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Citigroup Gains Scale, Confidence After Getting Wachovia's 3,300 Outlets Citigroup Inc.'s rescue of Wachovia Corp. and its banking operations creates the third-biggest U.S. branch network while aiding regulators seeking to prop up confidence in financial institutions.

Wachovia CEO Steel Ran Out of Time as Credit Crunch Tightened Around Bank Wachovia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Robert Steel was forced to sell the bank's consumer business to Citigroup Inc. for $1 a share just 80 days after pledging to win back shareholders' confidence.

Bradford & Bingley Customers Wonder `What's Safe?' as British Banks Vanish June Dean stood outside a branch of Bradford & Bingley Plc in the northern London suburb of Finchley after taking out 10,000 pounds ($18,000) of her savings, and asked where her money will be safest.

EU Nations May Get More Say on Their Banks' Foreign Units as Crisis Widens Regulators in individual European Union countries would get enhanced authority to police banks' foreign subsidiaries under a draft proposal before the EU.

Renault's Plunge May Be Ghosn's Waterloo as Peugeot, VW Surround Carmaker Renault SA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn needs a new blockbuster to pull Europe's worst-performing auto stock out of a nosedive and defend his reputation. He may not get it when he introduces the revamped Megane compact at the Paris Motor Show this week.

Bank Crisis Shatters Decade of Calm, IMF Data Show: Chart of the Day The banking industry's travails in the U.S. and Europe have shattered a decade of relative calm in global finance, according to a research report published earlier this month by the International Monetary Fund.

Brown, Merkel May Swallow Criticism, Adopt Paulson-Style Bailout Package European politicians are discovering what cometh after pride.

Spam, Still the Mystery Meat, Escapes New U.S. Food-Origin Labeling Rules U.S. rules requiring meat and fresh produce to be labeled by national origin are falling short of lawmakers' aims, leaving shoppers in the dark about where mixed vegetables, steaks and Spam come from, some lawmakers say.

Dimon Inherits J.P. Morgan's Mantle as Wall Street's Buyer of Last Resort At 11:50 p.m. on Sept. 25, less than three hours after JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon announced the takeover of Washington Mutual Inc., a 14-seat plane took off from White Plains, New York, carrying retail-banking chief Charles Scharf on a mission to Seattle to plant the lender's octagonal logo in his new domain.

Buffett Wagers $5 Billion Goldman Won't Turn Into Another Salomon Misstep Warren Buffett, the billionaire who decried Wall Street's ``casino'' mentality, is back at the table 11 years after his last bet ended.

Lehman's `100% Principal Protection' Means Pennies on Dollar for Its Notes A brochure pitching $1.84 million of notes sold by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in August, a month before the firm filed for bankruptcy, promised ``100 percent principal protection.''

Wachovia's Golden West `Great Success' Became $122 Billion Mortgage Burden On a May 2007 conference call, Wachovia Corp.'s then-Chief Executive Officer Ken Thompson trumpeted the $24 billion acquisition of Golden West Financial Corp., a California lender that specialized in payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages.

Wachovia Choked on Its Outsized Bet on Real Estate Loans: Chart of the Day Wachovia Corp. pushed harder than its peers to tap into the U.S. housing industry's boom earlier this decade, and paid the ultimate price for that strategy.

Industrial Companies Can Thank Banks for Lowest Short-Term Rates Since '04 The same credit crunch gripping banks, brokers and insurers is providing industrial companies with the lowest short-term borrowing costs in almost four years.

Obama's $150 Billion `Cleantech' Pledge Entices VCs Mired in Deal Slump Dan Reicher isn't a politician. Far from it. He's the director of climate and energy initiatives at Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic arm.

Brown, Aso Strive to Save Themselves, and Bush May See Economic Benefits Embattled political leaders in Tokyo and London may end up coming to the aid of President George W. Bush in containing the economic fallout from the credit crisis as political self-preservation trumps nationalism.

Copper Goes From First to Worst in Metals as Economy Slows, Housing Sinks Copper, the best-performing industrial metal in 2007, may end this year as a loser for the first time since 2001.

Beer Drinkers in Texas Trade In Cowboys' Longnecks for Fancy Lawnmower Hurricane Ike isn't keeping Texas cowboys from slaking their growing thirst for specialty beers.

Wall Street Top Executives Scored $3 Billion in Pay as Banks Rose and Fell Wall Street's five biggest firms paid more than $3 billion in the last five years to their top executives, while they presided over the packaging and sale of loans that helped bring down the investment-banking system.

Goodyear, GM, AIG Unit Strain Bank Balance Sheets by Tapping Credit Lines Balance sheets at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and other banks face another drain on their capital as companies tap credit lines.