IndyMac Sinks as Foreclosures, Delinquencies Rise

NEW YORK (Reuters) - IndyMac Bancorp Inc IMB.N shares tumbled on Monday after the large independent U.S. mortgage lender said delinquencies and foreclosures increased in January and home loan production fell.

The shares were down 20 percent in late-afternoon trading. Shares of another lender, Thornburg Mortgage Inc TMA.N, lost about half their value after the company revealed it had failed to post more collateral demanded by its own lenders.

"There's renewed fear in the market in terms of overall mortgage collateral," IndyMac spokeswoman Pamela Marsh said. "Because all of our operations are conducted within our federally-insured thrift, we have ample liquidity and ample capital to continue to manage our business. We see nothing at this time that would be inconsistent with the forecast we published for our earnings three weeks ago."

IndyMac on Feb. 12 posted a loss of $509.1 million for the fourth quarter and suspended its dividend, but said it expected to be profitable in the second quarter.

Analysts on average expect a second-quarter loss of 64 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

IndyMac shares were down $1.23 to $4.92 on the New York Stock Exchange.

In a memo dated Sunday and posted on its corporate blog (theimbreport.com), IndyMac said the percentage of loans at least 30 days past due among the $199.1 billion of mortgages on which it collects payments rose to 7.79 percent in January from 7.50 percent at the end of December and 4.37 percent in the first quarter of 2007.

The Pasadena, California-based parent of IndyMac Bank said the delinquency rate on prime loans rose to 6.85 percent from 3.83 percent in last year's first quarter. It said subprime mortgage delinquencies rose to 28.18 percent from 18.55 percent a year earlier, and late payments on home equity loans rose to 16.35 percent from 5.78 percent.

IndyMac also said the rate of loans in foreclosure was 3.02 percent in January, up from December's 2.65 percent and 0.88 percent in the 2007 first quarter.

January loan volume totaled $2.9 billion, down 33 percent from December and down 66 percent from January 2007. The pipeline of unclosed loans ended January at $8.8 billion, up 15 percent from December but down 36 percent from a year earlier.

IndyMac long specialized in below-prime "Alt-A" home loans, which often go to people who cannot fully document income or assets.

But as investors stopped buying such loans and defaults surged, IndyMac began to focus on smaller loans that Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N) will buy. IndyMac in January set plans to cut 2,403 jobs, or 24 percent of its work force.

Countrywide Financial Corp CFC.N and GMAC's Residential Capital LLC are the largest U.S. mortgage lenders not owned by banks. Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) agreed in January to buy Countrywide for about $4 billion.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)