Subprime Lenders Testify Before Congress

Investors Business Daily has a great photo on the front page of their paper today tied to their follow up of the Senate Hearings on the Subprime lending meltdown.

The photo is Reuters and the caption reads:

WITNESSES TESTIFY on the subprime mortgage crisis Thursday on Capitol Hill. Pictured from left: consumer Al Ynigues; Sandy Samuels, executive managing director of Countrywide Financial Corp. (background); CEO Laurent Bossard of WMC Mortgage and CEO Brendan McDonagh of HSBC Finance Corp.

The article highlights some of the key numbers that have been oft-cited in making the case of the meltdown’s consequences:

Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., laid out a "chronology of regulatory neglect" as lenders loosened standards for riskier mortgage loans in the 2003-04 housing boom. Some 2.2 million people could lose homes in the next few years as payment problems mount, he said.

Of course there was the requisite ass-covering by regulators and lenders alike but "[Fed Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation Director] Cole acknowledged: "Given what we know now, yes, we could have done more sooner."