subprime lender

11 Stories

Lenders Shutting Off Cars Over Missed Payments

Electronic devices becoming common in subprime loans: NY Times

(Newser) - T. Candice Smith lost control of her car on the Las Vegas freeway when it suddenly shut off. She alleges it happened because the lender of her subprime auto loan activated a starter-interrupt device installed in the car as a condition of the loan. The New York Times reports that...

Subprime's New Frontier: Auto Loans

Banks jumping back into lucrative market

(Newser) - That whole "subprime crisis" hasn't scared banks away from the lucrative world of subprime lending. The nation's top subprime lenders—like Capital One, GM Financial, HSBC, and JPMorgan Chase—are all trying to woo back less-creditworthy borrowers, who tend to rack up late fees while paying rates...

Perry Gave Huge Tax Grants to Subprime Lenders

Countrywide, WaMu got $35M as they upped risky loans

(Newser) - Rick Perry handed mortgage lenders millions to draw them to Texas—right when their risky lending practices surged. The governor gave Countrywide $20 million and Washington Mutual $15 million in what he called an exemplary job-creation move; in effect, that $35 million subsidized dangerous subprime lending, an AP analysis of...

Fed Hits Wells Fargo With Record $85M Fine

Bank accused of mortgage abuses

(Newser) - Wells Fargo has agreed to cough up $85 million to settle allegations that it steered borrowers with good credit towards expensive subprime mortgages and falsified information on borrowers' income on loan documents. The Federal Reserve says the fine, the first levied in relation to the predatory big-bank practices blamed for...

Subprime Screwups Reap Subsidies

(Newser) - Many of the lenders eligible for $75 billion in taxpayer subsidies from the government's foreclosure prevention program are the very same subprime lenders who fueled the mortgage crisis in the first place, the Washington Post reports. According to a report to be released tomorrow, JPMorgan, Countrywide, Wells Fargo, and other...

Subprime Salesmen Now Refinance Experts

(Newser) - The market for subprime mortgages may have dried up, but former salesmen have found a new calling: as loan modification advisers who help clients refinance the high-risk loans they used to sell, reports the New York Times. For a fee of around $3,500—the bulk paid upfront—former subprime...

Top Subprime Lenders Owned by Bailout Banks

Analysis of gov't data reveals sources of the economic meltdown

(Newser) - Some 21 of the top 25 subprime lenders that triggered the global economic collapse were either owned or financed by banks that ended up needing bailouts, an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity finds. Among the backers, who make huge profits on the subprime business, were Lehman Brothers, Merrill...

NAACP Accuses Banks of Loan Discrimination

Blacks were forced into subprime mortgages, group says

(Newser) - The NAACP is accusing Wells Fargo and HSBC of forcing black people into subprime mortgages while whites with identical qualifications got lower rates. Class-action lawsuits were to be filed against the banks today in federal court in Los Angeles. Similar NAACP lawsuits are pending against a dozen other subprime lenders....

Markets Dive as HSBC Shuts US Business, Axes 6,100

Banking giant sells record $17.8B in new stock

(Newser) - European and Asian markets took a nosedive today, and HSBC announced it will sell $17.8 billion in new stock in the largest rights issue in British corporate history. Europe's largest bank ended last year in the black, posting a $9.3 billion profit. But HSBC wrote off $10.6...

Execs Cashed Out as Subprime Giant Staggered

Irregular trades by execs at doomed subprime firm raise questions

(Newser) - Bosses at one of the country's biggest subprime lenders made some suspicious stock sales as the firm's mortgages soured, a Los Angeles Times investigation reveals. Records show that executives at now-bankrupt New Century Financial sold nearly $20 million in company shares shortly after setting up new trading plans, often within...

Bankrupt Lender's Audit Lapses 'Mind Boggling'

Bankrupt subprime lender, auditor ripped in report on business practices

(Newser) - Auditors at now-bankrupt New Century Financial—once one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders and one of the earliest to fail—were accused of “mind boggling” lapses in a Justice Department report on the debacle released yesterday. Partners at accounting firm KPMG are said to have ignored “...

11 Stories