Regret the Error

In
the Sept. 4 special report Community Banking, a story on page 10 "The
Dangers of Buying an Unfamiliar Business," mistakenly said OceanFirst
Financial restated its earnings for all of last year to reflect a
reserve for repurchasing loans from its mortgage unit. It actually
revised its fourth-quarter earnings before submitting documents to the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Also, the unit had been making
subprime mortgages before OceanFirst acquired it in 2000.
The
same story also implied that Frank Schiraldi, a Sandler O’Neill
analyst, was talking specifically about OceanFirst when he said that
managers failed to properly monitor their subsidiary’s activities and
did not understand the risks of subprime lending. Rather than a
particular institution, he was talking more generally about problems
banks can face with independent subsidiaries. Link