And, a quarter of homeowners who want to sell their current home and buy another say they need to make the move in order to lower their monthly expenses due to financial problems.

The survey, conducted for Move Inc., found wide-ranging concerns about the financial condition of homeowners in a challenging economy, but also unearthed evidence of increased demand among investors in residential real estate.

“Concerns around employment and their overall economic situation are causing many people to wait until the economy improves before they commit to one of the largest purchases theyll most likely make in their lives,” said Errol Samuelson, chief revenue officer for Move, which runs the Realtor.com and Move.com Web sites.

A stronger housing market will be an important part of the nations economic recovery. As home sales and prices rise, consumer optimism usually follows suit, leading homeowners to feel wealthier and make them more comfortable spending.

Despite economic concerns, investor interest in the housing market is growing, according to the survey.

About 17 percent of potential home buyers say they plan to purchase a home in the near future as an investment. Thats three times the investor interest seen in March 2009.

Also, investor interest in purchasing a foreclosed property to fix up and resell rose from 11.3 percent in October 2009 to 16 percent in March, a 42 percent increase.

Strong demand persists among first time homebuyers, the survey showed.

One in five consumers say they plan to purchase a home in the next 12 months to five years. Of those, half are first-time buyers, with men being somewhat more interested in entering the housing market as a first-time buyer than women.

First-time buyers have until April 30 to sign a contract for a home purchase and qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000.

The telephone poll, which included 1,004 interviews, was conducted in March by GfK Custom Research North America. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Source

The Securities and Exchange Commission will weigh in Wednesday by proposing Wall Street firms that package and sell asset-backed securities be required to provide fuller disclosures on them.

The disclosures would include information on every underlying loan in a package. For example: What type of mortgage loan was involved? Were complete documents required from the borrower? Or was it a “no-doc” or “liar loan”?

The idea is to give investors more information to better judge the securities risk. That would reduce reliance on the Wall Street credit rating agencies. The three big agencies - Moodys Investors Service, Standard & Poors and Fitch Ratings - were widely criticized for failing to give investors adequate warning of the risks in subprime mortgage securities that triggered the financial crisis.

The SEC commissioners are expected to propose the new rules at a public meeting Wednesday. The rules could be formally adopted after a public comment period, possibly with changes.

A key question as lawmakers and regulators look to craft new rules is whether the firms that issue the securities should have to hold a portion of those investments on their own books.

With some “skin in the game,” the thinking goes, Wall Street firms would be more careful to ensure that borrowers are properly screened. Experts say it was the lack of that “skin” that enabled a system in which the mortgage bundles were whisked from investor to investor, with no one assuming the risk until the roof caved in.

Provisions in the House and Senate versions of legislation to overhaul financial regulation would require the “securitizers” to keep some of the risk themselves.

Another idea is for regulators to set an industrywide lending standard governing minimum down payments, borrowers debt levels and other requirements. That has drawn opposition from financial industry interests.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has floated a proposal to require new standards for the lending industry. Asset-backed securities would have to meet the standards to maintain a guarantee that they wouldnt be seized from a bank by the government if the bank failed.

“These reforms will help restore investor confidence … and prevent a recurrence of the crisis we are now working through,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said last month.

But industry interests maintain it would make banks skittish about investing in any mortgage-backed securities.

–

AP Real Estate Writer Alan Zibel contributed to this report.

Source

The review by Kotzs office found there have been very few payments made under the program, which is limited to insider trading cases. Only a total $159,537 has been paid to five people since the program began in 1989.

Few applications for bounties have come in over the same 20-year period for a little-known program, the report said.

The report also found:

- The application process for bounties needs to be made more user-friendly. Applications should be more promptly and fully reviewed by SEC staff.

- The SEC needs to put in procedures to help the staff assess the information provided by whistleblowers to determine whether awards are merited. The criteria for judging bounty applications are vague and not subject to judicial review.

- A communication plan should be developed to inform the public and SEC staff about the bounty program.

- The SEC should adopt practices of the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service regarding applications for bounties, analysis of whistleblower information, tracking of tips and complaints, and record keeping.

The SEC already “has begun to take steps to correct the deficiencies,” the report notes.

SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami agreed with all the reports recommendations, Kotz said in a memo.

The report said there is evidence that bounties “are an effective tool to encourage whistleblowers to come forward.”

