From “Housing Panic”, April 14, 2007:

Subprime woes take toll on GE results

The US subprime mortgage crisis hit General Electric on Friday, wiping $373m from the industrial conglomerate’s first quarter profits and prompting its executives to warn of an incipient “bubble” in global credit markets.

GE said it had replaced the senior management team at its mortgage unit, and would reduce its workforce by around 1,000 people, or 40 per cent.

GE will also cut by half the loans it makes to less than $15bn this year - a sign of its belief that the subprime market has yet to hit the bottom.

“We have got to get our house in order,” Keith Sherin, GE’s chief financial officer, told the Financial Times.

Mr Sherin said the problems in the subprime sector, which targets borrowers with weak credit histories, were being replicated in the market for “Alt-A” loans for borrowers with slightly better credit scores.