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LendingTree has told its customers that former employees helped unauthorized mortgage lenders hack into its systems and steal customer information from 2006 to 2008. The incident reveals just how aggressive the mortgage loan business was during the height of the housing boom, and also raises fears for consumers who share their information with companies that help them shop around for the best deal. And it highlights what experts say is an often overlooked source of data theft -- the inside job. According to a letter sent to customers recently, former LendingTree LLC employees shared "confidential passwords" with lenders, who in...

<p>DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Mideast sovereign wealth funds may fail to save troubled U.S. banking giant Citigroup Inc. Citigroup, Inc.unless more cash is pumped into the lender, the head of a $13 billion Dubai-owned investment firm said Tuesday.</p> <p>Sameer Al Ansari, Chief Executive of Dubai International Capital told delegates at a private equity conference that it will take more than the combined efforts of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Kuwait Investment Authority and Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to save the bank.</p>

he hunt continues! A couple of weeks ago we discussed the various types of Realtors one is likely to come across. Now it is time for the loan officers to be exposed. Once again, this post is littered with stereotypes and generalizations, but we all know we have run across these folks at some point in our lending careers so don't get all politically correct on me. It would be wise for consumers to figure out which one they are dealing with. The Gangster: Maybe you haven't heard, gangs and street thugs have figured out that mortgage fraud is a...

Meet Melonie Griffiths-Evans, the new poster child for the Subprime Lending Scandal of 2008. You’ve probably seen her on TV, or read about her in this newspaper. She’s the single mom with three kids who just wanted to “live the American dream,” as she puts it. In December 2004, with no down payment and working as an assistant teacher, she signed on the dotted line for a $470,000 subprime mortgage on a house in Dorchester. Three years later, the government foreclosed on her loan. She was to be evicted yesterday, until a threatened physical confrontation from a coalition that calls...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration and major financial institutions are close to agreeing on a plan that would temporarily freeze interest rates on certain troubled subprime home loans, according to people familiar with the negotiations. An accord could reassure investors and strapped homeowners, both of whom are anxious as interest rates on more than two million adjustable mortgages are scheduled to jump over the next two years. It could also give a boost to the Bush administration, which is facing criticism for inaction amid the recent housing turmoil. The plan is being negotiated between regulators including the Treasury...

Although the sub-prime mortgage meltdown has been years in the making, unmistakable signs of trouble emerged last year when the housing market first started to dip. Nevertheless, a new report found that sub-prime mortgages issued in the first half of 2007 defaulted at even faster rates than those issued in 2005 and 2006, when risky lending practices were still in vogue. That's because lenders didn't tighten the criteria used to gauge a borrower's ability to make his or her payments. The report by investment banker FBR Investment Management is the best evidence yet of the flaw that eventually shook the...

As the housing boom of the early part of this decade unwinds, the U.S. is facing a harsh new reality: Annual home foreclosures may surpass new-home sales from builders. Nearly 2 million homeowners are expected to lose their houses this year and next as the mortgage mess becomes a painful experience for condo-flipping gamblers and struggling families alike. The latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association Thursday showed that the nation's foreclosure situation continues to worsen. A record number of mortgage holders -- 0.65% of all borrowers -- entered the foreclosure process in the second quarter. Loans already in the...

I just went through the process of getting my wife a new (well, 2006 anyway) car. I had wanted to save enough to pay cash but my old car wasn't going to hold out quite that long. So off to the bank to secure the extra funds. In the process I found out today that my credit score was 819. The loan officer said he'd only seen one higher score. He's young, so maybe it isn't all that great, but... What does a credit score like 819 do for me? Is there anyway I can leverage this to my advantage...

IndyMac Bank FSB, Pasadena, Calif., has announced the introduction of GrupoMac, a Hispanic wholesale division that will serve mortgage brokers and emerging bankers in markets with significant Spanish-speaking populations. The new division will offer IndyMac's mortgage products, but they will be tailored to the growing U.S. Spanish-speaking population and supported by a staff of bilingual sales and operations specialists, the bank said. IndyMac said it plans to add employees throughout the year, including bilingual individuals involved in underwriting, sales, and various support positions in a number of its regional mortgage centers. The company can be found online at www.indymacbank.com.

