What were the primary risks that New Century faces?

Complete “New Century Financial Corporation” Case (109034-PDF-ENG) from your Harvard Case Studies Course Pack.  The questions you will need to specifically answer are:

1. What appeared to be New Century’s strategic objectives?  Describe and evaluate the business model the company had adopted to achieve these objectives.
2. What were the primary risks that New Century faces?
3. What were the company’s critical performance variables?  How well was the company performing with respect to these critical performance variables?
4. What were the primary reporting items within New Century’s financial statements?  Using the bank examiner’s report, what were the key reporting errors identified?
5. Why did New Century fail?
6. Based on information in the case, what is your assessment of the quality of oversight provided by NCF’s board?  Do you think it should be blamed for the accounting failures at the company?
7. Why do you think the accounting failures of New Century went undetected for so long despite all the changes in governance in the post-SOX era?
8. What are the general lessons, if any, that the NCF case provides for boards and audit committees?