Dollar rises against euro, other currencies

NEW YORK - The dollar rose Tuesday as investors weighed plans by the U.S. Federal Reserve to protect future homebuyers from shoddy mortgages and give companies more time to tap emergency loans.

The 15-nation euro bought $1.5657 in late New York trading, down from $1.5733 late Monday. The British pound weakened to $1.9689 from $1.9775, while the dollar rose to buy 107.45 Japanese yen from 106.96 yen.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday that, to prevent a repeat of the current U.S. mortgage mess, the Fed will adopt rules cracking down on a range of shady lending practices that have burned many of the nation's riskiest "subprime" borrowers.

Bernanke also said that the Fed, trying to stabilize a shaky U.S. financial system, may give squeezed Wall Street firms more time to tap the central bank's emergency loan program.

The planned crackdown on lending practices is the bank's most sweeping response yet to the housing crisis that has propelled foreclosures to record highs and fueled worries about the U.S. economy.

The plan, which will be voted on at a Fed board meeting on Monday, would apply to new loans made by thousands of lenders of all types, including banks and brokers.

Jay Bryson, an economist at Wachovia Bank in the U.S., said the plan could have some positive effect on the dollar, but called it "a second order of importance."

"I don't see it changing the dollar significantly as a result," Bryson said.

In other currencies, the dollar rose to 1.0335 Swiss francs from 1.0259, and climbed to 1.0202 Canadian dollars from 1.0177.

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