[pig4bill]

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Except they have to buy them back if they turn out to be non-performing within a certain period of time. Plus they had to move a billion in mortgages that they couldn't dump from their "held for sale" portfolio to their "held for investment" portfolio in the first half of the year.

Etrade has been increasingly getting into the mortgage biz. The mortgage revenue was more than the brokerage revenue in the last earnings.

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Their buyback obligations are usually very limited, typically mortgages where the first payments are missed or where they dont meet underwriting standards such as the credit rating was below range or the documentation is missing. It's relatively rare and only happens in the first few months after the trust is established, after that the co. is off the hook.

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It depends. I've heard of some that have a year time period.

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Holding loans for investment is the future problem, I.e. They are getting hard to sell or securitize.

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It's not a future problem, it's a right now problem. When they can't unload this junk, they can't get any more money to lend. They are not "getting" hard to sell, they're virtually impossible to sell right now. That's why Countrywide had to tap the last of their credit line last week.