Actual finance blog

President Barack Obama will unveil on Wednesday his plans for reshaping U.S. financial regulation, with proposals to close one bank regulator and create new overseers for big-picture economic risk and consumer financial product safety.

In a package of reforms that takes on many tough jobs while avoiding at least one, the administration will call for tighter oversight aimed at preventing a repeat of the severe banking and capital markets crisis that has shaken economies around the world.

Months of debate in the U.S. Congress lie ahead. Committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives have scheduled more than a dozen hearings on regulatory reform between now and mid-July. Conservative House Republicans have already offered their own rival plan.

Obama will present his proposals at 12:50 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, the White House said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, members of Congress, regulators and representatives from the financial industry and consumer groups will join Obama at the event “to lay out a comprehensive regulatory reform plan to modernize and protect the integrity of our financial system,” the White House said.

A senior administration official said on Tuesday that the Obama plan will call for closing the Office of Thrift Supervision, a Treasury Department unit, and eliminating the federal charter under which savings and loans operate, with the objective of streamlining bank supervision.

In addition, the Federal Reserve would be assigned new duties to monitor risks that could threaten the entire financial system, working in conjunction with a council of other regulators to be chaired by Treasury.

The goal is to make sure a failure of one large company — like bailed-out mega-insurer American International Group, for instance — does not destabilize the broader economy payday advance loan.

The administration has been discussing for six months how best to tighten bank and market regulation in response to the crisis, with the European Union moving on a similar track, and more quickly than the United States in some areas.

As the Obama plan has evolved, the administration has backed away from some proposals as politically unachievable, such as a thorough structural revamp of financial oversight. No merger of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission will be proposed, for example.

Obama will call for establishment of an independent consumer financial products watchdog agency, and for requiring financial firms to hold more capital so they can better survive tough times.

More transparency and accountability would be mandated for exotic financial markets that in recent years expanded far beyond the government’s ability to keep track of them.

Under the plan, the government would be empowered to seize and unwind large, troubled companies that are not banks, modeling the process on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp’s existing power to unwind failing banks.

The administration will also urge reining in markets for securitized debt and over-the-counter derivatives, as well as more regulation of money market mutual funds, credit rating agencies and hedge funds.

It will push for changes in corporate governance that could give shareholders more power to restrain executive compensation. 

Read more

The Boston Globe and a key union held marathon talks over employee concessions on Monday and will reconvene on Tuesday, raising the possibility of a new outcome to a bitter labor dispute at the 137-year-old daily newspaper.

The Globe and the Boston Newspaper Guild met on Monday to discuss what the paper’s management said were ways to implement a 23 percent pay cut in union members’ salaries aimed at cutting $10 million in costs at the paper.

The union said the meeting would give it a chance to offer a new concession package.

“Talks are continuing,” guild President Dan Totten said in a statement. “They will resume again on Tuesday.”

The Globe’s owner, The New York Times Co, ordered the cuts after union members earlier this month rejected a package of concessions including an 8.4 percent pay cut, furloughs and curtailed retirement benefits.

The union said that many of its members resented the deep cuts that its employees were making while Times Co management and some Times employees did not have to sacrifice as much.

Globe officials had said that talks were at an impasse and it was going ahead with the 23 percent cuts. Both sides have stuck to their positions in public, but it is unclear whether they are now trying to move closer to a new resolution emergency cash loans.

A Globe spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The meeting, in Weymouth, Massachusetts, southeast of Boston, became another in a series of marathon discussions that the two sides have held in recent months. They began at 11 and ended more than 12 hours later.

On Tuesday, the Globe and the union are supposed to meet before the National Labor Relations Board for the first time. The union filed a complaint over the pay cuts with the NLRB, a government body that investigates unfair labor practices.

It is unknown whether the hearing will continue if the two sides are talking again about a new concession package.

The Times had sought $20 million in cost cuts at the money-losing Globe, including $10 million from the Boston Newspaper Guild. It has said the Globe will record an $85 million operating loss this year.

