Wells Fargo Targeted Black Folks ("Mud People") For Subprime Loans ("Ghetto Loans")....

[BlooInBloo]

NYT, by way of Atrios:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07baltimore.html?_r=1&hp

"Wells Fargo, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania. Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as “mud people” and to subprime lending as “ghetto loans.”

“We just went right after them,” said Ms. Jacobson, who is white and said she was once the bank’s top-producing subprime loan officer nationally. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches, because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.”"

[marmar]

1. But, but, they said lending was colorblind? It's class, not race, right?

n/t

[BlooInBloo]

3. Yep. And anyone saying different is an oversensitive race-card player.

[Number23]

10. The old standby argument, isn't it? The "go-to" for the clueless

I'm sure that someone will trot it out in earnest any second now...

[BlooInBloo]

14. #13.

[BuyingThyme]

2. Then why does Wells Fargo still exist?

[Berry Cool]

4. ...And...and wasn't the whole thing the fault of people who bought "too much house"?

...You know, "uppity" people??? :sarcasm:

[malaise]

5. Truth will out

although we already knew this was taking place.

[mr1956]

6. Sold down the river by their pastors

I wonder how much money those church leaders got from the bank to "influence" their congregants. Makes me feel even more solid in my decades long decision to never join a church and to never trust a so-called church leader.

[Toucano]

7. I think my soul just vomited.

Wasn't sure I had one, but I have to conclude that this sick, visceral feeling must come from someplace.

[BlooInBloo]

8. Heh indeedy.

[KittyWampus]

9. Yes, a mayor from some place in Ohio was on the radio months ago.

[NightWatcher]

11. just a slight differential from the long practiced red lining of the poor

[Solly Mack]

12. K&R

[MadMaddie]

13. Jim Crow attitudes are alive and well!

Many people (of all races) might possibly still be in their homes with fixed rates if these sub-prime loans weren't shoved down their throats.

I banked at Wells for 1 year and I absolutely hated their services.

[Number23]

15. Supplement to another post on this from earlier this year

You can see the FANTASTIC response it got from DUers

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5249633

[BlooInBloo]

16. hahaha! Clearly you're an oversensitive race-card player.

:P

[Number23]

18. I'm the "race card" Queen!

This card works in more places than AmeEx.

:)

[BlooInBloo]

19. :)

[Greyhound]

17. They are also in the Elder exploitation business.

Close your accounts.

Move your money to your local banks and Credit Unions.

Vote with your dollars and put these parasites out of our misery.

[AnnieBW]

20. Wells Fargo is EVIL!

They were our mortgage provider when we first bought our house. When my husband lost his job in 2001, they refused to work with us. We nearly lost our house, until we declared Chapter 13. We would get different answers from different people there. I have it on good authority from a private investigator that they actually committed fraud and forgery on at least one occasion to keep someone from refinancing - claiming that the couple had signed a paper saying that they wouldn't refi for 5 years, when they had done no such thing. They forged the couple's signatures. WF also withheld death benefits from people.

I'm so fucking glad to hear that these people are finally seeing the light shine on their little roach-infested operation.

[BlooInBloo]

21. Wow. Shitty on top of craptacular.

[noiretextatique]

22. the racism surcharge

sad that this stuff is still going on. even sadder that many of our supposed allies don't believe this still happens.

[Raineyb]

26. Didn't you hear?

Subprime lending only became a problem when white people were victimized by it.

:grr:

[noiretextatique]

28. yep...and the only real racism

is "reverse" racism :argh: what i want to know is: where are the all people who claim class is the only problem? where are the people who claim racism is dead? where are the people who show up to argue about reparations? where in the hell are they? no comments on this. :argh:

[Raineyb]

31. I remember mentioning something along these lines during the primary

Someone said something about "black" issues and I said, our issues are the same as everyone else. What you do to us, you do to yourself. We are literally the canary in the coal mine that is America yet very few listen and even fewer have anything to say. It's rather frustrating to say the very least.

[ecstatic]

23. I want to switch lenders

:mad:

[MagickMuffin]

24. And yet some DUers "think" these people deserve out they got

“The company put ‘bounties’ on minority borrowers,” Mr. Paschal said. “By this I mean that loan officers received cash incentives to aggressively market subprime loans in minority communities.”

Other times, she said, loan officers cut and pasted credit reports from one applicant onto the application of another customer.

Both loan officers said the bank had given bonuses to loan officers who referred borrowers who should have qualified for a prime loan to the subprime division. Ms. Jacobson said that she made $700,000 one year and that the company flew her and other subprime officers to resorts across the country.

These practices took a great toll on customers. For a homeowner taking out a $165,000 mortgage, a difference of three percentage points in the loan rate — a typical spread between conventional and subprime loans — adds more than $100,000 in interest payments.


:grr::cry::grr:

[Gormy Cuss]

30. Well, THOSE PEOPLE didn't do their homework and signed the contract, so where's the beef?

:sarcasm:


The level of corruption in the mortgage lending industry in recent years is astounding.

[noiretextatique]

25. kickeroo

:kick:

[kjackson227]

27. Didn't ACORN come down hard on Wells Fargo, and

a few other lenders for these kinds of loans, and other discriminatory tactics?

[noiretextatique]

29. yes, but obvious that didn't stop them

they were already sued for these kind of practices.