The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged four promoters and a Phoenix-based company with securities fraud for orchestrating a mortgage lending scheme that attracted hundreds of investors by making false and misleading statements about the safety and performance of the investments.

It isn’t easy being Bank of America these days. The bank had previously thought to be in decent standing up until it acquired struggling firm Merrill Lynch, and since that point things have been awful. The flow of bad press has been non-stop, between Merrill Lynch’s crumbling balance sheet, questionable bonuses, and giving former Executive John Thain the axe, the firm simply can’t escape the ongoing drama.

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners in the country are facing difficulties in making their mortgage payments on time. However, not many of them know that the first thing they should do is to go or to speak with their mortgage lender. It's also in lender's best interest to help the struggling homeowner to avoid foreclosure.

In a statement presented last Friday to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the Federal Trade Commission described its efforts to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, and discriminatory practices in the mortgage lending market.

Is this really intended to help troubled borrowers or to help someone's political career? It makes a splashy headline and will no doubt elevate the profile of the Illinois Attorney General (has she announced her candidacy for Governor or something?).

Thornburg Mortgage Inc. shares sank 51 percent on Thursday on worries the "jumbo" mortgage lender might go bankrupt, after its failure to meet a margin call triggered defaults under other lending agreements.

Britain's largest bank, HSBC, has written off $17.2 billion in bad debt after the U.S. housing market slide hit the value of its loans in 2007. The annual loss is the largest reported amongst Britain's big five mortgage lenders. For VOA, Tom Rivers in London reports.

Thornburg Mortgage Inc., the lender that sold $21.9 billion of assets in August due to a cash shortage, said it may have to sell more securities to meet lenders' demands for increased collateral. The company declined the most in six months in New York trading.

Fannie Mae is promoting responsible lending, and is working in local communities throughout the nation to help develop solutions to the problem of predatory lending.

Over two million homeowners are in foreclosure and many expect they can walk away from their problems by letting their house get sold at foreclosure auction. But more lenders are pursuing homeowners for their financial losses after the foreclosure process is finished.

Continued Market Deterioration Since August Reduces Fair Value of Morgan Stanley's Subprime Exposure by $3.7 Billion – as of October 31, 2007

Even though the Feds cut the discount rate, which is the rate that the Federal Reserve charges qualified lenders, problems in the mortgage industry continue to grow. Since August 1, 2007, more then 25,000 financial service workers have lost their jobs nationwide, and more are coming.