US usurer's comeuppance

New Century Financial, the giant US mortgage lender which rode the boom in the country's housing market, has filed for bankruptcy protection, engulfed by arrears in its customers' accounts and a collapse in confidence by its own creditors.

The Californian business, once the second-largest lender to Americans with poor credit histories - so-called "sub-prime" customers - bowed to the inevitable after teetering on the brink for several weeks, saying it would now conduct a fire sale of its loan portfolio and sack half its workforce. Read more