Did you know that 6 out of 10 people who received subprime loans during the height of the lending boom could have qualified for a lower-cost mortgage--and it was completely legal? The vast majority of subprime loans made by mortgage brokers or loan officers came with a "yield-spread premium" – a kickback that brokers received from lenders in exchange for hiking the interest rates on loans or steering borrowers into more expensive, riskier loan products.
The Federal Reserve Board is now deciding whether to fix the problem of price gouging on mortgages. They have heard from many mortgage brokers, now they need to hear from concerned consumers.
About Yield Spread Premiums
- Facts about Yield-Spread Premiums
- Research: "Unfair Lending: The Effect of Race and Ethnicity on the Price of Subprime Mortgages"
- Issue Brief: Bans on Yield-Spread Premiums and Steering (2007)
- Issue Brief: Yield-Spread Premiums: Incentive for Equity Theft (PDF 2004)
- CRL Statement on Proposed Fed Rules to outlaw YSPs
- CRL Testimony on HUD proposal to simplify mortgage information