It has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to field possible buyers for the paper.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan in New York and Erin Kutz in Weymouth, Massachusetts; editing by John Stonestreet)

Read more

The slumping New York state factory sector shrank at a more severe rate in June than during the previous month, the New York Federal Reserve said on Monday, confounding expectations of a slight improvement.

The New York Fed’s “Empire State” general business conditions index fell to minus 9.41 in June from minus 4.55 in May.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a June reading of minus 4.5, and the surprisingly weak result challenges analysts who believe the U.S. economy is poised for a rebound.

“We’ve got a little bit of cold water thrown on the manufacturing sector’s recovery after seeing some persistent improvements. We’re now back down a little bit,” said Eric Lascelles, chief economics and rates strategist at TD Securities in Toronto, Canada.

On Wall Street, U.S. stock futures added to their losses after the unexpectedly weak number. U.S. government bonds, which generally benefit more from signs of economic weakness, maintained the day’s earlier gains.

The index was launched in July 2001.

The survey of manufacturing plants in the state is one of the earliest monthly guideposts to U compare car insurance rates.S. factory conditions.

The fall in the main index came as shipments dropped into negative territory, coming in at minus 4.84 in June from positive 1.29 in May.

New orders remained negative at minus 8.15 but not quite as bad as May’s 9.01.

Inventories fell further, hitting 25.29 versus May’s 21.59, continuing a liquidation of stockpiles that many economists say is necessary before the economy can recover.

Inflationary pressures also remained negative but much less so than in May, with the prices paid gauge coming in at minus 5.75 compared with May’s minus 11.36.

Similarly, the prices received measure came in at minus 12.64 compared with minus 27.27.

The employment index came in at minus 21.84 versus minus 23.86. Though decidedly negative, this was the highest since October 2008.

Looking ahead, the six-month business conditions rose to its highest since July 2007.

(Additional Reporting by Mary Angela Rowe)

Read more

CLAYTON — U.S. Equities Realty of Chicago, a commercial real estate firm with projects worldwide, has sold its ownership interest in the $212 million Centene Plaza project to the principals of Clayco Realty and The Koman Group.

Robert A. Wislow, chairman and CEO of U.S. Equities, said the firm will remain actively involved as a development consultant in the project. Located at the corner of Hanley Road and Forsyth Boulevard, the development will become the new expanded headquarters of Centene Corp. and it also will include shops, restaurants and commercial businesses on the first floors of a 17-story office tower and parking garage.

"We sold our interests to two very strong local development entities, and it makes perfect sense for local people who have had huge success in that market to be the developers," he said.

Wislow said the local developers — Centene, Koman and Clayco — also would be well-positioned to handle leasing and management of the project now under construction personal loans rates.

U.S. Equities was brought into the project in 2006 as a co-developer and majority partner. Wislow had been the lead person in securing approvals from Clayton and appeared personally and regularly in St. Louis to handle the project.

On Thursday, Centene announced that along with its joint venture partners, The Koman Group and Clayco, it had secured and closed on the financing arrangements for the development. The lenders include a consortium of banks led by U.S. Bank and Private Bank, said Sandy McBride, a Centene spokesperson.

Construction is on target to be completed next summer. This first phase will include a parking garage along Forsyth, a public terrace and the 17-story tower.

A possible second phase would include a second office building at Hanley and Carondelet Avenue.

Source

WASHINGTON–The Obama administration is taking a half-step toward taming executive pay. Some lawmakers prefer a fuller stride.

Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee said Thursday the administration's efforts to hector the private sector into reining in executive pay might not go far enough.

The administration contends that excessive compensation contributed to the nation's financial crisis, but rejects direct intervention in corporate pay decisions.

Instead, the administration plans to seek legislation that would try to rein in compensation at publicly traded companies through nonbinding shareholder votes and less management influence on pay decisions.

"I do differ with the administration in that hope springs eternal and their position seems to be that if we strengthen the compensation committees we will do better," said the committee chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said that instead of giving shareholders a nonbinding voice on pay, their votes should be binding on boards of directors.

Democrats and administration officials agreed that companies across the private sector need to adjust compensation practices to avoid damaging the economy.

