TheStreet.com TV Recap: British Bank Invasion

Call it the second British invasion -- only this time, banks are being targeted.

British bank HSBC (HBC Quote) is cutting into business at JP Morgan (JPM Quote), Bank of America (BAC Quote) and other U.S. banks while igniting worries about the mortgage market, said guest host Gregg Greenberg on the TheStreet.com TV's Wall St. Confidential video Thursday.

HSBC and ING (ING Quote) both made the decision to get in this country big and they did it, Jim Cramer said, and it's interesting to compare their approaches.

While ING has "the best, most sophisticated online" approach, HSBC "is trying to buy your business by being the lender of last resort, and that's a bad game," he told Greenberg.

When Greenberg asked why HSBC chose not to buy another big American bank to get in the game, Cramer said it should have, and he believes HSBC made a "major mistake" to think it could grow here.

Meanwhile, people are worried about New Century's (NEW Quote) 25% yield and the probability that Accredited Home Lenders (LEND Quote) is going to have more defaults than generally thought, Cramer continued.

However, he still believes Countrywide (CFC Quote) is "right." But because the whole group is coming down now, Cramer said he'd wait a couple of days before picking a stock to buy.

Moving on to retail and same-store sales, Greenberg pointed out that the numbers have come in little bit better.

Cramer said it's "interesting to see that the winners keep winning here, with the exception of J.C. Penney (JCP Quote)."

He said Saks (SKS Quote) had a "monster month" and has been turning around. And although Cramer had written off Federated Department Stores (FD Quote), it seems the company has fixed its problems.

Further, he said he believes that J.C. Penney is a good opportunity because the retailer "has a lot of things going for it."

Other higher-end retailers, such as Nordstrom (JWN Quote), Ralph Lauren (RL Quote) and Saks, are "on fire," Cramer added.

Even though there are big short positions in Ralph Lauren, Cramer said he has always felt its brand is "fantastic." He advised people who don't believe in this story to take a look at its accelerated revenue growth. "This is a story with tremendous momentum in 2007," Cramer said.