Does the term Oligopoly ring any bells? Removal of restrictions and government oversight has its benefits to few but that is what America chose when Ronald Reagan said government was the problem. We''re in a deep hole and most of us will not live to see America crawl out of it, if its possible at all.
I would like to say you people crack me up. Except that I''m not laughing. No one made the borrowers sign their loan documents. No one put a gun to their heads. I worked for World Savings for 15 years and am very proud to say so. The person who said the underwriter approved the file on a make sense approach was correct. We had a file come in where the borrower made $6,000/month selling shoes (selling shoes, not owning multiple stores). Obviously didn''t make sense and the file was denied. This interview is obviously from a disgruntled ex-employee who got fired for fighting with another employee. And, he''s now trying to capitalize on the situation by spreading a bunch of lies. I''m sure he made a ton of money in the "hey day" when we were very busy. He probably isn''t making as much these days and thinks by suing he can make that up. Whatever. Once again, no one made the borrower''s sign the loan docs., they had to be notarized and, like the woman in the story, took cash out. If I remember correctly, the lady in the story refinance 3 or 4 times and took out $20,000 each time. Where is that money?
It''s easy to jump on the ''victim'' band wagon and blame the banks for all of this mess. However, I''m disappointed that during the story about the poor homeowner who refinanced four times and is now at risk for losing her house that nothing was mentioned about: #1)she acknowledged that she used false income to qualify therefore committing loan fraud and #2) she accessed $80,000 of equity and nothing was mentioned about where the funds went. Now, the tax payers will pay to bail these consumers out.
Everyone is at fault for this mess. The banks for providing the products and failing to implement oversight; the consumers for being extremely negligent with their finances and not taking personal responsibility for their financial well being; and for those on the ''front lines'' failing to properly educate and advise their customers.
But there a millions of Americans who willingly falsified their documents in order to obtain the ''American Dream'' who should be personally responsible for turning it into what has become a national Nightmare.
Sorry for the multiple posts--a message came up that said the "Publish" button was "temporarily disabled", so I kept trying to get it to work. I guess it was working, it just didn''t show up right away. My apologies again!
I know for a fact that this man is telling the truth about World Savings. A former neighbor of ours was a mortgage underwriter for World Savings in 2003, and was going to help us with a mortgage. When he and my husband were doing the paperwork, our neighbor put down that our income was $10,000 over what it actually was. My husband told him that we did not make the amount that was written down, and our neighbor said "It''s close enough. It''s a "no-doc" loan, so they don''t need any proof, they''ll take your word for it." It bothered us that our neighbor was going to qualify us for a loan by lying about our income with no documentation whatsoever, so we passed on the loan. Later, I asked our neighbor how he could underwrite mortgages for people knowing that they couldn''t REALLY afford them without manipulation or omission of the facts, and his answer was scary: "I''m just doing my job. It''s not my job to tell people what they can or can''t afford, it''s my job to write them a loan." I told him it WAS his job to tell people that if they couldn''t really qualify for a loan, then he shouldn''t write one for them. He said "What? Lose my bonuses, and maybe even my job? No way." You see, in addition to his regular salary, he was making $8000-$10,000 A MONTH in bonuses for writing all those "liar" loans. I guess sometimes it''s easier to give up your ethics than your money. I used to wonder how he slept at night, knowing what he was doing. Now I wonder if he still has a job...
Where are the law enforcement agencies when we need them to go after these crooks? Why we are so powerless and incompetent in dealing with the white-collar crimes? I think the US has become a selective lawful country. So pathetic! Thank you 60 Minutes for the reports.
------------------ (Don''t know why. The ABC News has blocked my ids from posting comments on its site. They also deleted some of my comments. And they refuse to tell me why. I read the CBS news more often now. Guess the freedom of speech is no longer in ABC News'' vocabulary.)
I know for a fact that this man is telling the truth about World Savings. A former neighbor of ours was a mortgage underwriter for World Savings in 2003, and was going to help us with a mortgage. When he and my husband were doing the paperwork, our neighbor put down that our income was $10,000 over what it actually was. My husband told him that we did not make the amount that was written down, and our neighbor said "It''s close enough. It''s a "no-doc" loan, so they don''t need any proof, they''ll take your word for it." It bothered us that our neighbor was going to qualify us for a loan by lying about our income with no documentation whatsoever, so we passed on the loan. Later, I asked our neighbor how he could underwrite mortgages for people knowing that they couldn''t REALLY afford them without manipulation or omission of the facts, and his answer was scary: "I''m just doing my job. It''s not my job to tell people what they can or can''t afford, it''s my job to write them a loan." I told him it WAS his job to tell people that if they couldn''t really qualify for a loan, then he shouldn''t write one for them. He said "What? Lose my bonuses, and maybe even my job? No way." You see, in addition to his regular salary, he was making $8000-$10,000 A MONTH in bonuses for writing all those "liar" loans. I guess sometimes it''s easier to give up your ethics than your money. I used to wonder how he slept at night, knowing what he was doing. Now I wonder if he still has a job...
