Mortgage Meltdown

JOEBIALEK · Oct 16, 2007, 08:04 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.

**Vikingod** · Oct 16, 2007, 08:23 PM

I feel for you. I work in the industry too, and have several colleagues which are in similar situations. Either their banks had such lax underwriting standards, and/or had terrible credit concentrations, and now are either under formal agreement or have been taken over by regulators completely.

As far as investigating the company, its difficult to incite some sort of investigation, especially if the company is privately held. Regulators dont like to admit they missed something, especially when this shit really hits the fan. Some of the things your mentioned (the "ladder", affairs, etc.) are really not illegal, just pretty shitty, and saddly not unique within the corporate universe.

JOEBIALEK · Dec 4, 2007, 09:27 PM

good points