Gene Sperling, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, said administration guidelines call on all publicly held companies to link compensation to long-term performance, not short-term gains.

"We believe that compensation practices must be better aligned with long-term value and prudent risk management at all firms, and not just for the financial services industry," Sperling said.

The committee also heard from officials from the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission get a free credit report.

While the administration has approached the issue with caution, a top Republican said the plans amounted to "incessant government intervention.''

"The president cannot continue his heavy-handed meddling in the private sector and expect it to function, much less flourish,'' said Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the committee, added: "We need to get government out of businesses.''

The administration has drawn a sharp line between the overall corporate world and those institutions that have tapped the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

On Wednesday, it set pay limits on companies that receive TARP assistance, with the toughest restrictions aimed at seven recipients of "exceptional assistance." They are Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC, American International Group Inc., GMAC LLC and Chrysler Financial.

The regulations limit top executives of companies that receive TARP funds to bonuses of no more than one-third of their annual salaries.

The administration named Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer who oversaw payments to families of Sept. 11 victims, as a "special master'' with power to reject pay plans he deems excessive at the seven companies with the biggest injections of public money. Feinberg also would have authority to review compensation for the top 100 salaried employees at those companies.

Source

Chrysler finds itself waiting for word from the Supreme Court as to when it can go ahead with its combination with Italian automaker Fiat. According to the company’s filings and industry experts, it won’t be able to wait too long.

The high court is expected to say in a day or two if it will to hear the case. If the court decides not to hear it, it is expected that a new Chrysler, made up of its more profitable factories and dealerships, would quickly emerge from bankruptcy. That entity would be 20% owned by Fiat.

But if the Supreme Court agrees to take the case, a delay in the sale to Fiat could cause, at a bare minimum, widespread problems for the company’s ability to restart operations.

It also could mean an end for the company’s chances at survival if Fiat abandoned the deal.

In a filing Tuesday, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, pointed out that "Fiat will no longer have an obligation to go forward with the transaction as currently structured" if the deal did not close by June 15.

But after the Supreme Court’s ruling Monday, Fiat officials told wire services it would not walk away from the deal if Chrysler could no longer meet that deadline.

Fiat did not give a new deadline for when a deal must be completed. But attorneys for the Indiana state pension funds that are seeking to block the company’s emergence from bankruptcy, argued in a filing to the Supreme Court Tuesday that there is no need to rush the sale of Chrysler assets to Fiat.

If Fiat were to walk way from the deal due to a long delay, that could be a fatal blow to Chrysler. The U.S. Treasury has ruled that Chrysler is no longer viable as a standalone company and that it needs a partner in order to receive additional federal dollars it needs to continue to operate.

Former Chrysler President Tom LaSorda testified in bankruptcy court last month that the company sought combinations with all of the major global automakers and that Fiat was the only one interested in pursuing a deal.

But even if Fiat continues to pursue a combination with Chrysler, the company probably needs the deal to close within the next month if it is going to be able to reopen as a viable automaker. Chrysler shut most of its operations a few days after its bankruptcy filing and has said that its factories would remain closed until it closed a deal with Fiat.

Filings from the company suggest that Chrysler’s parts distribution centers are already close to running out of parts needed by dealerships to perform regular maintenance on Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles.

In a filing made on April 30, the day Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, Frank Ewasyshyn, executive vice president of manufacturing, estimated that those centers had only about a 28-day supply of "perishable" items like oil filters, wiper blades and bulbs. He added that dealers would not be able to perform basic maintenance once those items ran out.

Ewasyshyn also said repairs, even those covered by warranties, could be at risk once "non-perishable" parts like transmission components and torque converters runs out bad credit payday advance.

"Once that inventory runs out, the only likely source for such parts is a junk yard," he wrote. "The inability of our dealers to stand behind and service and repair the cars we have sold will greatly injure customers and further devalue our brand names. The longer the sale of assets to Fiat is delayed, the more likely this devastating scenario will occur."

That 28-day period has already expired since the May 4 shutdown of most Chrysler plants. Chrysler spokespeople said Monday they were not aware of dealers or parts centers running out of the necessary parts though.

