Chase internal documents show that company encourage mortgage fraud


The Oregonian has received a copy of an internal memo from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) titled "Zippy Cheats & Tricks", providing the company's employees with advice that amounts to an endorsement of mortgage fraud. Zippy is Chase's in-house automated loan underwriting system.

Consumerist has posted the memo on its site, and the details are indicative of serious problems at the company. Among the tips:

  • Include all compensation under "base income." Lump in tips, bonuses etc. with base income, as that amount is favored by the software.
  • Do not mention gift funds -- include them as though they were earned income.
  • If all else fails, lie and add $500 to the applicant's income "to see if you can get the findings you want."
This memo essentially encourage employees to engage in fraud: knowingly falsifying a loan application is fraud.

Of course JPMorgan Chase says it was not aware of the memo and didn't condone or endorse it, and fired the employee who was circulating it.

It's not yet known how widespread the memo's circulation was, but this is great evidence of just how loose lending standards got at the height of the bubble. Now we are all paying the price.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 04:13 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    WalletPop Headlines

    DailyFinance BlackBerry App

    My Portfolios

    Track your stocks here!

    Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

    BloggingStocks Partners

    More from AOL Money & Finance

    BioHealth Investor Headlines

    Page Loaded in 1329124412687 ms.