Claiming the “extreme changes in the market conditions, coupled with the rapid decline in the secondary mortgage market” led to the bankruptcy filing on Monday. Aegis is a Houston-based, “full-service residential mortgage company that had lending operations in 49 states and office in 24 states.”

“On Aug. 6, the company that dealt heavily in high-risk residential mortgages stopped originating loans. A day later, it laid off 782 of its 1,302 employees. Then on Aug. 8, the state of Connecticut issued a then-moot cease and desist order to make sure Aegis made no further loans there.”

“The company listed about $625 million in debt with almost $16 million in unsecured claims owed to Morgan Stanley, more than $14 million owed to Countrywide, more than $10 million to EMC and more than $8 million owed to each Aurora Loan Services and Goldman Sachs.

Ray Nimmer, bankruptcy professor and dean of the University of Houston Law Center, said he is not surprised that a company in this business would be filing for bankruptcy now or that its court papers and public statements would be filled with adjectives about how unexpected and dire market changes caused this collapse.”

Here is a link to the full article:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5051168.html

Michelle