Putting borrowers into higher-rate mortgages still occurs, U.S. says
WASHINGTON — It’s called “upselling” — steering mortgage applicants into higher-cost terms that increase the lender’s profits — and it was rampant during the housing boom years.
It worked like this: Rather than put borrowers into loans at the lowest rates and fees for which they were qualified, loan officers persuaded them to sign up for more expensive ones. Loan officers who squeezed more juice, or profit, out of their applicants got extra pay.
The Federal Reserve Board banned abusive practices like this in 2011. But a lawsuit filed recently by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suggests that hidden, backroom upselling ploys are still alive and well.
The bureau alleges that a large mortgage company with 45 branches spread among 22 states paid loan officers more than $4 million in bonuses “based on the interest rates of the loans they originated — the higher the interest rates of the loans closed by a loan officer … the higher the loan officer’s quarterly bonus.”
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, charges Castle & Cooke Mortgage and two top executives with violations of the Fed’s rule barring compensation to loan officers that is tied to interest rate or other loan terms. Despite the federal ban, the suit alleges, Castle & Cooke “developed and implemented a scheme” to pay bonuses based on the higher interest rates obtained by loan officers in company branches.
Under the plan, according to the consumer protection agency, a Castle & Cooke loan officer could “increase the amount of his or her quarterly bonus” by putting consumers into loans that yielded the company higher profits. The firm kept no written records on the bonus scheme, the suit alleges, which also constitutes a violation of federal loan officer compensation rules.
Asked for comment, Jeff Bell, a company spokesman, said Castle & Cooke “has been cooperating with the CFPB in its investigation for more than a year, and anticipates an amicable resolution in this complex regulatory matter.” He denied that the firm’s bonus system rewards loan officers based on the mortgage terms they obtain from applicants.
The bureau’s case is based on the findings of an investigation conducted by the Utah Department of Commerce’s Real Estate Division.
Federal officials allege that the mortgage company rewarded loan officers who participated in the upselling plan with quarterly bonuses that ranged from $6,100 to $8,700. To collect the extra money, loan officers had to upsell borrowers above a benchmark interest rate established for their branch offices.
Loan officers who did not deliver clients at higher-than-benchmark rates received no extra compensation. Last year, according to the bureau, Castle & Cooke funded about $1.3 billion in new mortgage loans. The agency is seeking restitution of the money allegedly overcharged to consumers by virtue of the undisclosed bonus system.
Putting aside the specifics of the allegations, what does this case mean to mortgage shoppers?
Most mortgage industry experts agree that as a result of intensive federal regulatory scrutiny, upselling schemes are less common today than during the early years of the last decade. Then, some lenders circulated rate schedules for loan officers — especially in the subprime arena — with sliding scales of the extra money they could earn by putting unsuspecting applicants into higher-priced deals. For example, clients might be qualified for a 30-year fixed rate of 7%, but if the loan officer could convince them that the best available rate was 7.5% or 8%, the loan officer would earn more.
Bill Kidwell, head of a mortgage advisory firm in Denver, says that most companies “know that you can’t base compensation on interest rates” anymore as the result of rule changes and the arrival on the scene of an aggressively pro-consumer regulator in the form of the consumer protection bureau.
But Kidwell argues that mortgage companies, like other businesses, need to be able to compensate employees based on their financial performance for the firm, and that current federal rules “lack clarity” on how to accomplish that.
Bottom line for consumers: To avoid overpaying, simply know more.
Shop the marketplace intensively for rates and loan fees, keyed to your specific credit scores, down payment, capacity to repay, bank reserves and other factors that determine your perceived risk. If you know what you qualify for and deserve, it’s a lot tougher for anybody to upsell you.
Distributed by Washington Post Writers Group.
