Reuters - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday said the head of his vice presidential search team and former head of the mortgage giant Fannie Mae had decided to step aside.

Reuters - The biggest U.S. banks that service more than 23 million mortgages totaling $3.8 trillion have focused on short term relief for troubled borrowers rather than permanent changes to mortgage conditions to prevent foreclosures, a top U.S. banking regulator said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Shareholders of American International Group Inc are demanding changes to the management and board of the world's largest insurer, which has been struggling with the fallout of the subprime mortgage mess.

Reuters - Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said Wednesday he remains committed to buying Countrywide Financial Corp , the giant money-losing mortgage lender, but acknowledged that the nearly year-long global credit crisis still has "a ways to go."

Reuters - Strains in financial markets have eased somewhat but securitizations of non-agency mortgage products remain stalled and will recover only gradually, Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner said on Friday.

Reuters - U.S. securities regulators are investigating whether American International Group Inc overstated the value of contracts linked to subprime mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

AP - The foreclosure hammer is hitting ever harder. People lost their homes at the highest rate on record in the first three months of the year, and late payments soared to a new high, too — an alarming sign that the housing crisis and its damage to the national economy may only get worse.

AP - The Federal Reserve has approved Bank of America Corp.'s purchase of distressed mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

Reuters - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether American International Group Inc overstated the value of contracts linked to subprime mortgages, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

AFP - British house prices tumbled 3.8 percent in May for the largest annual drop since April 1993, home loans provider Halifax said on Thursday.