The agency has asked Congress to expand its authority to pay bounties for whistleblower information related to any kind of case that leads to enforcement action bringing fines over $1 million. The legislative proposal is being considered by the House and Senate.

In reports by his office issued last year, Kotz chronicled in detail how the SEC bungled five investigations of Madoffs business between June 1992 and December 2008, when the prominent money manager confessed the scheme to his sons. Kotz found that the agencys enforcement staff lacked adequate guidance on how to properly analyze complaints, and therefore failed to thoroughly review a complaint on Madoff brought to them in 2001 by private fraud investigator Harry Markopolos.

Over the 16-year period, the SEC received six “substantive complaints that raised significant red flags” regarding Madoffs operations, Kotzs investigation found. The agency also received complaints from a number of other sources, all containing specific information that called for a thorough examination of Madoffs business, the inquiry found. It said SEC enforcement staff rejected whistleblowers offers to provide additional evidence.

Madoff pleaded guilty in March 2009. He is serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison in North Carolina for what could be the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, with investor losses estimated so far at $13 billion to $19 billion - at least 13 times the SECs request to Congress for its entire budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

Madoffs epic fraud destroyed thousands of peoples life savings, wrecked charities and jolted investor confidence during the worst days of the financial crisis. Ordinary people as well as Hollywood celebrities, big hedge funds and international banks lost money investing with Madoff.

Source

But U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said the best sign that recovery was under way in Haiti would be an uptick in private investment.

“There need to be real investments that are really sustainable,” Holmes told The Associated Press. “Given half a chance this country can recover.”

Government-estimated death tolls from the quake - which rose without explanation ahead of the conference - range from 217,000 to 300,000 people. Most of the estimated 1.3 million people left homeless are still sheltering on broken streets, hillsides and riverbeds.

The effort to attract private investment is being led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, who since before the quake has been encouraging private companies to provide jobs in a country where 80 percent of people live on less than $2 a day.

As co-chair of the commission that will oversee the $5.3 billion in near-term international aid pledged Wednesday, his role in Haiti will only grow.

“Were going to have to create a financial system,” Clinton told the conference. “Haiti could become the first completely wireless country in the Caribbean. Haiti could become the first completely self-sufficient country in energy.”

Reginald Boulos, a Haitian business magnate and chamber of commerce president, said investment was possible but that improvements in infrastructure are needed with other changes.

“I talk to a lot of foreign investors: hotel chains, energy companies. They want to invest in Haiti,” Boulos said after the speech. “They want to see a climate change in the business environment. They want to see a decrease of corruption … (and) a better functioning government.”

Projects already were being announced during the conference.

The Coca-Cola Company unveiled a $7.5 million, five-year project to foster mango production through a new Odwalla jucie product called Haiti Hope Mango Lime-Aid. Proceeds will be reinvested to help growers.

Trilogy International Partners CEO Brad Horwitz said the Washington state-based telecom could invest millions to expand its Voila cell phone brand, if investment conditions are right. He said the company is considering a bid for the damaged public phone utility Telecommunications dHaiti, or Teleco, which was under privatization talks before the quake.

At the start of the one-day conference, Haitian President Rene Preval asked donors to focus on education and help the countrys 9 million people provide for their own future.

Minutes later, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the United States pledge of $1.15 billion over the next two years, and Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign affairs chief, announced the EUs pledge equivalent to more than $1.6 billion.

—-

Associated Press Writers Matthew Lee and Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.

Source

Al Nahyan is the managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. He is also the younger brother of Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the leader of the United Arab Emirates.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority could not be immediately reached for comment.

The glider went down near the Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah Dam, which forms the lake. It is located near the Atlantic coastal town of Skhirat, some 35 kilometers south of the capital city Rabat and site of one of Moroccos royal palaces.

The search could be particularly arduous because of recent heavy rains that have pushed up water levels.

The family of Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is known to have numerous properties around this North African kingdom, which offers up ocean, mountains and desert.

The bulk of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority holdings are in the United States and Europe. Al Nahyan said earlier this year the Abu Dhabi fund sees “significant, long-term investment potential” in both regions despite the global downturn.

The fund broke with its customary privacy by issuing its first yearly statement last week - one of the biggest steps yet by the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund to increase transparency. However, the report did not contain information on its balance sheet or the overall size of the funds holdings.

