The mortgage problems that have helped shape the current economic downturn have made "subprime" an unwelcome word to investors.
Mexican police are testing a new weapon against widespread corruption in their ranks: home ownership.
A former Wall Street broker pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he and a colleague duped investors into purchasing more than $1 billion in high-risk securities by making it look as though the trades were protected by the federal government.
Federal authorities, responding to the subprime-mortgage crisis, have formed a task force to determine if lenders or Wall Street firms participated in fraud.
State regulators and cities that have filed cases or disclosed investigations targeting Wall Street firms' roles in the subprime mortgage market:
Regulators are trying to punish Wall Street for mortgage finance practices that expanded home ownership and spread risk among a host of new players — but also may have duped borrowers and investors who supplied cash to fuel a housing boom that's turned bust.
China's biggest bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., has set aside reserves equal to 30 percent of its $1.2 billion in subprime holdings to cover possible losses, a state news agency reported Monday.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday that the agency is committed to investigating and prosecuting companies involved in mortgage fraud and other violations in connection with home loans made to risky borrowers.
The FBI on Tuesday said it is investigating 14 companies for possible accounting fraud, insider trading or other violations in connection with home loans made to risky borrowers.
A company that analyzed the quality of subprime mortgages for investment banks has agreed to provide the New York attorney general with information for an investigation, a newspaper reported Saturday.
Authorities in New York and Connecticut are investigating whether Wall Street banks hid crucial information about high-risk loans bundled into securities that were sold to investors, Connecticut's Attorney General said Saturday.
The city of Cleveland, an epicenter of the nation's home foreclosure crisis, has sued 21 banks and claimed their subprime lending practices created a public nuisance that hurt property values and city tax collections.
Black neighborhoods in Baltimore were disproportionately affected by the subprime mortgage fallout, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by the city, which is attempting to recoup the costs of maintaining neighborhoods wracked by foreclosures.
If lenders temporarily freeze low introductory interest rates on home loans made to risky borrowers before they soar, it would be a modest fix for the country's fractured housing market.
The Bush administration and the mortgage industry, trying to combat a massive wave of foreclosures, are hammering out a proposal to temporarily freeze interest rates on certain troubled subprime mortgages. If adopted, it would be the biggest action taken to cope with the unfolding crisis.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday a major real estate appraisal company colluded with the nation's largest savings and loan company to inflate the values of homes nationwide, contributing to the subprime mortgage crisis.
Homeowners with troubled credit histories are finding it harder to get mortgages or refinance homes because softening in the housing market is making lenders less likely to handle riskier loans.