Downturn leads to rise in costly 401(k) loans by minorities

While millions of workers used money from their retirement savings to pay expenses during the Great Recession, African Americans and Hispanics dipped into their 401(k) plans at a much higher rate.

The rise in 401(k) withdrawals, loans and cash-outs among African Americans and Hispanics represents a major setback for their long-term retirement security, says Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, co-sponsor of a survey on the recession's impact on retirement plans.

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Senior citizens owe billions in student loans

When you think of student loans, you think of students and recent graduates -- younger people in their 20s and 30s working to pay off the thousands of dollars in debt from undergraduate and graduate schools.

It's a good bet you don't think of people in their 60s, 70s and even 80s struggling to [pay off student debt. But new research shows that Americans 60 and older owe $36 billion in educational debt and account for 5 percent of delinquent student loans.

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Depths of foreclosure crisis difficult to measure

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – When Frank Verna pulls up to a battered, four-unit apartment building at lunch hour, he's just over a mile as the seagull flies from the gated, oceanfront palaces of South Florida's wealthiest.



But this stretch of 21st Street, pocked by homes with boarded-up windows and dead-ending at railroad tracks, is unlikely to make it to a tourism poster. Verna turns the car around in case he needs to make a quick exit and tucks a Smith & Wesson pistol into his jeans.
"Just watch your step," the real estate agent says, parting bushes grown across the building's entry path. Beyond is the darkened doorway to Unit 1 — missing its door.

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UPDATE 2-US banks shield assets after MF Global-Fed survey

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - U.S. banks have intensified
efforts to ensure that their funds and assets are properly
protected, after the MF Global scandal where an estimated $1.6
billion in customer funds vanished,  according to a Federal
Reserve survey released on Thursday.

Over the past six months, U.S. banks have boosted
arrangements to ensure that their collateral and margin are
protected by a third party to reduce the risk of anything
happening to their funds, said the report.

Following the failure of MF Global in October, market
players have "focused more intensively on the possible
consequences of financial distress on the part of dealers with
whom they have posted collateral," said the Fed's quarterly
survey of senior credit officers.

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Geithner makes case for reducing homeowner loans

(Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday rebuffed a housing regulator's concerns that allowing mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to reduce homeowners' mortgages would only protect the big banks.

"There are some cases where principal reduction is not just good for the homeowner, not just good for the community, but it's good for the taxpayer too," Geithner told a congressional panel.

The Obama administration has been trying to use government resources to help the U.S. housing market. But it has faced resistance from the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's acting director Edward DeMarco.

DeMarco has maintained that his regulator's mission is to protect the taxpayer money that was used to prop up the mortgage buyers after massive losses at the companies threatened the global financial system.

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U.S. consumer agency to be active in court cases

March 27 (Reuters) - The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it planned to play an active role in court cases involving disputes over consumer lending laws.

The agency, which opened its doors in July, is charged with policing markets for financial products such as credit cards and mortgages.

On Tuesday, the agency said it had filed a friend-of-the court brief in a truth in lending law case before the Denver-based U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We are committed to making sure that borrowers can exercise their rights to the full extent allowed under this law," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a release.

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US Feb business volume up in year, down in month

March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. companies borrowed more to buy equipment in February than a year ago, though less than in January, and spent mostly for new technology and aging goods replacement, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association said on Monday.

Where spending is on the rise, most of it appears to be focused on technology to improve productivity, the group's Chief Executive William Sutton said in an interview.

Caution about events spanning from Europe's economy to the U.S. presidential election and oil prices is holding many businesses back from materially stepping up equipment investment for expansion rather than for replacement.

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