Analysts believe ADIA is the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund, with estimates of its size having ranged from less than $400 billion to $875 billion and beyond.

Its investments include a $7.5 billion cash injection into Citigroup Inc. in 2007. Stocks and other equities in the developed world make up the largest class of the funds assets, ranging from 35 to 45 percent of its holdings.

Between 35 and 50 percent of ADIAs investments are typically in North America, and another 25 to 35 percent are in Europe.

The fund, like other investors, is believed to have lost considerable value during the market downturn before bouncing back somewhat over the past year.

Source

The new law, when completed, could block foreign funds from Europe if they dont face tight oversight at home. This is aimed at funds based in tax havens like the Cayman Islands where supervisors might not be checking on risks they are taking on.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote to EU officials last week, warning them that the draft rules could also block American funds from selling to European investors.

It is unclear if the rules would actually shut U.S. funds out of Europe.

The new law would likely require managers of large funds doing business in Europe to register with local market regulators and to regularly inform supervisors about their trades and risk exposure to prove they dont pose a threat to the financial system.

They would have to disclose their overall trading strategy, their risk management system and explain how they value and store assets - and be obliged to hold a minimum level of capital to cover potential losses.

Britain is eager to protect its position as the center of the European fund industry; more than 70 percent of Europes alternative investment funds are based there.

It says it favors more regulation for fund managers - but does not want to close the market to foreign funds. Officials say they would like all funds operating under global industry rules to access Europe.

It would also like to see funds authorized to sell in Britain or another nation winning a “passport” to sell anywhere in the EU. France and others are reluctant to allow this.

These arent the only sticking points. France is keen to get support from other EU nations to make depositories - middlemen between investors and funds - liable for losses.

That aims to prevent a repeat of the large losses some French investors made when they placed money with Luxembourg depositories who channeled it into a vast pyramid scheme run by U.S. financier Bernard Madoff.

“Its obvious we need more prudential regulation,” said Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg as he arrived for the meeting. “Theres no place for protectionism.”

Hedge funds were caught up in a vast wave of financial regulation in the aftermath of the financial crisis - with the EU executive rushing out a widely criticized proposal in April 2009 to increase oversight and crack down on financial players operating without much supervision.

The European Parliament must also approve the new law - and the final shape of the new rules is far from final. If the rules are agreed as planned by July, they could be in place for EU funds by 2011 at the soonest and for funds outside the EU by 2014.

—

AP Business Writer Emma Vandore contributed to this report.

Source

The increased openness could help address Western policy makers concerns about the Abu Dhabi funds motives at a time when the neighboring emirate Dubai is under fire for a perceived lack of financial transparency amid the handling of its debt crisis.

ADIA has repeatedly said its investments, including a $7.5 billion cash injection into Citigroup Inc. in 2007, are driven by financial, not political, considerations.

“We have worked hard to develop strong relationships, built on mutual trust and respect, with governments, regulators and investment partners around the world,” Managing Director Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in the 28-page reports introductory letter. “We also understand that trust must both be earned over time and maintained through ongoing actions.”

The report shows that the bulk of the funds holdings are targeted toward conventional investments such as stocks and bonds, primarily in North America and Europe.

It does not, however, contain highly sought-after information, such as balance sheet details or the overall size of the funds holdings.

Analysts believe ADIA is the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund, with estimates of its size having ranged from less than $400 billion to $875 billion and beyond. The fund, like other investors, is believed to have lost considerable value during the market downturn before bouncing back somewhat over the past year.

ADIAs report provided only limited details on the funds performance, listing annualized returns over the past two to three decades.

The fund said it gained 6.5 percent annually over the past 20 years and 8 percent annually over the last 30 years through the end of 2009. That compares with a gain of 6.1 percent and 7.6 percent over similar periods through the end of 2008.

The fund, the biggest of several Abu Dhabi uses to manage its oil wealth, is controlled by the emirates hereditary ruler. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and holder of nearly all the OPEC members oil reserves. The federation as a whole is the worlds third-largest oil exporter.

ADIAs decision to publish the report comes after it and other countries sovereign wealth funds agreed on a voluntary set of principles in October 2008 that called for greater openness by the pools of government-held wealth.

