Mortgage Meltdown

JOEBIALEK · #1 11-03-2007, 08:05 PM

Until recently I was an underwriter for a sub-prime mortgage company that is about to close. It seems that most media outlets and government officials fain ignorance about the real underlying cause of the problem. There is either a tendency to blame the borrower or act as though no one in the industry {or outside of it} saw this coming. They fail to mention that those who gained the most financially got off scot free while leaving the mess behind for everyone else to clean up. In my former company, the sales managers and loan officers "held the keys to the safe" while deciding which guidelines to ignore sometimes going so far as to bribe fellow underwriters to "look the other way". Sales managers often overrode an underwriter's decision they did not agree with. Other times fellow underwriters would be threatened with their job for "impeding company growth and progress" just because they refused to go along with the flagrant disregard of guidelines . I complained to the sales managers about the bribing but all I got was a formal write-up for making "inappropriate comments".

There was absolutely no support from the owner of the company all the way to the human resource representative. This company is as corrupt as they come. I can't tell you the number of sexual affairs that occurred between married and unmarried people; primarily among the management staff {at the workplace itself}. Promotions were strictly political thus moving people "up the ladder" who never proved themselves worthy or were on a final written warning to be terminated {for poor performance}. As a result of the corrupt management of this company, I and several hundred others were laid off. I believe the federal government needs to investigate this company and bring to trial those corrupt individuals who broke the law. This would set an example for the rest of the mortgage industry that absolute corruption corrupts absolutely.

wtfsvi · #2 11-03-2007, 08:19 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I can't tell you the number of sexual affairs that occurred between married and unmarried people; primarily among the management staff {at the workplace itself}.

[/ QUOTE ] Why did you include this in your post?

DING-DONG YO · #3 11-03-2007, 10:24 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I can't tell you the number of sexual affairs that occurred between married and unmarried people; primarily among the management staff {at the workplace itself}.

[/ QUOTE ] Why did you include this in your post?

[/ QUOTE ]

probably because it speaks to greedy unethical culture of this organization. that comment sounds relevant to me.

I will agree that I am amused at how much of a shock this is. Putting people in homes with 3 year ARMs at 10-15 times their annual income and expecting real estate values to go up up up indefinitely was pretty amusing. Anyone who's taken econ 101 and 102 with a teeny amount of critical thinking skills should have seen it coming. All the signs were there. It is fascinating to me how powerful the mob mentality is.

DING-DONG YO · #4 11-03-2007, 10:29 PM

OP, how long did you work there? If it was for any considerable length of time, then why did you continue to work there with all this going on?

and if they were as dirty as you say, why didn't you try to blow the whistle on them yourself?

W brad · #5 11-03-2007, 10:33 PM

This was basically gambling, on the part of the company and on the part of the homeowner who was over their head. Gambling on the home value going up higher than the purchase price to cover an otherwise risky financing.

The worse thing we could do would be to bail out these gamblers. To do so would make make it something of a freeroll for them, and encourage others to do it again in the future.

No government funded freerolls please.

wtfsvi · #6 11-03-2007, 10:37 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I can't tell you the number of sexual affairs that occurred between married and unmarried people; primarily among the management staff {at the workplace itself}.

[/ QUOTE ] Why did you include this in your post?

[/ QUOTE ]

probably because it speaks to greedy unethical culture of this organization. that comment sounds relevant to me.

[/ QUOTE ] greedy? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

DING-DONG YO · #7 11-03-2007, 10:59 PM

yea. It has been my experience that people who cheat are generally unethical and greedy and vice versa.

Esp. people who use their power in the workplace to facilitate getting their dick wet.

lehighguy · #8 11-04-2007, 01:58 AM

The only real criminals here are the fund managers that were retarded enough to buy these mortgages. The reason people at your company were willing to underwrite all this bad debt is because they could sell package it and sell it to idiotic fund managers who don't even bother to research the assets they are buying. If some idiot was willing to pay me $1 for something worth 25 cents I would sell as much as I possibly could.

Tweety · #9 11-04-2007, 08:36 AM

[ QUOTE ]
OP, how long did you work there? If it was for any considerable length of time, then why did you continue to work there with all this going on?

and if they were as dirty as you say, why didn't you try to blow the whistle on them yourself?

[/ QUOTE ]

Great questions. I'd like to hear the answers.

#10 11-04-2007, 08:50 AM

I actually wrote out a well thought out response to all this crap and then I thought why? There are so many views that are much better than mine out there already.

I work as a broker in Sydney and I want to say that lending practices are very different here to the way you describe them.

I don't see ways that the things you describe could happen.