First Federal - Wholesale - Wholesale residential

Update - 2010-01-07: FirstFed Financial Corp., the former holding company of First Federal Bank of California, has filed for bankruptcy. Reuters reported the move comes "less than a month after its banking unit was shut down by federal regulators." From the LA Business Journal:

"The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Dec. 18 announced that First Federal's 39 branches and their deposits were being acquired by OneWest Bank FSB, the Pasadena bank created from the assets of failed IndyMac Bancorp. First Federal had about $6.1 billion in assets and $4.5 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30."

The failure of First Federal Bank of California will cost the FDIC's deposit insurance fund an estimated $146.3 million.

Update - 2009-01-27: A Cease & Desist order from the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) was issued to First Federal Bank of California on 2009-01-26 citing the bank for engaging in "unsafe or unsound practices, which have resulted in inadequate asset quality, earnings, liquidity planning and capital levels." Under the order, First Fed must submit a "Capital Plan" to OTS within 15 days to address how it will remain "well-capitalized" and develop a "Classified Asset Reduction Plan" to reduce certain "classified assets" to 35% or less of its combined Tier 1 Capital and Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses, among other requirements.

The L.A. Times reported 62 jobs were cut. A press release by the bank noted the workforce reduction affected "single family lending and commercial lending operations as well as some reduction in support areas of the Bank." First Federal Bank of CA specialized in Option ARMs but had recently "been reshaping itself into a more traditional lender" as per the L.A. Times article:

"FirstFed began tightening its lending requirements in late 2005, before its rivals did so, improving its odds of survival, analysts said. Nonetheless, its ratio of nonperforming assets -- a measure of bad loans -- stood at 7.9% on Sept. 30, up from 1.4% a year earlier."

Average volume in 2007 topped $84 million per month. The Los Angeles based bank had over $6.5 billion in its loan portfolio as of September 30, 2008.

Original Listing - 2009-01-26: Details are still being compiled, but First Federal Bank of California's wholesale residential operations have been shut down today. Per the FirstFed wholesale website comes this announcement:

First Fed has closed its Wholesale Residential Lending Division effective today, January 26, 2009.

Files received today, January 26, 2009, will be returned un-processed. Files that have not been previously approved (in suspense) as of January 26, 2009 will be declined.

All files that are approved and in the funding process must be funded by February 27, 2009, and only files that satisfy all of the Bank's conditions by such date will be funded. Any fees previously collected on a file that has not been approved will be returned within 30 days. If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact 1-800-800-490-4761.

If you have a file in process with the Bank, please contact Michelle Bartolo at 310-302-5791.

And Marketwatch has the following release on the closure:

FirstFed Financial Corp. (the "Company") announced today a reduction in the staff of its wholly-owned banking subsidiary, First Federal Bank of California, FSB (the "Bank"), by 62 persons, or approximately 10% of the Bank's current workforce. The reductions will come primarily from the Bank's single family lending and commercial lending operations as well as some reduction in support areas of the Bank. The Company currently expects this workforce reduction to result in estimated annualized compensation cost savings of approximately $4.2 million.

Stay tuned as we put together further details on this listing!