Manchester City loan Robinho to Santos

By Pedro Fonseca

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Manchester City's Brazil forward Robinho is returning home to his former club Santos immediately on a six-month loan deal, both clubs said on Thursday.

"Santos will assume all of the player's contract terms, including wages and bonuses. Robinho will travel to Brazil on Sunday to begin his loan period," City said in a statement.

Robinho will earn substantially lower wages at the Brazilian club but will be paid extra money by sponsors.

Fed Emergency Loans to Banks Decline

Banks once again reduce their borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency loan window

Banks borrowed less from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program over the past week, another sign that strains on private credit markets are easing.

Commercial banks averaged $14.86 billion in daily borrowing for the week that ended Wednesday, the Fed reported. That was down from $15.1 billion in average borrowing for the previous week.

Banks have been scaling back their use of the Fed's emergency discount loan window as the financial crisis has eased. At the peak of the crisis, which struck with force in the fall of 2008, banks' daily borrowing from the discount window reached $110 billion as banks found their normal sources of credit frozen.

The Fed said Wednesday that "in light of improved functioning of financial markets" it would phase out as previously scheduled by Feb. 1 a number of the emergency programs it created to deal with what was the worst financial crisis to hit the country since the 1930s.

Nissan, U.S. Close $1.4 Billion Electric-Car Loan (Update2)

By Daniel Whitten

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s third-largest carmaker, closed on a $1.4 billion loan from the U.S. Energy Department that will be used to retrofit facilities in Smyrna, Tennessee, for making electric cars.

Nissan, which was awarded the money on a conditional basis in June, plans to remodel a plant in Smyrna to manufacture the Leaf electric vehicles and build an adjacent facility to make the lithium-ion batteries that will power the cars. The plant now makes Altima and Maxima passenger cars, Xterra and Pathfinder SUVs, and the Frontier pickup truck, according to Nissan’s Web site. 

Heritage Commerce Corp Reports Financial Results for 2009

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 28, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Heritage Commerce Corp (Nasdaq:HTBK), parent company of Heritage Bank of Commerce, reported today a fourth quarter 2009 net loss of $574,000 and a net loss allocable to common shareholders of $1.2 million, or $(0.10) per diluted common share, which includes a $5.7 million provision for loan losses and a $600,000 accrual for dividends and discount accretion on preferred stock. For the full year ended December 31, 2009, the Company reported a net loss of $12.0 million and a net loss allocable to common shareholders of $14.4 million, or $(1.21) per diluted common share, which includes a $33.9 million provision for loan losses and $2.4 million in dividends and discount accretion on preferred stock.   In the fourth quarter of 2008, net income was $700,000 and net income allocable to common shareholders was $445,000, or $0.04 per diluted common share, including a $4.5 million provision for loan losses and $255,000 in dividends and discount accretion on preferred stock. For the full year ended December 31, 2008, net income was $1.8 million, and net income allocable to common shareholders was $1.5 million, or $0.13 per diluted common share, including $15.5 million in provision for loan losses and $255,000 for dividends and discount accretion on preferred stock.

Want a loan modification? Bring documents

By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY

 

Homeowners applying for mortgage modifications will soon have to provide paperwork upfront showing that they qualify.

The new documentation process is aimed at getting homeowners more rapidly into permanent modifications with lower monthly payments.

HOUSING MARKET: Track the rise, fall and rebound?

MONEY TIPS: Get our free Personal Finance e-mail newsletter

To accept homeowners into the program, many lenders accepted borrowers by taking proof of income over the phone. Getting the documentation needed to get into a permanent modification then took time, lengthening the process.

Under the change, homeowners will provide the documentation upfront.

"Were there some struggles with documentation? Absolutely. Are we learning from those lessons? Absolutely," says Phyllis Caldwell, who heads the Treasury's Homeownership Preservation Office.

The new guidance goes into effect on June 1, but servicers are free to adopt it earlier.

Loan Consolidation

A consolidation loan allows you to combine any or all of your outstanding federal student loans into a single new loan. With a Consolidation loan—available through both the Federal Family Education Loan Program and the Federal Direct Loan Program—comes new terms and conditions. Before you decide to consolidate your loans, take some time to see if you would benefit.

• Loan Consolidation at a Glance fact sheet

• Managing Your Student Loan Portfolio guide

To determine if consolidation is right for you and your entire student loan portfolio, consider the various loan provisions including interest subsidy, deferment, forbearance, forgiveness and cancellation.

Check out EdWise^®, the Online Financial Planning Guide, to evaluate your repayment options.

Debt Consolidation: Now's the Time

Debt consolidation: Loosely defined, it's the act of combining several loans or debts — usually credit card debt — into one low payment. This can offer two big economic advantages: Lower interest rates and greater simplicity. Both are goals to work toward, and both are decidedly achievable. But how?

Here's the short-term solution: Consider a debt consolidation loan. It can cut those numerous high-interest debts down to size into one low-interest loan with one fell swoop. But exactly who qualifies for a debt consolidation loan? Do you have to own a home or not? And what about equity...? There's a little confusion. Let's clear this up.

Learn more about consolidating bad debt.