Confessions of a Subprime Lender

Former subprime lender Richard Bitner once worked in an industry that started out helping disadvantaged customers but collapsed due to greed, lack of financial control and willful ignorance. In Confessions of a Subprime Lender: An Insider's Tale of Greed, Fraud, and Ignorance, he reveals the truth about how the subprime lending business spiraled out of control, pushed home prices to unsustainable levels, and turned unqualified applicants into qualified borrowers through creative financing. Learn about the ways the mortgage industry can be fixed with his twenty suggestions for critical change.

Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi CHAPTER 1 Why I Bailed Out of the Industry 1 CHAPTER 2 The Gunslinging Business of Subprime Lending 15 CHAPTER 3 The Underbelly: Mortgage Brokers 39 CHAPTER 4 Making Chicken Salad Out of Chicken Shit: The Art of Creative Financing 73 CHAPTER 5 Wall Street and the Rating Agencies: Greed at Its Worst 103 CHAPTER 6 Secondary Contributors: The Fed, Consumers, Retail Lenders, Homebuilders, and Realtors 127 CHAPTER 7 How to Fix a Broken Industry 151 Glossary 183 Resources 185