Sales in the electronics marketing division, the larger ofthe two divisions, fell 20.1 percent. Sales from the segmentdropped 20.5 percent in the Americas and 24.3 percent inEurope. Technology solutions sales fell 10.8 percent, but thedivisions' sales rose 19.2 percent in Asia. "The current situation within that business is stillchallenging, although Asia is performing better than the restof the world in the components market," Harrison said.

Shares of the company fell $1.05 to $18.22 in afternoontrade on the New York Stock Exchange They touched a low of$17.89 earlier in the day For the alerts, double-click here [ID: WNAB6913]. (Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy and Deepak Kannan) Stocks Global Markets. By Patrick Rucker Regulatory News  |  Bonds  |  Global Markets WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Legislation meant toprotect homeowners from costly loans would ban bad practicesthat have already burned out during the present housing bustand so the plan would do little to restore the housing market,mortgage industry leaders told lawmakers on Thursday. Wall Street titans like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearnshave been laid low by their bad mortgage bets and home valueshave seen double-digit declines since the mortgage overhaullegislation began moving through Congress two years ago.

Some of the worst excesses of the housing market haveself-corrected since then and tough, new lending rules wouldonly raise costs for prospective homebuyers, several witnessestold a U.S House of Representatives panel. "If regulatory solutions are not well conceived, they riskexacerbating a credit crisis that trillions of public dollarshave still not resolved," David Kittle, chairman of theMortgage Bankers Association told the House Financial ServicesCommittee. The costs of failing mortgages would be spread more evenlyamong investors, and brokers would be prohibited from steeringborrowers toward costly loans under two provisions of thelegislation Rep. Brad Miller, a co-author of the bill, beseeched hiscolleagues not to let the mortgage industry dissuade them frompassing the kind of tough legislation that might have helpedavert the current economic collapse if it had been in placeyears ago. "It's hard to argue in favor of sloppy, carelesslegislation but the nation and the world would have been betteroff if Congress had passed a bill that we drafted on a napkin,"said the North Carolina Democrat who has been advocating formortgage reform since he was elected to Congress in 2002.

NEEDED REFORM TOO LATE Easy-to-get subprime loans helped fuel the five-yearhousing boom that ended in 2006 with home values shrinking,inventories swelling and a record number of families facingforeclosure. In the aftermath of that housing bust, regulators andlawmakers have questioned the financing system that let so manyrisky borrowers buy a home. "Too many homeowners and communities are suffering todaybecause of lax underwriting standards and other unfair ordeceptive practices that resulted in unsustainable loans," saidSandra Braunstein, the Federal Reserve Board's Director ofConsumer and Community Affairs. In the time that Congress has been debating the question ofmortgage reform, bank regulators have taken matters into theirown hands. Lenders may not offer loans to borrowers who cannot provideproof of income and must collect annual costs like insuranceand taxes in a borrower's monthly payments under mortgage rulesset by the Fed in July. The legislation under debate, though, would create evenmore consumer protections and ensure that borrowers receive a"benefit" from a home loan. Nettlesome questions such as how to measure the benefit toa borrower have stalled the legislation that was supposed tohave been voted on early this month.