I know for a fact that this man is telling the truth about World Savings. A former neighbor of ours was a mortgage underwriter for World Savings in 2003, and was going to help us with a mortgage. When he and my husband were doing the paperwork, our neighbor put down that our income was $10,000 over what it actually was. My husband told him that we did not make the amount that was written down, and our neighbor said "It''s close enough. It''s a "no-doc" loan, so they don''t need any proof, they''ll take your word for it." It bothered us that our neighbor was going to qualify us for a loan by lying about our income with no documentation whatsoever, so we passed on the loan. Later, I asked our neighbor how he could underwrite mortgages for people knowing that they couldn''t REALLY afford them without manipulation or omission of the facts, and his answer was scary: "I''m just doing my job. It''s not my job to tell people what they can or can''t afford, it''s my job to write them a loan." I told him it WAS his job to tell people that if they couldn''t really qualify for a loan, then he couldn''t write one for them. He said "What? Lose my bonuses, and maybe even my job? No way." You see, in addition to his regular salary, he was making $8000-$10,000 A MONTH in bonuses for writing all those "liar" loans. I guess sometimes it''s easier to give up your ethics than your money. I used to wonder how he slept at night, knowing what he was doing. Now I wonder if he still has a job...
I began reporting Predatory World practices to Federal agencies in 2006 before the term was popular. I documented actions by various Wachovia personnel to their Corporate headquarters. Faxes, well documented, were ignored repeatedly when sent to Vice Presidents of Texas based Wachovia operations. Loan documents not available or refused. San Leandro World Savings redirected out of state loans to their local offices. Actions by World included misdirected payments resulting in near foreclosure and unconscionable fees. I requested assistance with my loan due to my Cancer; chemotherapy and related heart damage. Assistance was promised then denied based on conflicting facts. Interest rate based loan amounts cannot decrease equal to the amount increased. Various aspects of the loan are included on what I believe is an added page to the contract which I have never seen. Every Wachovia employee that I have dealt with since 2006 has been fired. I believe these firings are due to the fact these employees can harm Wachovia. Docs gone or lost. Appraisals %u201Cgone%u201D. Loan applications closed with no explanation as required by law. Worst of all, the Fox [Wells Fargo] has been given the key to the hen house with Government funding. What is left of my hope is in jeopardy since Wells Fargo has been given advantage by Taxpayers. Wells Fargo in my opinion, is guilty of unconscionable credit practices. It will result in lives lost, as it probably already has, to my great horror.
World was an insular company full of yes men and nepotism. They were true believers in the pay option. Jim Judd, not the Sandlers, ran the loan side of the biz. Jim not only allowed his people to hire their relatives, but he also hired folks he met through the course of his day: people who had no history or experience in lending, and he put them into oversight roles making more than they%u2019d made in their lives. Not an effective way to set up checks and balances. In any organization, the risk is run that mgmnt will push so hard for results that employees will make bad decisions (Google %u201CACORN%u201D and %u201Cfraud%u201D or look at shamed NY Times%u2019 writers). At World, two issues I saw come to mind: 1) Even portfolio loans need MI with less than 20% down. One of the MI cos did audit World. Rumor was 37 out of 42 loans were fraudulent. 2) In training classes, loan officers were told that as long as a client has an SSN, it only made sense to declare him a citizen on the loan app. These problems will continue as long as companies and executives insulate themselves from the street.
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#1)she acknowledged that she used false income to qualify therefore committing loan fraud and #2) she accessed $80,000 of equity and nothing was mentioned about where the funds went. Now, the tax payers will pay to bail these consumers out.
Everyone is at fault for this mess. The banks for providing the products and failing to implement oversight; the consumers for being extremely negligent with their finances and not taking personal responsibility for their financial well being; and for those on the ''front lines'' failing to properly educate and advise their customers.
But there a millions of Americans who willingly falsified their documents in order to obtain the ''American Dream'' who should be personally responsible for turning it into what has become a national Nightmare.
My apologies again!
------------------ (Don''t know why. The ABC News has blocked my ids from posting comments on its site. They also deleted some of my comments. And they refuse to tell me why. I read the CBS news more often now. Guess the freedom of speech is no longer in ABC News'' vocabulary.)
Jim not only allowed his people to hire their relatives, but he also hired folks he met through the course of his day: people who had no history or experience in lending, and he put them into oversight roles making more than they%u2019d made in their lives. Not an effective way to set up checks and balances.
In any organization, the risk is run that mgmnt will push so hard for results that employees will make bad decisions (Google %u201CACORN%u201D and %u201Cfraud%u201D or look at shamed NY Times%u2019 writers). At World, two issues I saw come to mind: 1) Even portfolio loans need MI with less than 20% down. One of the MI cos did audit World. Rumor was 37 out of 42 loans were fraudulent. 2) In training classes, loan officers were told that as long as a client has an SSN, it only made sense to declare him a citizen on the loan app. These problems will continue as long as companies and executives insulate themselves from the street.