Finance Globe

The Federal Reserve and Treasury announced plans on Sunday to lend a hand to mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, by temporarily extending their long-standing credit lines if needed. The two companies would be able to borrow funds from the Fed at a rate of 2.25%, the same rate given to commercial banks and big Wall Street Firms.The Fed said that this should helps the companies' ability "to promote the availability of home mortgage credit...

The Federal Reserve has tightened lending standards with new rules for home mortgages. These new mortgage rules are meant to protect American consumers from the types of irresponsible mortgage lending practices that have been blamed for leading us to the country's worst real estate market crisis in decades."The proposed final rules are intended to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive acts in mortgage lending, while keeping credit available to qualified buyers and supporting sustainable home-ownership," said...

President Bush signed the housing rescue bill into law on Wednesday.The new laws have two main objectives; to help struggling homeowners refinance into affordable loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), and to give additional funding to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that buy or back about half of all U.S. mortgages. These actions are hoped to bring stability back to the housing market and give a boost to our...

Citigroup has become the next major institution troubled by bad mortgage-related investments to receive a taxpayer bailout.The New York-based mega-bank is yet another financial giant to be considered "too big to fail"; the company has its hand in so many deals around the world that its failure would be catastrophic to the global economy, according to experts.A joint announcement was made on Sunday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal...