(02-12) 05:48 PST LOS ANGELES, (AP) —

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. said Tuesday it swung to a fourth- quarter loss as weakness in the housing market forced the mortgage lender to boost its loan-loss provisions to account for growing defaults and foreclosures.

It was the first full-year loss in its 23-year history.

The holding company for IndyMac Bank reported a loss of $509.1 million, or $6.43 per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31.

That compares with a profit of $72.2 million, or 97 cents per share in the same period a year earlier.

Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected the company to post a much smaller loss of $1.57 per share.

IndyMac shares tumbled more than 11 percent, or 86 cents, to $6.74 in premarket trading Tuesday.

Chief Executive Michael Perry called 2007 “a terrible year” for the mortgage market because of the deteriorating housing and credit markets. He said IndyMac’s loss was “significant,” but that results were consistent with other large financial institutions.

For the year, IndyMac posted a loss of $614.8 million, or $8.28 per share, compared with a profit of $342.9 million, or $4.82 per share, for the full year 2006.

Net revenue in 2007 tumbled to $3.6 million, compared with $1.3 billion in 2006.

Perry said he expects the company will post a $13 million profit this year.

“Our goal is to return IndyMac to profitability in (the second quarter) and grow our profit each quarter thereafter, and I believe that we have a realistic shot of achieving this goal.”

The company suspended its dividend to boost capital and further gird against credit costs.

The company’s credit costs soared to $863 million during the quarter, up from $46 million in the prior-year period.

At the close of the quarter, credit reserves for future losses totaled $2.4 billion, up 71 percent from $619 million a year earlier.

The Pasadena, Calif.-based company took $179 million in write-offs during the quarter and noted it expects its credit reserves to be sufficient to absorb a “significant” increase in charge-offs this year.

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On the Net:

IndyMac Bancorp Inc.: «www.indymacbank.com»

Of all the political party stands on Panepistimiou, the boulevard that runs through central Athens, there is one that stands out as the country prepares for general elections on Sunday. Oddly, it the smallest of all the stalls: a cubicle next to a white plastic table with three plastic chairs. Only an umbrella, adorned with the insignia of the far-right Popular Orthodox Alarm (Laos) and the posters of its leader, Giorgos Karatzerferis, promising to throw “a punch at the status quo”, indicate that it is a political stand at all.

But it is here that the crowds have stopped - either to glance over leaflets excelling the glories of Greece or to wish its youthful attendees “good luck”. In an election palpably denuded of the passion of previous campaigns, supporters say the party’s programme outlining “clear alternatives to rusty policies” cannot be given away fast enough.

For almost the first time since the collapse of military rule 33 years ago, a group that has been internationally denounced for supporting “virulent nationalism, anti-semitism, racism and xenophobia” appears set to muster enough votes to enter the Greek parliament.

“We offer something different to the decadence and corruption that has rotted our state,” says Lefteris Liviaratos, a student radiologist and member of the party’s youth wing. “Since [the return of democracy in] 1974, Greeks have been held hostage to a two-party system that works on the exchange of votes for jobs, and that has to change. Laos is not here for money, it’s here for ideas.”

Those ideas, which range from “respect for our history, heroes, religion and traditions”, to “no more immigrants”, have gained strength among an electorate suspicious of globalisation and infuriated by the governing conservatives’ inept handling of the forest fires that left 65 dead after raging across the country last month.

The party also has a special appeal to the 20% of the population who live below the poverty line, with its straight-talking former body-builder leader being particularly popular among working-class men.

“Our leader, Giorgos Karatzerferis wasn’t born in any presidential palace,” said Renos Arvanitis, 22, referring to the scions of the dynasties that have ruled Greece for decades. “He is a man of the people. He really cares for the poor who, on €700 [480] a month, can’t live dignified lives.”

But while the party draws on a long tradition of super-patriotic, populist, reactionary views - and virulently denies that it is racist or xenophobic - analysts believe that protest voters, rather than its ideologues, have given it a sudden boost. At the last election, four years after its foundation in September 2000, the party was unable to muster the 3% of votes necessary to enter the 300-seat parliament. Now, with less than a week to go, and with neither the ruling New Democrats nor the main opposition socialist Pasok party expected to easily win a parliamentary majority, the prospect of voters defecting to Laos is cause for mounting concern.

Indicative of the jitters that the catch-all group has given the government, the prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, last week denounced it as a “party of extremes”, heightened his own nationalist rhetoric and appealed to traditional conservatives not to cast protest votes. Before calling the snap election, six months ahead of schedule, the conservatives who had been consistently ahead in the polls, looked set to be re-elected for a second term.

“This is a far-right party Greek-style,” said Professor Dimitris Sotiropoulos, who teaches political science at Athens University. “There was no Nazi or fascist culture here, so it is not in the mould of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s party, but more populist in character. But it is threatening, given that racist, xenophobic and ethnocentric views do exist in Greece, and worrying that echoes of Mr Karatzerferis’s opinions are influencing voters in other parties.”

(02-12) 05:45 PST New York (AP) —

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Tuesday he has offered to help out troubled bond insurers by offering a second level of insurance on up to $800 billion in municipal bonds.

In an interview on CNBC, Buffett said his Berkshire Hathaway holding company made the offer of reinsurance to bond insurers Ambac Financial Group Inc., MBIA Inc. and Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. Buffett says one firm rejected his offer and he is still waiting to hear from the other two. He did not say which was which.

Many have speculated Buffett could step in and help out the troubled industry, though he made clear his offer was not altruistic.

“When I go to St. Peter I will not present this as some act that will entitle me to get in,” Buffett said on CNBC. “We’re doing this to make money.”

Bond insurers write policies that promise to cover payments to bondholders if the entity that issued the bonds defaults. Reinsurance provides a second level of insurance on those bonds. Buffett started a bond insurance business in December to cover municipal bonds.

In recent months, bond insurers have come under fire from ratings agencies, which are worried the insurers do not have enough spare cash to cover a potential spike in claims.

Bond insurers originally offered insurance mainly to municipalities, but in recent years expanded their operations to insure more profitable but riskier instruments.

That riskier debt includes bonds backed by pools of mortgages Д mainly subprime loans given to customers with poor credit history. As those mortgages have increasing defaulted, ratings agencies fear the bonds supported by the troubled loans will default as well.

A spike in defaults in the coming months could force the insurers to pay billions of dollars in claims.

Some bond insurers, such as Ambac and FGIC, have been downgraded by ratings agencies in the past month as they have been unable or chosen not to raise capital to ensure their vital “AAA” financial strength rating.

Bond insurers essentially need “AAA” ratings to book new business.

Buffett’s offer would only back municipal bonds, he said, and not other risky and complicated financial instruments.

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AP Business Writer Stephen Bernard in New York contributed to this report.