Mortgage default rates rose in 2006-7, leading to ongoing foreclosures. In early 2008, Bank of America acquired mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corporation, whose predatory lending practices drew outrage in the housing bubble. While certainly not the only lending institution to suffer scrutiny or ill-repute, many blame them publicly for the ensuing economic crisis.

Natus Medical Incorporated today announced that it has set up a contract to acquire privately held SonaMed Corporation.

Caja Madrid, the savings bank that provides services at approximately 1,900 banking offices and more than 4,600 supermarket locations throughout Spain, decided to use its strategic stakes in financial service companies to create a separate company and launch it on the stock exchange before the end of 2008.

Fremont General Corp. is going to sell its bank to CapitalSource Inc. The deal is worth of $170 million.

Spain's Santander said on Thursday it was selling Italian corporate banking arm Interbanca to General Electric in exchange for consumer finance units in a deal worth 1 billion euros ($1.7 billion).

India's biggest vehicle maker, Tata Motors, has clinched a deal to buy luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover from U.S. carmaker Ford.

Severstal buys the Sparrows Point mill in the U.S. state of Maryland from ArcelorMittal for $810 million.

Nokia Corp. on Friday announced a deal to sell handsets worth a total Ђ 2 billion (US$3 billion) to China Postel during 2008, in the company's largest market.

News Corp. has acquired Beliefnet.com, a spiritual website that boasts over 3 million unique visitors a month, writes Samantha Chang.

Samantha Chang of TheImproper.com reports hunky Brit Christian Bale is in talks to star in a sequel to the blockbuster "Terminator" flicks.

IBM Global Financing (IGF), the financing business segment of IBM (NYSE: IBM), announced today that it has funded $2 Billion (US) in financing deals for IBM Business Partners and resellers through its Rapid Online Financing (RoF) tool.

GE Money, the global consumer lending unit of GE and Ryanair announced that they have signed a deal which will see GE Money provide co-branded credit cards for Europe’s largest low fares airline, across a number of European Markets.