Oregon moved closer to a total cap on interest rates Thursday, when the state House passed a 36 percent limit on consumer loans under $50,000. The cap completes House approval of a package of bills aimed at banning the triple-digit interest rates charged by payday and car title lenders. "This doesn't end consumer lending," said House Speaker Jeff Merkley, D-Portland. "But it will end predatory interest rates." The House voted 36-21 in support of House Bill 2871, which will join four other bills pending in the Senate. Oregon's payday lenders, who operate about 360 stores, say the legislation will kill...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's largest student loan provider will stop offering perks like trips to exotic locations to college employees as part of a settlement announced Wednesday in a widening probe of the student loan industry. SLM Corp., commonly known as Sallie Mae, also agreed to pay $2 million into a fund to educate students and parents about the financial aid industry, and it will adopt a code of conduct created by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is heading the probe.Cuomo said the expanding investigation of the $85 billion student loan industry has found numerous arrangements...

WASHINGTON -- In the wake of the market dive over subprime lender concerns, Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) issued a statement saying he is giving serious consideration to crafting legislation that would address growing public worries about predatory lending. Warning that "large numbers of American homeowners" are facing foreclosure, the Democratic presidential candidate said that "the federal government has a dual obligation both to protect consumers from abusive lending practices going forward and to work to ensure that Americans who have been victimized by abusive products and practices are able to keep their homes and with them, their...

The slumping housing market could get a $200 billion boost from new immigrant home buyers if mainstream lenders start using alternative methods to score credit, a national group of Hispanic realtors said Friday. Creditors like Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank see recent immigrants as a growing market niche, but those who lack Social Security numbers or legal status in the U.S. are often rejected by the three major credit bureaus. A handful of new credit reporting systems already used by 200 real estate brokers, community groups and mortgage counselors nationwide allows them to calculate risk by evaluating a prospective client's utility bills...

BAGHDAD, April 17, 2006 — Last week I flew to Fallujah to meet the men and women of the 5th Regimental Combat Team. As I do with all units, I shared the words of T.E. Lawrence, "Do not try to do too much with your own hands … it is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them." This powerful theme, consistent with our motto, "Iltizam Mashtarak – United Commitment", guides our joint vision for success in Iraq. Iraqis are determining their future according to their Constitution. Together the people, the government, and the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ameriquest Mortgage Co. said on Monday it agreed to pay $325 million in the second largest U.S. consumer lending settlement to clear up claims that its lending practices abused customers in 49 U.S. states. A two-year investigation found that salespeople at the company concealed interest rate and loan costs, pressured appraisers to inflate values of borrowers' homes, and used other high-pressure tactics to close deals, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office said in a statement on Monday. The agreement requires Ameriquest, one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders to people with poor credit, to pay...

What eBay did for buying and selling, Britain's Zopa hopes to do for lending and borrowing money. Zopa, which counts Benchmark Capital, the same firm that funded eBay, among its backers, is taking a variant of the auction site's business model and applying it to put people who want to lend in touch with credit-worthy people who want to borrow. "For the first time, people who want to lend or borrow money have a real alternative to going to a bank, financial institution or big corporation," said James Alexander, Zopa's chief technical officer. According to Alexander, Zopa is not a...

Mark Bomchill says he'd like to forget the year he spent hustling mortgages for Ameriquest Capital Corp. in suburban Minneapolis. Slugging down Red Bull caffeine drinks, sales agents would work the phones hour after hour, he said, trying to turn cold calls into lucrative "sub-prime" mortgages — high-cost loans made to people with spotty credit.

From the security of their own homes, many sneer at the get-rich-quick crowd that lost money when the tech bubble burst. But many who would throw stones are living in glass houses—barely maintained by fragile second mortgages. The brash sales pitches, reckless spending, and short-sighted decisions that fueled the dot coms’ rise and fall have taken over the mortgage market. Everyone now knows about the tech bubble because it has already burst; fewer recognize its near neighbor, the mortgage bubble because they are living in it. In the third quarter of last year, home mortgages increased at a record annual...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday approved sweeping changes in the way it makes short-term loans to banks, lowering hurdles to borrowing but at the same time raising the cost of the loans. The new rules, which go into effect on Jan. 9, 2003, are intended to reduce swings in the federal funds rate in times of market stress, such as occurred in the period after the Sept 11 attacks. The federal funds rate, which is the price banks charge each other for overnight loans, is the central bank's primary tool for managing the economy. ``The measure...