Freddie asks for $146M in aid

BofA in side deal with US govt on mortgage foreclosures

Bank of America will make deeper and broader cuts than other
banks, which will allow it to avoid as much as $850 million in
penalties and give more than 200,000 financially strapped
households the opportunity to sharply reduce their mortgage
balances. The side deal is unique to Bank of America, said the
Wall Street Journal, citing a senior administration official. It
added that many of the write-downs will be made on loans
originated by Countrywide Financial Corp, which Bank of America
bought in 2008, and then packaged into securities. Investors in
those securities could then be affected by the side deal. Bank of
America said on Feb. 9 that under the government settlement,
write-downs will be made on loans originated by Countrywide
Financial Corp prior to and for a period following the bank's
acquisition of that lender. The other banks accused of abusive
mortgage practices that settled with the government were Wells
Fargo & Co, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc and Ally Financial
Inc.

Restructuring bails out Greece

Greece's private sector creditors agreed to a historic
restructuring of the government's debt early Friday, setting the
stage for the nation to secure more bailout money and skirt a
messy default. Investors agreed to restructure €172 billion
worth of Greek bonds, which represents 85.5% of the total €206
billion held by the private sector, said the Greek finance
ministry. Another 69% of investors that own Greek bonds not
issued under Greek law agreed to restructure roughly €20
billion. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos welcomed the
agreement, saying the restructuring will help Greece get out of
debt and revive its ailing economy. Greece is widely expected to
activate so-called collective action clauses, which the
government retroactively added to its bond contracts a few weeks
ago, to make the restructuring binding for all holders of Greek
bonds issued under domestic law. The use of the clauses should
bring the total participation rate in the restructuring to more
than 90%, the threshold Greece needs to cross in order to meet
all the conditions of its second €130 billion bailout from the
European Union and International Monetary Fund. Euro area finance
ministers are expected to discuss the restructuring during a
conference call later Friday, when they could approve the final
portion of the bailout.

Banks foreclosing on churches in record numbers

Banks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers as
lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that
have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data. The
surge in church foreclosures represents a new wave of distressed
property seizures triggered by the 2008 financial crash, analysts
say, with many banks no longer willing to grant struggling
religious organizations forbearance. Since 2010, 270 churches
have been sold after defaulting on their loans, with 90 percent
of those sales coming after a lender-triggered foreclosure,
according to the real estate information company CoStar Group. In
2011, 138 churches were sold by banks, an annual record, with no
sign that these religious foreclosures are abating, according to
CoStar. That compares to just 24 sales in 2008 and only a handful
in the decade before. The church foreclosures have hit all
denominations across America, black and white, but with small to
medium size houses of worship the worst. Most of these
institutions have ended up being purchased by other churches. The
highest percentage have occurred in some of the states hardest
hit by the home foreclosure crisis: California, Georgia, Florida
and Michigan. "Churches are among the final institutions to get
foreclosed upon because banks have not wanted to look like they
are being heavy handed with the churches," said Scott Rolfs,
managing director of Religious and Education finance at the
investment bank Ziegler. Church defaults differ from residential
foreclosures. Most of the loans in question are not 30-year
mortgages but rather commercial loans that typically mature after
just five years when the full balance becomes due immediately.

Unemployment holds in February

Hiring remained strong in February, but the overall job market is
not out of the woods yet. Employers added 227,000 jobs in
February, the Labor Department reported Friday, a pinch slower
than in January, when the economy added 284,000 jobs. Meanwhile,
the unemployment rate remained at 8.3%, in line with
expectations. Private businesses were the main driver of job
growth, and have been adding jobs consistently since March 2010.
In February, they added 233,000 jobs. But government job losses
have been offsetting some the private sector gains, with most of
the bleeding at the state and local level. Last month, 6,000 were
lost. The American economy lost 8.8 million jobs in the financial
crisis.

Freddie asks for $146M in aid

Government-controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac has requested
just $146 million in additional aid after posting a smaller loss
in the fourth quarter. That's far less than in the third quarter,
when Freddie received $6 billion from the government. It received
$7.6 billion for all of 2011. Freddie Mac says it lost $1
billion, or 32 cents per share, in the October-December quarter.
That compares with a loss of $1.72 billion, or 53 cents a share,
in the same quarter of 2010.

Freddie's losses are decreasing because of a drop in the number
of homeowners paying less interest as they refinance at lower
mortgage rates. The government rescued McLean, Va.-based Freddie
Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae in September 2008 after
massive losses on risky mortgages threatened to topple them.

Economy faces years of reforms - Timothy Geithner
At home and abroad, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the
economy is on the mend but faces years of painstaking reforms. He
pushed a new highway bill making its way through the Senate that
would invest in infrastructure and streamline the approval
process. Geithner called the bill "employment intensive." One of
the major headwinds, Europe, seems to be gaining progressive and
positive momentum. A Greek debt-swap program made major progress
Thursday, which would grant the sovereign access to a second
bailout package. He praised foreign officials and the European
Central Bank for setting aside politics in favor of "preventing
the equivalent of lighting the continent on fire." Averting
disaster will cost years of reform. Geithner said there is a need
to streamline regulatory changes in the U.S.