That move came amid scrutiny by politicians - particularly in the U.S. and Europe - concerned about the funds growing size and clout. Much of the criticism focused on the funds lack of transparency and fears that their investments could be politically motivated and give foreign governments too much control over prized companies.

The report shows that about four-fifths of ADIAs holdings are chosen by outside fund managers. Like many individual investors retirement funds, ADIA relies on tracking indexes such as the S&P 500 for about 60 percent of its investments.

ADIAs report does not list individual holdings, but provides ranges for different types of assets. Stocks and other equities in the developed world make up the largest class, ranging from 35 to 45 percent of the funds holdings.

Between 35 and 50 percent of ADIAs investments are typically in North America, and another 25 to 35 percent are in Europe, according to the report.

Rachel Ziemba, an analyst at Roubini Global Economics who monitors Gulf economies, welcomed ADIAs latest disclosure as significant and an indication of the growing role played by sovereign wealth funds in the global economy.

“ADIA has been one of the more opaque funds,” she said. “Its opacity posed questions for recipient countries and may also have increased local pressure to spend more” at home.

Source

AIGs Japan mortgage holdings were deemed a “more troubled asset” by MetLife, which is also indemnified from losses on one of the U.K. businesses it will acquire in the purchase of American Life Insurance Co. AIG said March 8 it is divesting Alico, which operates in more than 50 countries including Japan, to pay down bailout debts on a $60 billion Fed credit line.

“You have to ask yourself, does the American taxpayer have any hope of getting their money back any other way besides selling this business?” said William Cohan, a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker and author of “House of Cards,” about the financial crisis. An agreement for one side to retain some risk is typical in deals “when the buyer and seller have a difference of opinion about an asset,” he said.

The New York Fed agreed to the five-year, loss-sharing deal because it expects to be repaid on its $9 billion investment in the Alico vehicle, said one of the people familiar with the regulators discussions who declined to be identified because some transaction details are private. AIG will use $6.8 billion in cash from the Alico sale to help redeem the Fed stake and then repay the remaining $2.2 billion within 18 months after completing the deal by selling MetLife stock, the person said.

More Troubled

MetLife will absorb the first $100 million of losses on the Japan portfolio, which it is acquiring in the Alico purchase, scheduled to be completed by year-end. Insurers invest premiums from customer policies in assets including bonds, equities and real estate and use proceeds to pay claims. Tokyo rents on Grade A office space fell 31 percent in 2009, according to real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.

“Those were sort of a more troubled asset class for them,” MetLife CFO William Wheeler said of the Japan mortgages on a March 8 conference call. “We and the Alico special purpose vehicle will share losses over and above” the first $100 million up to the face value, Wheeler said, “though obviously theyre not going to get wiped out.”

Highly Risky

Deborah Kilroe, a spokeswoman for the New York Fed, and Christina Pretto of AIG declined to comment. Christopher Breslin of New York-based MetLife had no immediate comment. AIGs $182.3 billion government bailout, which began in September 2008 and was revised three times, includes as much as $52.5 billion to buy separate mortgage-linked assets the firm guaranteed for banks or held through its securities-lending program.

“What does the Fed know about Japanese real estate?” said William Black, associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a former U.S. bank regulator. “Commercial real estate is notoriously highly risky and was one of the causes of the twin bubbles in Japan, the other being the stock market.”

MetLife, the largest U.S. life insurer, will also be protected against losses tied to Alicos U.K. Premier Access Bond offering. AIG halted withdrawals in 2008 after clients took out more money in three days than they typically withdraw in three months. Assets backing the investments were put into a Protected Recovery Fund, which guarantees customers a specified sum by 2012 and will be managed by MetLife, the company said.

“For deal-pricing purposes, we have ascribed no value to the wealth management business” in the U.K. that ran the fund, William Toppeta, president of MetLifes international business, said in the call. “We will be indemnified against losses related to the Protected Recovery Fund.”

Toppeta didnt say how MetLife would be paid if there were losses, or identify the assets AIG purchased with the U.K. clients funds. Keith Mills, an entrepreneur who created the Air Miles International Group BV loyalty program, has said he invested 65 million pounds ($97 million) in AIG Premier Bonds because he believed hed have easy access to the funds. The investment was backed by risky assets such as U.K. subprime mortgages and credit-card debt, Mills has said.

