Friday, October 10, 2008

Great Rundown of the Sometimes Illegal Practices that Mortgage Companies Used

This is a very interesting article about the kind of things that Countrywide, IndyMac et al. used to get as many loans as they could for their portfolios. Mark my words there will be criminal indictments brought down on this whole mess in a few years.

Allegation

1. Handed out copies of the movie Boiler Room as a training tape

2. Partnered to sell its “PayOption Arms” with a brokerage owned by a five-time felon, whose convictions included gun-related charges

3. Forbade loan officers to check borrower income on certain loans

4. Ran an “art department” in its Tampa office, where documents were altered

5. Settled allegations of institutionalized marketing deception that covered two million customers

6. Developed “FastQual,” a program designed to approve borrowers in twelve seconds

7. Incentivized brokers and loan officers through “yield spread premiums” and other compensation schemes to put borrowers into more expensive loans

8. Tapped two kegs of beer at weekly staff meetings

No comments: