Lenders

Distancing himself from Republicans on housing issues, President Obama pitched a $5-billion to $10-billion plan to help a key segment of struggling homeowners — those still making monthly payments, but on underwater mortgages. Obama proposed Wednesday to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages. He argued that those homeowners — and the country — couldn't afford to let the housing market bottom out, as many Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have advocated.

SACRAMENTO — Some of California's share of the money from a national legal settlement with big mortgage lenders can be used to help fill a hole in the governor's proposed budget, the Legislature's nonpartisan policy advisor recommended. The legislative analyst's office reported Tuesday that $411 million should be used for a variety of purposes. Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, who reached the settlement together with other state attorneys general, wanted to use most of the $411 million on financial counseling and education.

The most ambitious federal mortgage program to date aimed at millions of underwater homeowners is poised to take off in the coming two weeks, yet some key issues could hinder borrower participation. One of them involves something most owners know nothing about: Who was your mortgage insurer on your underwater loan? Though it was announced by the Obama administration late last year, "HARP 2.0" — the second version of the Home Affordable Refinance Program — will finally hit full stride around the middle of this month, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finish tweaking their automated underwriting systems to accept applications, and lenders and mortgage insurance companies start handling large volumes of requests.

Don't even think about fudging on your application for a mortgage by inflating your income a tad, checking the box to indicate you're going to live there when you're really not or exaggerating your job description. Not long ago, people could get away with lies like these to obtain financing. But not anymore. Nowadays, the tools are in place to nab fibbers who just want to buy a house, as well as out-and-out perjurers looking to bilk lenders out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

If you give millions of seriously underwater homeowners a new equity position in their properties by reducing their principal mortgage debt, will they keep paying on their loans and avoid foreclosure? Call it a pipe dream or a significant model for other lenders and investors, but one company says it has found an important combination: Modify underwater borrowers' loans so that their payments are reduced to a manageable amount and cut their principal debt over time, but make the deal dependent on their scrupulous on-time monthly payments of the new amount plus sharing of a portion of any future profit they make on the house sale.

With financial help for the nation's small businesses locked in a congressional imbroglio and bank loans still tough to get, many smaller firms are turning reluctantly to high-dollar lenders of last resort. Across the nation, small businesses are paying private lenders annual rates of up to 36% plus fees to get the cash they need to buy inventory, pay their mortgages and meet payroll. These private lenders say they're supporting small businesses at a time when credit is scarce, providing loans that help borrowers fix their credit scores or buy equipment to expand.

Even though the recession has been officially over for some time, getting a small-business loan hasn't gotten any easier. In fact, fewer loans backed by the federal Small Business Administration were made during the first half of this year than during the same period in 2010. In Southern California, the amount lent in this type of loan declined 7% to $922 million in the period that ended June 30, compared with $988 million a year earlier. That's more than double the 3% decline nationwide.

Don't even think about fudging on your application for a mortgage by inflating your income a tad, checking the box to indicate you're going to live there when you're really not or exaggerating your job description. Not long ago, people could get away with lies like these to obtain financing. But not anymore. Nowadays, the tools are in place to nab fibbers who just want to buy a house, as well as out-and-out perjurers looking to bilk lenders out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lenders who discriminate on the basis of certain demographics when dealing with auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, student loans and more are now in the cross hairs of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The watchdog declared war Wednesday against unfair lending practices that price out, reject or otherwise put certain consumers at a disadvantage. Even lenders who don't intend to be biased but whose policies end up cutting off certain portions of the population - known as disparate impact - will be taken down, bureau officials said.

A newly streamlined government plan to reward homeowners who diligently pay their underwater mortgages is proving a bonanza for banks, which by one estimate may pocket $12 billion in extra revenue by refinancing loans. The revisions to the Obama administration's 3-year-old Home Affordable Refinance Program have yielded mixed results for homeowners, analysts and mortgage professionals say. Some responsible homeowners are indeed getting lower-interest loans despite owing far more than their homes are worth.

As California pushes to get more homeowners into a $2-billion foreclosure prevention program, some Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers may see their mortgages shrunk through principal reduction. State officials are making a significant change to the Keep Your Home California program. They are dropping a requirement that banks match taxpayers funds when homeowners receive mortgage reductions through the program. The initiative, which uses federal funds from the 2008 Wall Street bailout to help borrowers at risk of foreclosure, has faced lackluster participation and lender resistance since it was rolled out last year.

The housing market's boom and bust exposed stunning flaws in the housing finance system, from lax underwriting to sloppy record-keeping to incompetent loan servicing. California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris is pushing lawmakers to incorporate some of the lessons learned into a new state law governing foreclosures, but lenders are resisting, arguing that the mortgage meltdown was just a "temporary" crisis that doesn't justify a permanent change in law. That's wishful thinking, and legislators should give troubled borrowers more protection against lenders' procedural shortcuts.

Lenders who discriminate on the basis of certain demographics when dealing with auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, student loans and more are now in the cross hairs of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The watchdog declared war Wednesday against unfair lending practices that price out, reject or otherwise put certain consumers at a disadvantage. Even lenders who don't intend to be biased but whose policies end up cutting off certain portions of the population - known as disparate impact - will be taken down, bureau officials said.

Dear Liz: Is there any way to expedite the foreclosure process? My wife bought a townhome shortly before we were married. Long story short, it didn't fit our family once we got married and had a baby. We bought a larger house and tried renting the townhome but couldn't cover the mortgage payment. We attempted a short sale, but the bank refused a good offer, so we let it go into default. We even offered to do a deed in lieu of foreclosure, but the bank refused unless we provided financial information for me, too. Since I'm not named on the mortgage and wasn't even around when she got the loan, I refused.

Three California companies offering auto loan modifications were sued by the Federal Trade Commission, which accused them of deceiving consumers with false promises. Hope for Car Owners in Folsom, Kore Services in San Diego and Nafso VLM in Roseville charged clients hundreds of dollars in upfront fees to obtain car loan modifications, according to the FTC. But the firms allegedly did not fulfill their agreements to get the modifications and refused to give full refunds as advertised.

The backlog of California homes in default, but not yet repossessed, keeps growing. At some point, many of these properties will be repossessed and put back on the market. Until then they remain, clogging the system as "shadow inventory," most likely to be foreclosed and sold again. Key data points from ForeclosureRadar, an online seller of California default data: Default notices, which are sent when a borrower has missed several payments, were up 12% in July compared with a year earlier.

More than two dozen members of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN, gathered outside the home of a Los Angeles truck driver and his family Wednesday afternoon in an effort to keep the home from being sold. The small rally was a part of the activist group's "Home Wreckers" campaign targeting mortgage lenders that aren't adjusting loans under the Obama administration's $75-billion Making Home Affordable program and other home-saving efforts from the federal government, said Anthony Panarese, an ACORN organizer.

Murray Lender Chief executive of bagel company Murray Lender, 81, who helped turn his father's small Connecticut bakery into a national company credited with introducing bagels to many Americans, died Wednesday at a Miami hospital of complications from a fall several weeks ago, said his wife, Gillie Lender. Lender's father, Harry, immigrated to the United States from Lublin, Poland, in 1927 and opened what would become Lender's Bagels that year in an 800-square-foot bakery in New Haven, Conn.

A "super PAC" supporting Mitt Romney has won the backing of another corner of the financial sector: payday lenders. Seven payday loan companies donated a total of $162,500 to Restore Our Future in February, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday. All the donations were recorded in the first week of the month, in increments ranging from $2,500 to $35,000. Restore Our Future declined to comment on the donations and their timing. A spokesman for the largest payday lender also declined to comment.