Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — The number of mortgage applications in the U.S. dropped last week, led by the biggest decline in refinancing this year.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a home or refinance a loan decreased 4.3 percent to 652.5 from 681.7 the prior week. The group’s refinancing gauge slumped 15 percent, the most since December, while purchases rose.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wells Fargo & Co. is absorbing $1.4 billion in losses on home equity loans that borrowers have stopped repaying amid a deepening real estate slump that’s turned into a financial sinkhole.
 
Until Wells Fargo disclosed its projected losses late Tuesday, the San Francisco-based bank had suffered relatively little damage in a mortgage meltdown that had already battered other major U.S. lenders.

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Bank of America today announced that it will exit the wholesale mortgage business in order to devote increased energy to its expanding retail channels.

"We will be fulfilling all of our contractual obligations to you and your customers. You will receive formal, written notification of the termination of our Wholesale Broker Agreement by end of day Friday, October 26 with an effective termination date of November 25, 2007. During this transition period, please be assured that our sales and fulfillment teams will continue to provide you with the exceptional level of service you’ve come to expect. If you have any questions during this time, please contact your account executive.

We thank you for your business and wish you continued success. "

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug. 17 - As we disclosed previously, the tighter guidelines and adjusted pricing we have adopted will reduce loan originations until the secondary market shows signs of normalizing. This reduction in force includes stepping back temporarily from pursuing new loans in the wholesale market, a decision we are also seeing among some of our peer companies. For now, we believe this is the right thing to do economically. Our retail channel will be the dominant source of new loans in the coming months. We will follow through on the funding of loans already approved through the wholesale channel."

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