Barclays Capital has closed Equifirst, its US mortgage lending business, because of “market conditions” less than two years after buying it. The move is embarrassing for Barclays, which bought the business from Alabama-based Regions Financial in a belated effort to break into the US mortgage market. It also marks the latest failure in a series of bank misadventures with acquisitions of high-risk mortgage lenders, including by Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia, now owned by Wells Fargo. Equifirst will honour its outstanding commitments, Barclays said.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 5:34 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with Barclays Capital, equifirst. Edit this entry.