Aggressive Lending Practices and Countrywide's Corporate Culture

The news is out. The questionable loans that were done for my elderly parents and some friends of ours (see entries from 7/25/07 and 7/26/07) were part of an overall corporate culture at Countrywide. This mortgage company not only targeted the sub-prime borrower, they also aggressively went after A paper clients in a manner that was aimed to them into more costly loans and squeeze every last fee out of them. They would then go on to sell the loans at a higher rate than typical because investors on the secondary market found them more valuable due to their potentially very high interest rates on ARMS. The company offered incentives to their loan reps to get them to push more expensive loans, and carefully worded scripts helped them guide borrowers toward signing up.

To read the article on Countrywide's questionable practices, click on the following link:
Countrywide in NY Times