Bank	885 Institutions acquired
Branch Banking & Trust (BBT)	709 Institutions acquired
BMO Harris Bank	490 Institutions acquired
Keybank	487 Institutions acquired
Data source: Lane Guide

Special Mention: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. with 1454 institutions in which they took over without a successor, closed or held certain assets (e.g., loans) of.

Wachovia is historia -- Wells Fargo branding now complete

2011-10-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

October 26, 2011 (Reno, NV) by Lane Guide Staff --

After nearly 34 months since the December 2008 merger announcement between Wells Fargo and Wachovia banks, the final retail branches have been re-branded to the Wells Fargo name. Earlier in 2011, the back-end operations such as loan service and REO management had been consolidated and prior Wachovia divisions had been answering as Wells Fargo signaling that the final push to change the brand was nearing completion. Details of the final conversion have been released on the Wells Fargo Merger Blog.

The merger though official in early 2009, was methodical to re-brand the name in a state-by-state fashion, affecting over 3,000 branch locations. The process ends with the last division, in North Carolina, changing over officially on October 15, 2011.

Lane Guide has been following the merger and changing over the divisions as they occurred. Service centers and loan operations have been merged into the Wells Fargo listings in the Guide.

Lane Guide: FDIC seized bank list grows to 85 so far in 2011

2011-10-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

October 25, 2011 (Reno, NV) by Lane Guide Staff --

Yet another round of Friday bank closures hits Main Street USA, with four more banking institutions seized for closure or sale by regulators. This brings the number to 10 in October. This expands the list of insolvent banks closed nationwide in 2011 to 85 institutions to date.

October's list includes:

Community Banks of Colorado (Greenwood Village, CO) October 25, 2011
Community Capital Bank (Jonesboro, GA) October 25, 2011
Decatur First Bank (Decatur, GA) October 25, 2011
Old Harbor Bank (Clearwater, FL) October 25, 2011
Country Bank (Aledo, IL) October 19, 2011
First State Bank (Cranford, NJ) October 20, 2011
Blue Ridge Savings Bank, Inc. (Asheville, NC) October 19, 2011
Piedmont Community Bank (Gray, GA) October 19, 2011
Sun Security Bank (Ellington, MO) October 7, 2011
The RiverBank (Wyoming, MN) October 7, 2011

Depositors are protected by FDIC deposit insurance and in many cases the branches are sold to other institutions in near seamless transition. Loans are oftentimes acquired by the FDIC and serviced internally or sold at later dates. In some transactions, the acquiring or purchasing bank will retain the loans from the failed institution. More information on closed banks and depositor information, including account insurance information is available online from the FDIC.

Lane Guide maintains a complete archive of all bank and lender histories dating back over 100 years, so that title researchers, lenders and underwriters can at any future date find the current account servicer or successor to any closed, sold or failed institutions. Additionally, this data is important to clearing title when one lender fails to discharge (or record a paid-in-full) recording on a mortgage trust deed.

Top 50 areas for foreclosure activity in 3rd Quarter

2011-10-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

In the 3rd quarter of 2011, based upon usage patterns at Lane Guide, we are releasing our list of most active areas for foreclosure, REO sales, and asset management activity. The list is in order by volume and may or may not directly reflect the total properties available in any given area.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CA
ORANGE COUNTY, CA
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CA
VENTURA COUNTY, CA
SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA
MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA
CLARK COUNTY, NV
ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA
WASHOE COUNTY, NV
SACRAMENTO COUNTY, CA
SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA
ORANGE COUNTY, FL
KING COUNTY, WA
BROWARD COUNTY, FL
STANISLAUS COUNTY, CA
FRESNO COUNTY, CA
COOK COUNTY, IL
PLACER COUNTY, CA
HARRIS COUNTY, TX
MARIN COUNTY, CA
SONOMA COUNTY, CA
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, CA
KERN COUNTY, CA
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL
SOLANO COUNTY, CA
SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY, CA
PINELLAS COUNTY, FL
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FL
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL
FULTON COUNTY, GA
FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA
JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO
DALLAS COUNTY, TX
TRAVIS COUNTY, TX
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, CA
PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD
LEE COUNTY, FL
COBB COUNTY, GA
ST. LOUIS (CITY) COUNTY, MO
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CA
MONTEREY COUNTY, CA
IMPERIAL COUNTY, CA
FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CT
WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY
WASHINGTON COUNTY, OR

About Lane Guide:

The Lane Guide lists over 140,000 open and closed lenders, creditors, banks and asset managers nationwide.

Lane Guide is the leading lender and banking directory since 1957, the Lane Guide has been widely used by the industry to locate information concerning payoffs, demands, verifications, returned check disposition, loss mitigation, Bank REO (Real Estate Owned) lender asset management contacts, locate foreclosure trustees, complete bank/lender merger history, acquisition references, missing assignments, mortgage discharges and other types of financial information.

Lane Guide: Which 15 Banks Have Most REO's?

2011-10-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

In the second quarter of 2011, there were 5,239 FDIC insured institutions which reported an inventory of Real Estate Owned (REO). These ranged from Wells Fargo with the most $4.7bn to Citizens Bank Of Weir, Kansas with just $1,000. The chart shows at a glance how the top 15 compare:

Here are the actual numbers for each:

1. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.	$ 4,705,000,000.00
2. Bank Of America, N.A.	$ 3,476,194,000.00
3. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.	$ 3,293,000,000.00
4. Branch Banking & Trust Co.	$ 1,508,637,000.00
5. U.S. Bank, N.A.	$ 1,463,720,000.00
6. Citibank	$ 1,057,000,000.00
7. P N C Bank, N.A.	$ 819,563,000.00
8. SunTrust Bank	$ 674,338,000.00
9. Fifth Third Bank	$ 488,453,000.00
10. Regions Bank	$ 430,452,000.00
11. M & I Marshall & Ilsley Bank	$ 333,898,000.00
12. Compass Bank	$ 298,755,000.00
13. Armed Forces Bank, N.A.	$ 268,808,000.00
14. RBC Bank (USA)	$ 217,975,000.00
15. HSBC Bank USA, N.A.	$ 213,244,000.00

courtesy of Lane Guide

(If you want to find the REO and Asset Managers for each institutions with over $1MM in REO inventory, Lane Guide maintains a complete database on all lenders nationwide)