Consumer & Business Bankruptcy News
Mega mall giant General Growth Properties filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. It has assets of $30 billion in commercial mall properties spread all across the USA. General has assured lessees and renters that it will be business as usual while they reorganize.
Another multi-billion dollar corporation to file bankruptcy this Friday morning was Abitibibowater. They make newsprint and paper and claim 9 billion in assets.
A company under Chapter 11 creates a snowball effect because they can hold off paying suppliers and landlords, as well as their past due bills. This puts a strain on the finances of those holding the arrearages and thus forces them into layoffs and finally Chapter 11 themselves.
Mortgage Debt News
Four of the countries largest mortgage lenders, Chase, Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo, and GMAC have lifted the self imposed moratorium on foreclosures that they started in October 2008. Now that the Obama administration has released the details of their mortgage relief plan they are moving through files and completing foreclosures in the situations where borrowers have been determined ineligible for loan modification.
As of April 17, 2009 712, 290 foreclosures have occurred in 2009 and it is expected that 50% of all troubled loans will ultimately end in foreclosures.
Unfortunately only about 10% of the distressed homeowners are in a position to qualify for the federal home rescue program being offered. Many of the mortgage companies have other solution options for the borrowers that contact them to work out payment arrangements as long as there aren’t other credit issues in addition to the mortgage and there is an income to work with.
Fannie and Freddie have both increased sales of foreclosed lands since the first of April. Second homes and investment properties are on the block while other loans are being reviewed for eligibility under the presidents’ plan.
Identity Theft News
The 2009 Data Breach Investigations report issued this week by Sartin, a division of Verizon that does forensic investigations of data breaches, states that hacks are capable of stealing encrypted Personal Identity Number blocks and un-encrypting them. Until last year this was thought to be physically impossible.
This new PIN hacking ability is a serious threat to current banking transaction routines. Consumer bank accounts can be attacked and cash withdrawn directly. The use of the PIN makes proving fraud very difficult.
This new attack involves the hardware security modules (HSM) at each of the multiple nodes along the route to the user’s bank. At each switch point the number is decrypted and encrypted with the key for the next segment. Criminals are effectively fooling the HSM into giving them the stored unencrypted data.
Next week PCI Security Standards Council begins testing HSMs and unattended payment terminals for physical and cyber security properties against memory scrapers and malware known to be involved in the process. It would require an incomprehensible effort to review every point in the sales process world-wide, but some experts are saying it is the only way to completely end this current threat.
Coastal Credit Solutions, Inc. operates a financial market place that matches Consumers and Businesses with debt eliminating and/or alternative financing service providers. If you have over $5,000 personal or business credit card debt or are seeking small business financing, please call us 866-205-8370 for a FREE no obligation consultation.
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