The talks for Alico were stalled in February over uncertainty regarding potential taxes owed on retirement services products sold to non-U.S. customers. The deal proceeded after MetLife and AIG were told by the Internal Revenue Service that the unit didnt owe the taxes.

Source

The sale to Apollo shows the units limited partners have confidence in the buyer and a recovery in global prices, said Matthew Anderson, partner at Foresight Analytics LLC in Oakland, California. Global commercial property values have plunged since their 2007 peak, dropping 41 percent in the U.S. through last year, according to Moodys Investors Service.

“Having it go to Apollo is in a certain sense returning it to the previous management,” Anderson said in an interview. “Its an opportune time to be doing the bidding since generally prices are depressed globally, not just in the U.S.”

Citigroup, 27 percent-owned by the U.S. Treasury Department, has been under pressure from regulators to sell assets to shore up its balance sheet. The New York-based bank valued the property division at $12.5 billion as of June, according to its Web site. The unit is part of Citi Holdings, the businesses Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said he would sell, wind down or restructure.

Victim of Times

“Apollo is getting a lot of good assets with a lot of good sponsors because I think Citi was good at it,” said Gary Mozer, principal at George Smith Partners, a real estate investment firm in Los Angeles. “They were just a victim of the times.”

The units properties are located in Asia, Europe and the U.S., the person familiar with the deal said.

Kelly Nugent, an outside spokeswoman for Apollo, and Shannon Bell, a Citigroup spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Citi Property Investors may have financed about $9.1 billion of its purchases, based on bank announcements that it raised about $3.4 billion in equity in 2006 and 2007, according to Anderson. The units North American fund fell 28 percent at an annualized rate from November 2006 through June 2009, according to the annual report of the New York State Teachers Retirement System, which held almost $17 million in the fund.

In November 2007, Citi Property Investors Asia fund bought three office buildings in Taipei at a record price for a single property transaction in Taiwan, its first real estate deal in that country, the Taipei-based, Chinese-language Commercial Times reported, without citing a source. Citi paid close to NT$10 billion ($315 million) to CLSAs securities unit for the buildings, the newspaper reported.

Apollo signed a letter of intent and the purchase may take as long as three months to close, the person with knowledge of the deal said. The firm plans to keep the Citi Property staff, according to the person.

Source

The sale to Apollo shows the units limited partners have confidence in the buyer and a recovery in global prices, said Matthew Anderson, partner at Foresight Analytics LLC in Oakland, California. Global commercial property values have plunged since their 2007 peak, dropping 41 percent in the U.S. through last year, according to Moodys Investors Service.

“Having it go to Apollo is in a certain sense returning it to the previous management,” Anderson said in an interview. “Its an opportune time to be doing the bidding since generally prices are depressed globally, not just in the U.S.”

Citigroup, 27 percent-owned by the U.S. Treasury Department, has been under pressure from regulators to sell assets to shore up its balance sheet. The New York-based bank valued the property division at $12.5 billion as of June, according to its Web site. The unit is part of Citi Holdings, the businesses Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said he would sell, wind down or restructure.

Victim of Times

“Apollo is getting a lot of good assets with a lot of good sponsors because I think Citi was good at it,” said Gary Mozer, principal at George Smith Partners, a real estate investment firm in Los Angeles. “They were just a victim of the times.”

The units properties are located in Asia, Europe and the U.S., the person familiar with the deal said.

Kelly Nugent, an outside spokeswoman for Apollo, and Shannon Bell, a Citigroup spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Citi Property Investors may have financed about $9.1 billion of its purchases, based on bank announcements that it raised about $3.4 billion in equity in 2006 and 2007, according to Anderson. The units North American fund fell 28 percent at an annualized rate from November 2006 through June 2009, according to the annual report of the New York State Teachers Retirement System, which held almost $17 million in the fund.

In November 2007, Citi Property Investors Asia fund bought three office buildings in Taipei at a record price for a single property transaction in Taiwan, its first real estate deal in that country, the Taipei-based, Chinese-language Commercial Times reported, without citing a source. Citi paid close to NT$10 billion ($315 million) to CLSAs securities unit for the buildings, the newspaper reported.

Apollo signed a letter of intent and the purchase may take as long as three months to close, the person with knowledge of the deal said. The firm plans to keep the Citi Property staff, according to the person.

Source