Finance Point

Nationstar Mortgage, the Dallas-based sub-prime home-lending unit acquired by Fortress Investment Group in July last year, stopped making loans through brokers on September 21 after foreclosures soared and loans declined industrywide.

Nationstar’s wholesale-loan offices will honour applications already approved, and the company continues to service existing loans, the company said on its website.

Nationstar, formerly Centex Home Equity, was purchased last year by New York-based Fortress, a manager of private-equity and hedge funds, for about US$554 million ($747 million) in cash. It had been owned by Dallas-based Centex, the fourth-biggest US homebuilder. Read More

TORONTO - The Toronto stock market drifted into positive territory mid-Tuesday afternoon as financial stocks moved higher, countering losses in the mining sector, while the Canadian dollar continued to float around parity with the U.S. dollar.

The loonie was unchanged at 99.83 cents US. The currency has risen above par in each session since last Thursday - but has failed to close above that threshold.

New York markets were little changed amid a variety of negative news from the housing sector and sliding consumer confidence.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index added 3.4 points to 13,961.68 as the financial sector gained 0.65 per cent with Royal Bank (TSX:RY) ahead 36 cents to $53.81. Read More

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