Personal Finance News

WASHINGTON - As many as 350,000 households are not getting the $300 per child refund owed as part of economic stimulus rebate payments, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday.

NEW YORK - The stock market notched its second straight daily advance Thursday, with investors assuaged by a pullback in oil prices and some better-than-expected economic data.

WASHINGTON - Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down this week to their lowest point in a month, a spot of welcome news to would-be home buyers.

WASHINGTON - Commercial banks and other financial institutions need to beef up their ability to detect and protect themselves against risks like the credit and mortgage debacles, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday.

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has ruled that a shareholder lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corp. executives and directors should go to trial, rejecting several arguments by the troubled mortgage lender to dismiss the case.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Directors and officers of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial must answer shareholder accusations of insider trading and failure to monitor lending practices that led to the company's collapse, a federal judge in California has ruled, the New York Times reported.

Freddie Mac beat Wall Street's expectations in the first quarter, but the mortgage finance company didn't vanquish concerns about its ability to weather the housing bust.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who led investigations into companies blamed for the state's subprime mortgage mess, resigned under a cloud on Wednesday after admitting to an affair with a female staff member.

LOS ANGELES - More U.S. homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments last month, driving the number of homes facing foreclosure up 65 percent versus the same month last year and contributing to a deepening slide in home values, a research company said Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage applications rose for a second consecutive week, fueled by a jump in demand for home refinancing loans as interest rates dropped, an industry group said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Fraudsters netted hundreds of millions of dollars through mortgage scams last year, and the trend was likely to continue as the US housing market slumps even further, the FBI said Tuesday.

(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp on Tuesday increased its forecast for expected losses from home equity loans, citing the deteriorating U.S. housing market.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of IndyMac Bancorp Inc fell as much as 22.5 percent to an all-time low on Tuesday after an analyst said the independent mortgage lender needed to raise significant capital.

Because of the credit crunch, conventional lenders are making it tough for any but the most creditworthy borrowers to qualify for private college loans. Now, a new breed of student lender is trying to get students to return the snub -- by writing off the Sallie Maes and Citibanks of the world in favor of relying on friends, family, and even perfect strangers to finance their college loans. "It's not a solution to the credit crisis in student loans by any means," says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of financial aid Web site finaid.org. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Banking Committee is due on Thursday to vote on legislation that would greatly expand a federal housing program and create a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a committee source said on Monday.

NEW YORK - Broad damage in the mortgage industry was in full view Monday as a number of companies posted dismal first-quarter earnings, but there were also some hope that the worst of the housing crisis is over.

LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC is underestimating problems at its troubled U.S. consumer finance arm, a rebel shareholder said on Monday and called on the bank to appoint an independent financial advisor to consider options for the unit.

LOS ANGELES - IndyMac Bancorp Inc. swung to a loss in the first quarter as deteriorating credit markets forced the mortgage lender to lower the value of mortgage-backed securities, and warned Monday it would not post a profitable quarter in 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - IndyMac Bancorp Inc , one of the largest independent U.S. mortgage lenders, posted a first-quarter loss on Monday as it wrote down bad mortgages and grappled with the cost of cutting jobs and closing offices.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - Mortgage insurer PMI Group Inc. said Monday it swung to a first-quarter loss from year-ago profit, due to hefty payouts on default claims and charges to write off its investment in bond insurer FGIC.

LONDON - HSBC Holdings PLC said Monday that first-quarter profit was better than a year ago, despite a $3.2 billion write-down on subprime mortgage assets in the United States.

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings said its profit in the first quarter was ahead of a year ago as growth in Asia helped counter over $5 billion in hits from bad debts on U.S. home loans and asset writedowns.

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's biggest bank HSBC Holdings said its profit in the first quarter was ahead of a year earlier as growth in Asia and elsewhere helped counter another big hit for bad debts on U.S. home loans.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc is considering selling its Japanese consumer finance company CFJ KK or cutting the unit's business significantly as part of its plans to shed assets, Japanese daily Nikkei reported on Sunday.

ASHLAND, Mass. - When Jenny and John Crowley learned they were having a baby, they did the responsible thing: they bought life insurance.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Citigroup, reeling from the subprime mortgage crisis, said Friday it plans to sell roughly 400 billion dollars in assets in a streamlining reorganization aimed at restoring the US banking giant to profit.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc said on Friday it plans to shed $400 billion of assets within three years and boost revenue by up to 10 percent annually, in a bid to restore profitability after huge losses tied to flagging mortgage and credit markets.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp shares fell nearly 6 percent on Friday on renewed speculation that Bank of America Corp will renegotiate or cancel its agreement to buy the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs economists expect a total of $500 billion in residential mortgage credit losses, a renewed slowdown in economic activity after the near-term boost from fiscal stimulus, and no monetary policy tightening in 2008 or 2009, according to a research note from the firm.