But if the dealers are able to hold out, the company’s suppliers could soon start to run into their own cash crisis. Scott Garberding, Chrysler’s chief procurement officer, pointed out in another filing that Chrysler pays its suppliers 45 days after products it orders are delivered. With its factories shut, Chrysler has not made any orders since April 30.

That means suppliers are about to receive their last payment from Chrysler for awhile, possibly leaving suppliers without the cash they’ll need to continue operations.

Garberding said numerous Chrysler suppliers nearly ran out of cash in January when Chrysler and General Motors (GMGMQ) shutdown operations due to excess vehicle inventory.

With GM shutting most of its assembly lines this month as it works through its own inventory and bankruptcy process, Garberding said he’s concerned that an extended shutdown will soon bring widespread supplier bankruptcies.

"Given the thin margins upon which the suppliers operate, this imbalance between revenue and expenses would be catastrophic for the suppliers’ ability to secure adequate capital," he wrote.

Garberding estimated that 13.5% of the company’s suppliers are in weak enough financial condition to be classified as at "high risk." And even a single supplier going out of business can halt production on an assembly line.

"Even a brief shutdown of a supplier results in significant problems in restarting," he wrote. "A relaunch of a company after a delayed and indeterminate bankruptcy timeline would increase the risk to suppliers to a point that would cause massive supplier liquidation throughout the industry."

One auto industry consultant who specializes in supplier bankruptcies said most Chrysler suppliers have probably built their plans around the assumption that the company will restart the factories by the end of June. But the delay of even a few weeks at this point could push back the start until late July or even early August.

"If this isn’t settled in the next two weeks I would be very worried," the consultant said. "It would cause doubts in the industry about Chrysler’s ability to ever come back again."  

Source

NEW YORK — Banks have been eager to pay back bailout money almost since the moment they first accepted it. Now the government is deciding which banks can return the cash — at the risk of setting up a system of winners and losers.

The Treasury Department gets to determine which banks can quit the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, loosening the federal grip on the banking sector eight months after Congress approved the rescue package. An announcement could come as early as today.

The repayments, which could exceed $50 billion, reflect a measure of stability that has returned to the banking system in recent months. But experts say the crisis isn’t over and warn that the repayments could widen the gap between healthy and weak banks.

"We’re going to find out who are the strongest kids on the block and who are not," said Bert Ely, a longtime banking analyst.

Banks started railing against the TARP almost immediately after they accepted the help. One CEO, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co., called the money a "scarlet letter," referring to the public backlash and federal scrutiny.

Banks that are expected to get a green light to repay bailout funds include JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and American Express Co. They would be free of federal rules ranging from caps on executive pay to restrictions on dividend payments.

But weaker banks such as Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. would remain tethered to the government and face a problem — how to compete for business and top workers against rivals operating more freely.

"Banks had been at an equal disadvantage," said Jack A. Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago florida health insurance. "Now you’ll have some that are unfettered and others that are constrained. That will affect the ability to attract customers and talent."

Investors are also keeping score. Stock in Citigroup and Bank of America, which received a combined $90 billion in TARP money, has plunged. Investors will probably keep favoring firms that show they can stand without federal help, Ablin said.

"If you can decide between a weak player and a strong player, just about every advantage goes to the strong," he said.

The push to repay TARP money comes a month after "stress tests" of the nation’s 19 largest financial firms found that 10 needed to raise $75 billion more to protect against future losses. All 10 had submitted plans by late Monday, the Federal Reserve said. The Fed said Monday that plans submitted by the 10 banks to bolster their capital cushions are enough to help them survive a deeper recession.

The remaining nine institutions received a combined $56 billion in TARP money. They had to prove they could raise enough private capital without federal guarantees before they could return the money.

So far, 16 of the 19 banks have raised $75.2 billion, mostly by selling common stock. Meanwhile, about a dozen smaller banks have already repaid TARP money.

Regulators want to avoid letting a bank repay its TARP money only to have it return months later in worse shape, seeking another handout.

That’s why regulators say they need to determine which banks are truly stable enough to repay their TARP money.

