Filings rose 33 percent in the third quarter to the highest number since 2005, government data show, as rising unemployment and tight credit made it more difficult for consumers and businesses to stay current on their debts.

Big banks are roaring back. At crisis' edge last year, they are repaying billions of dollars dumped into their vaults to rescue them. Dividend checks are accumulating at the Treasury. Taxpayers won't recoup the full sum of the government's unprecedented infusion to the financial sector, but the returns are ahead of schedule.

U.S. carmaker General Motors will present a new viability plan for Opel in mid-December as it aims to reduce capacity across Europe by about 20 percent, a top executive said on Thursday.

The coroner’s report left no doubt as to the cause of death: toxic loans. That was the conclusion of a financial autopsy that federal officials performed on Haven Trust Bank, a small bank in Duluth, Ga., that collapsed last December, the New York Times reported.

Ambac Financial said on Wednesday that the statutory capital of its main unit was well above a regulatory minimum at the end of the third quarter, easing concerns that the company would fall short of funds and be at risk of being taken over by state officials.

Lehman Brothers has filed a lawsuit against Barclays Capital alleging the British bank took control of excess assets in collusion with Lehman executives when it bought its US brokerage business a year ago.

For all its financial troubles and shortcomings as an automaker, no aspect of G.M. has confounded its critics as much as its hidebound, command-and-control corporate culture. The New York Times looks at the carmaker's effort to change.

A top economic adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Friday that the urgency for changing the rules of the road for financial firms may be waning and urged Congress to act while the general public is focused on banking issues.

Two computer programmers provided technical support to falsify documents and trading records for swindler Bernard Madoff and took hush money to help keep the massive fraud going, U.S. authorities said.

Automobile parts maker Lear said on Monday that it had emerged from bankruptcy protection with less than $1 billion in debt.

General Motors is already feeling the backlash of its decision not to sell European automaker Opel to Magna International, as workers in Germany went on strike.  GM faces not just ire over American-European cultural differences, but worker unease at job security, European-style.

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a settlement worth more than $700 million over federal regulators' charges that it made unlawful payments to friends of public officials to win municipal bond business in Jefferson County, Ala.

Keeping Opel is the best strategic option for General Motors given the improved economic conditions, but the automaker needs to appease German politicians' and trade unions anger over its about-face and adapt itself to German ways, European analysts said Wednesday.

Bitterness, anger and disbelief mixed with betrayal and even resignation are just some of the emotions boiling within Germany following Tuesday's shocking news that General Motors will scrap its sale of Opel.