The Safe Survive

I mentioned earlier that I was working with Wachovia on some projects.  They seem to be one of the best (and healthiest) of the lenders around today.  I was not surprised to learn that Wachovia's ability to thrive is realted to its large holdings of first lien mortgages (the safest position for a lender).  Wachovia also keeps much of their own debt so they are less worried about Wall Street and secondary market issues.  On the flip side, Fifth Third and SunTrust are less protected as they hold a lot of riskier debt.  Here's the article that reinforced what I've seen first hand from Wachovia:  http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070827/mortgage_banks_sector_snap.html?.v=1