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Personal Finance News

• Summary Box: Citi CEO sees return to profitability (AP)

  AP - BULLISH OUTLOOK: Citigroup Inc. says its returning to "sustained profitability" after losing billions on bad loans and taking a federal bailout. CEO Vikram Pandit says the bank is shedding risky mortgage assets and shifting focus to emerging markets like Latin America and Asia.

• Fannie Mae to offer $6b in notes (AP)

  AP - Fannie Mae on Thursday said it will offer $6 billion of new 3-year notes due May 7, 2013.

• Gov't official warns on home down payment hikes (AP)

  AP - The head of the Federal Housing Administration is warning that boosting the minimum down payment borrowers must provide to qualify for home loans backed by the agency could threaten the housing market.

• Stocks Are Quiet While Currencies Scream (The Motley Fool)

  The Motley Fool - After a down January, the stock market is again positive for the year. The much-fabled January effect barometer didn't work in 2009, and it remains to be seen if it will work in 2010. Economic data has continued its slow improvement, keeping stocks fairly calm. The wild action so far this year has been in the currency markets.

• Mortgage rates remain below 5 percent (AP)

  AP - Mortgage rates held below the 5 percent threshold for the second straight week, a report said Thursday, weeks before a government program that has been keeping rates low is scheduled to expire.

  
  

• Foreclosures drop for 2nd month in February: RealtyTrac (Reuters)

  Reuters - U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed.

  
  

• Quinn seeks income tax hike for schools (AP)

  AP - Calling himself a realist, Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday scaled back his proposal to raise income taxes, shifting to a call for an increase of just one percentage point to be used solely for preventing deep cuts to education.

  
  

• Home loan demand nudges higher in latest week (Reuters)

  Reuters - U.S. mortgage applications nudged higher last week, reflecting increased demand for home purchase loans even as interest rates trekked higher, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

  
  

• Nationalized UK bank Northern Rock back in profit (AP)

  AP - Nationalized mortgage lender Northern Rock said Wednesday that it returned to profit in the second half of 2009 as interest income rose and losses on loans fell.

• One Congressman's Solution for Boosting Small Business Loans (The Motley Fool)

  The Motley Fool - The first Friday of every month brings the all-important employment report. February's numbers were better than anticipated. The United States lost only 36,000 jobs, versus the 68,000 that experts expected. This compares with 651,000 jobs lost in February 2009. Still, the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%, with the unofficial rate stuck around a whopping 16%.

• Commercial delinquency lower than other mortgages (AP)

  AP - Commercial mortgages were among the best-performing loans and leases held by banks and thrifts in the fourth quarter of last year, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Tuesday.

• Management Education on the Fly (BusinessWeek)

  BusinessWeek - Who got us into this mess? It's not just greedy mortgage lenders and irresponsible economists who are responsible for the current financial crisis. Leaders, so called, have played a role too, by not managing their companies and so being detached from what was going on in them. And behind much of this has been an educational process that encouraged such detachment. As I've argued at length in my book, Managers not MBAs, the MBA is fine education -- but in the functions of business, not the exercise of managing. ...

• Summary Box: AIG's $15.5B Alico sale to MetLife (AP)

  AP - THE SALE: American International Group Inc. sold its American Life Insurance Co. division, or Alico, to MetLife Inc. for $15.5 billion. The deal is AIG's second big asset sale in two weeks. On March 1, it said it would sell its AIA Group unit to Prudential PLC for $35.5 billion.

• AIG sells Alico unit to MetLife for $15.5 billion (AP)

  AP - American International Group Inc. said Monday that it will sell its American Life Insurance Co. division for $15.5 billion to MetLife Inc. The government-approved deal, AIG's second big asset sale in two weeks, will give the insurer more cash to repay the billions of bailout dollars it still owes the government.

  
  

• MetLife seals Alico deal after two-year quest (Reuters)

  Reuters - MetLife Inc pursued AIG's foreign life insurance business for two years before finally clinching a $15.5 billion purchase that will give it beachheads in 47 nations from Peru to Bangladesh.

  
  

• Is Bank of America a Buy? (The Motley Fool)

  The Motley Fool - With the recent auction of Treasury's Bank of America (NYSE: BAC - News) warrants, the big bank joins Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - News), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS - News), and several other banks in completing its exit from TARP. But, is it a buy?

• US insurer MetLife to buy AIG unit for $15.5 bln (AFP)

  AFP - US life insurance giant MetLife will acquire a unit of American International Group in a 15.5-billion-dollar deal that will help AIG pay back part of its government bailout, the firms said Monday.

  
  

• AIG set for $15.5 bln deal with MetLife: report (AFP)

  AFP - US insurance giants American International Group and MetLife will on Monday announce a $15.5 billion deal for AIG's second-largest foreign life-insurance business, The Wall Street Journal reported.

  
  

• AIG to get $231M if sale of Asian unit crumbles (AP)

  AP - American International Group Inc. will receive a termination fee of $230.6 million if the sale of its Asian life insurance business to Britain's Prudential PLC falls through.

• Consumer borrowing up in January after 11 declines (AP)

  AP - Consumer borrowing broke a record stretch of declines with a small increase in January as a boost in auto loans offset continued weakness in credit card borrowing.