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Lender says it can't get capital to pay off debt and finance commercial lending from other sources due to crippled credit market. Commercial and consumer lender CIT Group Inc. said Thursday it tapped its $7.3 billion credit lines to repay debt and finance its commercial lending and is seeking additional funding sources as access to capital has dried up. CIT Group said it cannot get capital from other sources amid continued deterioration of the credit markets. Aside from looking for new funding, CIT Group said it would also consider selling non-strategic assets and business lines to help raise cash. Shares...

Bear Naked Lenders March 18, 2008 The best thing about Sunday night's Federal Reserve-inspired sale of Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan Chase is the price. At $2 a share for a total of $236 million, this was less a "bailout" than a Fed-mediated liquidation sale. Bear wasn't too big to fail after all, though there's still the issue of the Fed expanding its own moral and financial hazard in the form of $30 billion in guarantees on Bear Stearns securities. Bear shareholders will essentially be wiped out in this close-out sale, with British billionaire Joseph Lewis alone reportedly enduring paper...

Iowans affected by lender linked to EdwardsWhile he worked for an equity company that dealt in mortgages, those lenders foreclosed on 107 homes in the state. He says his anti-poverty stance isn't affected. By THOMAS BEAUMONT REGISTER STAFF WRITER September 27, 2007 A total of 107 Iowa homeowners were foreclosed upon by subprime mortgage companies owned by Fortress Investment Group while Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was associated with the equity company, court records show. Fortress foreclosures have occurred in other states, but the Iowa cases bring Edwards' tie to subprime lending to the leadoff presidential nominating state, where he...

Hedge Funds Are Squeezed by Investors and Lenders By JENNY ANDERSON As summer neared, investors in Sowood Capital Management, a $3 billion hedge fund, had little to complain about. The fund was up 16 percent over the previous 12 months. Blue-chip management was in place, and any risk was well-hedged with a comfortable cushion of financing in place, the fund said in a letter to investors. But a rocky June turned into a calamitous July, and by the end of the month, Sowood was on the brink of collapse. As the credit market tightened, Sowood had to sell stocks to...

A Romanian man has handed over his wife to a creditor as payment for his debts. Emil Iancu, from tIghisu Nou, gave his wife Daniela to 72-year-old Jozef Justien Lostrie when he turned up on his doorstep to collect a £1,800 debt. Iancu said: "I had no money to pay the debt and when I told Lostrie he said he would take my wife instead. "I was scared of what he would do and so I signed a document saying Daniela would live with him."