business - "credit"

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Commission opened an investigation Wednesday into Britain's nationalization of Northern Rock PLC, the mortgage bank that collapsed at the beginning of the global credit crisis....

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says he told Chinese leaders that Washington is making progress in resolving the U.S. credit crisis but cautioned there will be 'more bumps' ahead. Paulson met on Wednesday with President Hu Jintao and Beijing's new point man on strained relations with Washington, Wang Qishan.

Stocks surged Tuesday, with the Dow jumping close to 400 points on the first day of the new quarter, as investors cheered signs that the companies hit hardest by the credit market crisis seem to be working through the problems.

UBS’s 9,000 staff in London are braced for more job cuts after the Swiss bank disclosed big new losses from US sub-prime mortgages and structured credit, making it the biggest credit crunch victim.Marcel Ospel, UBS’s chairman, once fêted as the most brilliant banker in Europe, said that he was quitting as he revealed that losses had more than doubled to $37 billion ($£18.6 billion). This is equivalent to three times the annual wages bill of UBS’s 80,000 staff worldwide and much larger than the next most exposed banks so far, Merrill Lynch, with $24 billion, and Citigroup, with $18 billion.UBS has been forced into a second emergency capital-raising to shore up its balance sheet, announcing a fully underwritten SwFr15 billion ($£7.5 billion) rights issue. Four months ago it raised SwFr13 billion from the government Investment Corporation of Singapore and a Middle East investor.Shares on both sides of the Atlantic soared as

Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver's license photographs and credit reports, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

First Direct has closed its doors to new mortgage customers after receiving five times the usual volume of applications in recent weeks.The internet and telephone bank, owned by HSBC, said that it was receiving an unprecedented level of business after recent moves by rival banks to pull similar mortgage deals because of the high costs of funding as a result of the credit crunch.First Direct said it was taking longer to process applications than it would like, but added that it was a temporary measure until the backlog is cleared.Chris Pilling, First Direct’s chief executive, said: “Rather than increase interest rates dramatically to discourage new applications, we’ve decided to withdraw temporarily from offering mortgages to noncustomers until we’ve cleared the backlog.”Some lenders such as the Nation-wide Building Society and Chelten-ham & Gloucester, have raised their mortgage rates for new borrowers.First Direct’s mo

Maurice 'Hank' Greenberg, former chief executive of American International Group , said on Tuesday he sees more trouble in the credit crisis that has been gripping global markets in recent months.

Policy changes in response to global credit crisis would enhance Bank of Canada's flexibility

AP - wall street began the second quarter with a big rally Tuesday as investors rushed back into stocks, optimistic that the worst of the credit crisis has passed and that the economy is faring better than expected. The Dow Jones industrials surged nearly 400 points, and all the major indexes were up more than 3 percent.

Franklin credit Management Corporation today announced its operating results for the full year 2007; the filing on March 31, 2008 of its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 ; the filing today of its Form 10-K for the twelve months ended December 31, 2007; and amendments to debt restructuring agreements with its lead lending bank.