Bear Stearns Companies

The subprime mortgage meltdown made 2007 a disastrous year for Bear Stearns, one of the nation’s largest underwriters of mortgage bonds. Beginning this summer with the housing slowdown, Bear Stearns has stood as the prime example of how Wall Street’s big bet on securities based on risky home loans went south.

While many of its peers, including Merrill, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, have announced far more in devaluations, Bear Stearns draws far more of its profit from its trading operations. That was reflected in its fixed income unit, which reported a net loss of $1.5 billion, down sharply from the $1.1 billion in profit the bank reported for the same time last year.

While there were rumblings about the weakness of the subprime mortgage in the spring of 2007, it was the collapse in June of two internal Bear Stearns hedge funds that had been heavily invested in mortgage securities that kicked off the full-fledged market panic that peaked in August.

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Company Information
The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on August 21, 1985. The Company is a holding company that through its broker-dealer and international bank subsidiaries, principally Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. Bear, Stearns Securities Corp., Bear, Stearns International Limited and Bear Stearns Bank plc is an investment banking, securities and derivatives...
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The Bear Stearns Companies, Incorporated
383 Madison Avenue New York NY 10179
Phone: (212) 272-2000
Fax: (212) 272-4785
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