Source

UPDATED 2:55 p.m. with additional information throughout

General Motors Corp. is cutting one of two production shifts at its Wentzville plant in Aug. 10, indefinitely laying off nearly 900 workers.

About 785 production workers and 102 skilled trades workers — about half of the plant — will be laid off. Their last day of work will be Friday, Aug. 7, said Chris Lee, a GM spokesman.

The Wentzville location is the only facility that makes GM’s full-size commercial, passenger and conversion vans, the GMC Savana and Chevrolet Express. GM’s full-size vans account for 40 percent of the full-size van market. But orders for these vehicles have slipped, and GM’s Lee said the shift cut is a way to align supply with demand. For now, there is no recall date for workers.

"While we certainly hope the market rebounds for the vans, we are not in a position to predict what the market will do," he said.

A week ago today, GM filed for bankruptcy protection and identified 14 plants it planned to close. Wentzville’s operation was not one of them. Wentzville Mayor Paul Lambi said he thinks GM did everything they could to keep two shifts going at the plant, one of the city’s largest employers.

"There was an awful lot of celebration and joy when we got the news that we kept the plant," Lambi said today. "The fact they are keeping it open means they believe they will have two shifts again in the future. Hopefully, this doesn’t last more than a couple months."

The Wentzville operation already was scheduled for a temporary production starting this week and lasting until July 27. That production shutdown still will happen. Only workers on the first shift, the morning production shift, will return on July 27 to work, but both the first and second shifts will return to work for the week of Aug. 3, Lee said. The last day for the second-shift workers is that Friday.

GM had planned to slow the production speed at the plant during the production shutdown in June and July, but those plans have been "overruled" by a decision to cut one production shift, Lee said. The plant will continue to produce 38 vehicles per hour.

Like the rest of the auto market, sales in the full-size van segment have taken a hit. U.S. sales for this niche group - the Express, Savana, Ford E-series and Dodge Sprinter - declined 24 percent last year to 248,619 vehicles, according to J same day payday loans.D. Power and Associates Forecasting.

From January through May, U.S. sales of the Express and Savana combined fell to about 27,600 vehicles, down 37 percent from the same time in 2008.

"This will mark the first time the Wentzville plant has gone to one shift since we started building vans, and it will be a hardship for many of our members both laid off and working," UAW Local 2250, which represents the Wentzville plant’s hourly workers, said in a statement today. "We are hopeful that sales will rebound with the overall economy in the second half of the year and look forward to calling back all of our members."

Automakers and analysts consider a one-shift plant to be financially inefficient. However, GM’s Lee said the move to one shift does "not necessarily" make Wentzville more vulnerable to a permanent closure.

"All of our actions are based on market demand, which can go up and down," he said.

GM employs more than 1,800 hourly and salaried workers at the location. In the past few months, analysts have said that product lineup has saved the plant from major cuts or closure.

It’s unclear whether this announcement will spur more interest in GM’s latest round of retirement and voluntary separation incentives. Workers can sign up for one of the offers starting tomorrow, and the sign-up period continues through July 24.

"I’m not going to speculate on what effect that (shift cut) may or may not have," on the sign-up numbers, GM’s Lee said.

The separation incentives are sweeter than GM’s last offer, but for the most part, the retirement and separation offers are less than ones extended to Chrysler workers. Here are GM’s packages:

- Production workers eligible for retirement - $20,000 and a $25,000 new-vehicle voucher. Skilled trades workers - $45,000 and a $25,000 vehicle voucher.

- Separation packages include $45,000 and a $25,000 vehicle voucher for workers with less than 10 years of service, to $115,000 and a $25,000 vehicle voucher for those with at least 20 years.

- GM also is offering pre-retirement and other retirement options.

Source

Senior managers from some of the world’s largest over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives firms, currently accustomed to little government scrutiny, are scheduled to testify on Tuesday before a U.S. congressional panel looking into the possibilities for regulation.

As lawmakers and the Obama administration push for regulation of the OTC derivatives market, two sources familiar with an upcoming hearing said CME Group Inc Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy was among those invited to testify.

