All Posts Tagged With: "fiduciary"
Responsibility: But Didn’t The Borrower Sign The Mortgage?
It hardly seems unfair. Aren’t borrowers responsible for the loans they take out? It’s not like someone is held at gunpoint and forced to accept the worst loan lenders can concoct.
That’s the thinking of a considerable segment of the population, a segment represented in some of the email I receive as well as in the [...]
FBI Expanding Fight Against Mortgage Scams
The FBI is adding a large number of agents to fight mortgage fraud and predatory lending, but will it be enough?
Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, FBI Assistant Director Kevin L. Perkins noted that the FBI now has new funding to chase mortgage fraudsters under the Financial Intelligence Center (FIC).
The FIC, says [...]
Federal Rules Make Predatory Loans Legal & Lawful
With all the yelling and screaming in Washington regarding financial reform the fact remains that predatory lending remains perfectly legal and will be perfectly legal once a financial reform package is passed.
“The Wall Street reform bill in Congress represents the strongest consumer financial protections in history,” says President Obama. “You’ll be empowered with the clear [...]
Mortgage Reform Now — 6 Ways To Fix What’s Broke
For all the talk of reform on Wall Street, a quicker and easier way to assure that big banks don’t fail and small borrowers don’t get screwed is to simply fix the mortgage origination system.
Fixing the mortgage system is crucial if we’re to prevent another financial meltdown. If the mortgages are done right than mortgage-backed [...]
SEC — No Help For Mortgage Borrowers
The news is now filled with SEC accusations that Goldman Sachs defrauded investors who bought mortgage-backed securities, allegations Goldman Sachs strongly denies.
But nowhere in the news do we hear of any effort to help the mortgage borrowers whose screwing made the financial meltdown possible. While the SEC is concerned about helping securities investors who lost [...]
Can You Trust Your Lender?
There is something new in the marketplace, what is being called the Fair Market Collaborative. As someone who has been looking for fairness in the mortgage marketplace since the 1970s you can bet that I welcome any effort to create a level playing field for borrowers.
But will the new collaborative really change marketplace [...]
Who Should Loan Officers Represent?
For all the talk of foreclosures and failing lenders, the bottom line is this: The mortgage lending system is both sound and hugely successful. Despite the headlines, most borrowers are making payments. Even among subprime borrowers — the borrowers most in the news — 81 percent are making their monthly loan payments as of mid-2008.
“The [...]
Must Mortgages Be “Suitable” For Borrowers?
How come we have so many toxic loans?
“The system is out of balance,” says Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), “There is a chain of responsibility that makes these abusive loans possible.”
The way Washington works is that you have to read between the lines. Notice that Dodd’s core concern is not “predatory” loans or even “subprime” [...]
Must Buyer Brokers Be “Exclusive”?
For several years there has been a debate within real estate regarding who or what may use the term “EBA” or “exclusive buyer agency.” At first this may seem like an obscure dispute, as in “who cares?” But in fact, the matter has importance for buyers, sellers, and the brokers who work with them.
On [...]
