Senate probe finds culture of fraud at WaMu The mortgage lending operations of Washington Mutual Inc., the biggest U.S. bank ever to fail, were threaded through with fraud, Senate investigators have found. And the bank's own probes failed to stem the deceptive practices, the investigators said in a report on the 2008 failure of WaMu. The panel said the bank's pay system rewarded loan officers for the volume and speed of the subprime mortgage loans they closed on. Extra bonuses even went to loan officers who overcharged borrowers on their loans or levied stiff penalties for prepayment, according to the report being released Tuesday.
GMAC to sell ResCap's European operations GMAC Financial Services struck a deal to sell its European mortgage operations to a New York asset management firm, bringing it closer to its goal of withdrawing from the home lending business. The sale to Fortress Investment Group effectively marks GMAC's exit from the European mortgage market, the company said. GMAC said the assets it is selling represent about 10 percent of troubled mortgage subsidiary Residential Capital as of Dec. 31, though they represent much more under new accounting rules that took effect in January.
ConocoPhillips to sell Canada oil-sands stake ConocoPhillips agreed to sell its stake in Canadian oil sands producer Syncrude to a Chinese petroleum company for $4.65 billion. This marks the largest energy deal in North America by a company backed by China's government. Oil is a primary target for China, given the country's huge appetite for energy. The agreement with ConocoPhillips continues a trend of aggressive buying by the Chinese for energy resources, said Fadel Gheit, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co.
Volt will get 40 miles on a charge, GM says Real-world tests show that General Motors Co.'s rechargeable electric car can travel 40 miles on battery power as promised, company engineers said. Engineers are testing six Volts that recently were made on a Detroit assembly line, driving them at the company's proving ground and on roads around Detroit. The automaker still has a "few things to tweak" with the car, including computer software and controls, but the Volt is on schedule for full production in November, said Andrew Farah, the car's chief engineer.
Microsoft plays catch-up with Kin phones Microsoft Corp. unveiled two cell phones that are meant for social networking-savvy teens and twenty-somethings, in an attempt to revitalize its mobile business and regain ground on iPhones and BlackBerrys. Microsoft said its new touch-screen phones -- a short, square-shaped handset called Kin One and a longer, more rectangular one called Kin Two -- will be sold exclusively in the U.S. by Verizon Wireless. They are being made by Sharp Corp., which has produced Sidekick cell phones, whose software comes from Microsoft-owned Danger Inc.
Tribune bankruptcy plan could face opposition Tribune Co. has filed a bankruptcy reorganization plan that would allow it to keep its newspapers and broadcast stations while sharply reducing the debt that has threatened to sink the media company. But two groups of lenders that say they are owed nearly $5 billion combined have signaled that they will try to block the plan. In a court filing earlier Monday, one group described a purported global settlement that forms the backbone of the reorganization plan "dead on arrival."
MasterCard names new CEO from within MasterCard said its president and chief operating officer will take over the company's top job and announced that CEO Robert Selander will retire at the end of the year. Ajay Banga, 50, becomes CEO in July. During a news conference Monday, Banga said his focus will be on MasterCard's global growth. MasterCard, based in Purchase, N.Y., generates 55 percent of its revenue outside of the United States.
FROM NEWS SERVICES
