Advertising is shiny, so squint through the glare and find out about fees, lock-in periods, points and qualification requirements for what is being featured.
Just how many homeowners will pay the fees to lock in at a lower rate remains to be seen: many have already refinanced at low rates and more are unable to refinance because of a lack of home equity.
Qualcomm disrupted this cozy triopoly and sought to lock up all CDMA patent fees for itself--bad sportsmanship, in the view of the rest of the industry.
Investment banks benefited from these developments by pocketing handsome underwriting fees as well as by capitalizing on uptick conditions, to lock in trading gains.