Industry wide buzz says that Wachovia is halting their lead buying until further notice.
Now, Wachovia lead buying reach is not as big as the Quicken’s of the industry, but they do buy a decent volume of leads. This rumored to be stopping very soon and they will focus on their internal database and traditional marketing campaigns.
Does this sound familiar to you? Can you say IndyMac? IndyMac made the same move 4 or 5 months ago and decided to stop buying leads and work their internal database. Hopefully Wachovia is not heading down the same road, but the posted $8.9 Billion dollar loss last quarter and the cutting of almost 6,500 jobs are not facts that help their case.
Any thoughts or predictions?
.
.
.
Are they stopping all lead buying? Heard they dropped home equity leads a week or so ago…if they are stopping refi’s now? If so that sounds like a capital issue to me.
Who knows. If Wachovia is headed down the IndyMac path we are are in ALOT of trouble. Let’s hope not.
I don’t feel like it is comperable to IndyMac. If there are reports that they are stopping ALL means of retial marketing, then there are problems. Wachovia, unlike IndyMac, has never relied heavily on Internet leads as a HUGE component fo their retial markeintg. Like most other national banks, leads are typically incremental marketing only. So, I’m not making light of a $9 billion loss, but I am also not looking up for a falling sky just yet…
Note to self. Spell check.
As you say insider if they reduce marketing, raise rates to be completely out of the market in the retail lending side of the house, etc. That will signify a much bigger issue.
I know of some other big banks who have done similar things in the past and while it was not as widely publicized it was indeed due to capital issues.
It will be interesting to see where we go from here. My guess is that while there may (or may not) be some comparisons to the IndyMac situation the outcome will be quite different. Wachovia (despite the bad loans from Golden West) still has a valuable franchise and some branches in great locations (unlike National City) and would be snapped up before they could go IndyMac.
Supply Steady Demand Down Means better prices for us!!! I love it.
Hmmm. Who should I call first?