Others on the witness list for the House capital markets subcommittee hearing are Jeffrey Sprecher, chief executive officer of IntercontinentalExchange, and Thomas Callahan, CEO of NYSE Liffe, the sources said.

It was not known which of the dozen invitees had accepted, but most were expected to make an appearance before the panel and Democratic Representative Paul Kanjorski, its chairman.

A panel spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The hearing witness list, obtained by Reuters, also included Christopher Edmonds, CEO of International Derivatives Clearing Group, and Larry Thompson, general counsel at Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.

Also asked to testify were Robert Pickel, CEO of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, and Don Thompson, managing director and associate general counsel at JPMorgan Chase & Co, a major player in derivatives.

Kanjorski announced the hearing last week. He said it was meant to “advance the discussion in Congress on derivatives and swaps regulation, especially in considering what new steps we must take to provide transparency in and meaningful regulation of this dark corner of the financial services industry free business card.”

The OTC derivatives market, pegged at greater than $590 trillion in notional value at the end of 2008, is where trading takes place in credit default swaps and other exotic financial instruments widely implicated in the global credit crisis.

The massive, high-risk market functioned has operated for years with little government oversight, partly by design. Congress in 1990 adopted a law that protected it from too much regulation.

But many OTC derivatives flew off the rails in 2007 when the housing bubble burst and credit tightened, leaving banks, such as the now defunct Lehman Brothers, with huge losses. Credit defaults swaps played a major role in the troubles at American International Group that led to its bailout.

GEITHNER CALLS FOR REGULATION

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in May called for legislation to require many derivatives to be traded on exchanges or clearinghouses, rather than over-the-counter.

Banks and dealers have opposed greater regulation, which could make it more costly to issue and trade derivatives.

Warren Buffett in 2003 famously labeled derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction.” 

Read more

The number of home sales contracts signed in April continued to bounce back from record lows hit last winter, according to a widely watched industry report. This is the third consecutive month of gains.

The Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors rose 6.7% in April after jumping 3.2% in March. That was far above the forecasts of experts surveyed by Briefing.com, who predicted a 0.5% increase. The index was 3.3% higher than 12 months earlier.

Pending home sales are a forward-looking indicator since many of the contracts don’t result in completed deals for many weeks or months.

"Housing affordability conditions have been at historic highs, but now the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit is beginning to impact the market," said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist in a prepared statement. "Since first-time buyers must finalize their purchase by Nov. 30 to get the credit, we expect greater activity in the months ahead, and that should spark more sales by repeat buyers."

The credit allows many homebuyers who have not owned a home in the past three years to claim up to an $8,000 refund on their taxes. The result has been a flood of first-time homebuyers even into lukewarm markets like Indianapolis, according to Glenn Bill, an agent there for Century 21 Sheetz.

"Our first-time homebuyer market is exploding," he said. "That’s one good thing to come out of the stimulus package."

Low prices

Also driving sales is falling home prices. The national median home price is down more than 30%, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index Overnight payday loans. That has drawn many bargain-hunting homebuyers back into the market.

Mortgage rates in April were also very favorable, averaging well under 5% for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan. However, rates have risen recently.

All those factors have raised NAR’s index of affordability to near record highs. It went up to 174.8 in April from an upwardly revised 171.9 in March, its second highest monthly reading ever. This index measures the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates and family income.

Regionally, the biggest improvement in home sales came in the Northeast, where they shot up 32.6%. Sales ramped up 9.8% in the Midwest, inched up 1.8% in the West and cooled 0.2% in the South.

Also boosting sales, according to NAR president Charles McMillan, a Coldwell Banker broker in Dallas, is that some states and non-profit agencies are helping first-time homebuyers come up with down payments.

"Some states are offering bridge loans that allow first-time buyers to use the tax credit for down payment and closing costs, but there are many other local government and nonprofit programs available to buyers, depending on location," he said.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced last week an additional program that enables homebuyers to add the tax credit to their down payments on FHA mortgages at closing, which should also help to enhance affordability and give a push to home sales. 

Source