In brief
Ex-Tropicana Entertainment chief becomes Foxwoods CEO
A day after leaving the chief executive officer post at Tropicana Entertainment, Scott Butera was named president and CEO of the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.
The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, which owns the hotel-casino property, made the announcement Friday. Butera will oversee day-to-day operations of the four-hotel complex in southeastern Connecticut, which draws customers from Boston; New York City; Hartford, Conn.; and Providence, R.I.
Butera had been with Tropicana Entertainment as president since March 2008 .
NEW YORK
Bank of America says it won't buy back bad mortgages
Bank of America said it will not buy back bad mortgages from a series of high-profile investors who complained defaults are being handled improperly and homes are not being foreclosed upon fast enough.
In response to an effort to push the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank to buy back defaulted mortgages made by its Countrywide unit, Bank of America attorneys rejected claims that the loans were made improperly or being handled incorrectly in a letter Thursday.
The complaining investors include the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Freddie Mac, Pimco Investment Management and Blackrock Financial Management.
In the letter, first revealed by The New York Times, Bank of America attorneys also dismissed the suggestion that its handling of loan modifications and other efforts to prevent foreclosure violated the terms of the mortgage-backed securities the investors hold.
WASHINGTON
Fannie Mae now looking for $2.5 billion more in federal aid
Government-controlled mortgage buyer Fannie Mae is asking for $2.5 billion in additional federal aid after posting a narrower loss in the third quarter.
Fannie Mae also said Friday it was likely that the market disarray and suspension of foreclosures due to big lenders' problems with flawed documents will hurt the delinquency rates of its loans, its expenses and foreclosure timelines. However, the company said, "we cannot yet predict the extent of its impact."
Fannie Mae said Friday it lost $3.46 billion, or 61 cents a share, in the July-September quarter. That takes into account $2.1 billion in dividend payments to the Treasury Department. It compares with a loss of $19.8 billion, or $3.47 a share, in the third quarter of 2009.
WASHINGTON
Consumer borrowing in U.S. increases during September
Consumer borrowing increased in September for the first time since January even though the category that includes credit cards dropped for a record 25th straight month. The rise in credit came from the category that includes student loans.
The Federal Reserve said Friday that consumer credit increased at an annual rate of $2.1 billion in September after having fallen at a rate of $4.9 billion in August. It was only the second increase in the past 20 months.
For September, revolving credit, the category that includes credit cards, fell for a record 25th consecutive month, dropping by an annual rate of $8.3 billion, or 12.1 percent.
The category that includes student loans and auto loans rose by $10.4 billion, or an annual rate of 7.9 percent.
TOKYO
Toyota's second-quarter profit rises fourfold despite recalls
Toyota's second-quarter profit more than quadrupled despite lingering worries about the safety of its cars after massive recalls that are still dogging its sales in the United States.
Toyota reported July-September profit of 98.7 billion yen ($1.2 billion) on Friday, up from 21.8 billion yen profit a year earlier but lower than analysts expected. Quarterly sales rose 5.8 percent to 4.807 trillion yen ($59.5 billion).
Toyota Motor Corp. is the only major automaker with U.S. sales that have been sluggish despite a recent onslaught of incentives that have boosted other automakers' results -- underlining how its once sterling image continues to be tarnished in that crucial market.
Toyota raised its profit forecast for the year through March 2011, albeit modestly, to 350 billion yen ($4.3 billion) from an earlier forecast for 340 billion yen ($4.2 billion) profit.
