Question: Sharpening Your Communication Skills
As a loan officer at Long Isle Community Bank, your responsibilities include the unpleasant task of informing some applicants that their loans have not been approved. Today you need to write a letter to Geoff Winders, a customer who applied for a home mortgage but was turned down by the bank's loan committee because his credit score was too low. You can temper the bad news with the suggestion that Mr. Winders attend the free credit repair seminar, Back on Track, that Long Isle offers every Saturday aft Enron from 1:00 to 3:00. Write a brief letter that opens by thanking Mr. Winders for being a customer of the bank and for considering the bank for his home mortgage needs. Explain the reason his application was rejected and extend the offer of attending the free seminar.

Building Your Team Skills
With teammates as assigned by your instructor, choose a type of business that you would like to own and manage. Next, identify three institutions in your town or city that could provide the banking services your company would need, based on your growth plans for the first five years. (Make up any details you need.) Choose a branch of a national bank, a smaller community bank, and a credit union. Research the services and capabilities of each and decide which one is the right choice for your company. Present your results using presentation slides, a wiki, or whatever media option your instructor indicates.

Developing Your Research Skills
Many observers criticized the role played by the credit rating agencies Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch in the subprime crisis. Two particular criticisms are that bond rating agencies are paid by bond issuers, which could lead them to issue biased ratings, and that the agencies gave their top ratings to mortgage backed securities that contained low-quality debts. Do the research necessary to fi nd answers to the following questions:

1. Have any major changes in the debt rating process been proposed or enacted, such as having a not-for-profit organization provide impartial ratings instead of or in addition to the commercial agencies?

2. Have any investors or other parties successfully sued a rating agency for providing misleading information?

3. Has Congress or any federal agency taken any steps to change the laws and regulations that affect the operation of credit rating agencies?