Local Financial Sector Tightens Belt

From the Washington Post:

"The Washington region's financial sector reflects the industry nationwide, with stock prices dropping, companies incurring losses from sour mortgages and private-equity investors pulling back on takeovers because of tighter lending".
...
"'The economy has slowed, but I don't expect a recession,' said Albert L. Lord, chief executive of Reston student-lending giant Sallie Mae. 'The credit markets tighten up from time to time. When they return to normal or something near normal, things will get better. I would have to go back to 1998 to recall anything quite of this magnitude.'"

Some local fallout:

Chevy Chase Bank of Bethesda laid off 300 employees;

McLean-based Capital One Financial sold its mortgage arm, eliminated 1,900 jobs and warned of hundreds of millions of dollars of losses in 2008;

Fieldstone Mortgage of Columbia filed for bankruptcy protection;

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey of Arlington, the region's largest investment bank, lost $2.5 billion of market value at its publicly held FBR Group;

The share prices of several local banks declined. Virginia Commerce Bank, which a year ago was trading at nearly three times book value, now trades at less than two times book value;

Specialty lenders such as CapitalSource, Allied Capital and American Capital Strategies, all of which lend to small- and mid-size companies, have lost market value.