GM may owe $1B on mortgage loans

First, General Motors Corp. delayed releasing its much-anticipated financial results for 2006.

Then, the automaker missed the March 1 filing deadline with the Securities and Exchange Commission, requesting an extension to next week.

Now, risky mortgage loans doled out last year by GM's former finance arm are giving Wall Street another reason to be anxious.

GM may be on the hook for as much as $1 billion to cover defaulted mortgage loans made to high-risk borrowers by Residential Capital LLC, the former home-lending unit of General Motors Acceptance Corp., several analysts said this week. The automaker sold a 51 percent stake in GMAC last year for $14.4 billion to a group led by Cerberus Capital Management LP.

A GM spokeswoman declined to comment Tuesday, saying that GM hasn't yet seen GMAC's 2006 financial report. More at Detroit News