Countrywide, Washington Mutual, First Union and GMAC Mortgage have improved their Web sites this year.
Washington Mutual, the mortgage lender, jumped 18percentt on speculation that big investors would put money into it.
"It really is a market that wasn't there a couple of decades ago," said Hale Walker, a founder of Michigan Mutual, a mortgage lender in Port Huron, Mich.
Lawyers for the Torralbas assert that the family was never told about a third loan from Mr. Curiel, in addition to two from Washington Mutual, a mortgage for $446,000 and a revolving line of credit for $89,000.
It remains to be seen if the thought of a few days in Reykjavik is enough to tempt the partners of TPG, a private-equity firm that lost its shirt on Washington Mutual, a mortgage bank, or Joe Lewis, a British billionaire who put $1.2 billion into Bear Stearns at an average price of $107 per share just months before the investment bank was sold to JPMorgan Chase for less than a tenth of that.
It also distributes non-insurance products, such as mutual funds, mortgages and other financial services products.
In developed markets, many financial products including mutual funds, mortgages, and insurance plans involve intermediate marketing steps and fees.
On Wednesday, First Horizon National, announced 1,500 layoffs, mainly in mortgages, and Washington Mutual announced 1,000 mortgage-related cuts.
That means lenders would have troubles, too including, one assumes, Washington Mutual: like other mortgage banks, most of the mortgages it now holds are of the adjustable-rate variety.
