FICO, originally Fair, Isaac and Company, is an American data analytics company based in Bozeman, Montana, focused on credit scoring services. It was founded by Bill Fair and Earl Isaac in 1956. Its FICO score, a measure of consumer credit risk, has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States.
GE Capital was the financial services division of General Electric. Its various units were sold between 2013 and 2021, including the notable spin-off of the North American consumer finance division as Synchrony Financial. Ultimately, only one division of the company remained, GE Energy Financial Services, which was transferred to GE Vernova when General Electric was broken up.
A mortgage broker acts as an intermediary who brokers mortgage loans on behalf of individuals or businesses. Traditionally, banks and other lending institutions have sold their own products. As markets for mortgages have become more competitive, however, the role of the mortgage broker has become more popular. In many developed mortgage markets today,, mortgage brokers are the largest sellers of mortgage products for lenders. Mortgage brokers exist to find a bank or a direct lender that will be willing to make a specific loan an individual is seeking. Mortgage brokers in Canada are paid by the lender and do not charge fees for good credit applications. In the US, many mortgage brokers are regulated by their state and by the CFPB to assure compliance with banking and finance laws in the jurisdiction of the consumer. The extent of the regulation depends on the jurisdiction.
In finance, flipping is a term used to describe purchasing an asset and quickly reselling it for profit.
Steven C. Preston is the president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. He formerly served as the 14th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2008 to 2009 and the 22nd Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2006 until his appointment as HUD Secretary. Before entering public service, Preston spent nearly 25 years in financial and operational leadership positions in the private sector.
Mortgage fraud refers to an intentional misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission of information relied upon by an underwriter or lender to fund, purchase, or insure a loan secured by real property.
Casey Konstantin Serin is an Uzbekistan-born American blogger, mortgage broker, and real estate investor. In a newspaper article, USA Today called him the "poster child for everything that went wrong in the real estate boom". Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Serin immigrated to the United States in 1994. After graduating from high school, Serin bounced from job to job, generally working in website design. However, in his early twenties, Serin decided to quit working full-time in order to pursue a career in house flipping as a means of earning an income and building wealth. In an eight-month period beginning in October 2005, Serin purchased eight houses in four southwest U.S. states, and then began blogging about the foreclosure process on the properties he was unable to resell. In time, five of the eight properties foreclosed. The dubious nature of Serin's real estate transactions, coupled with his subsequent blogging about the affair, have led to Serin's name becoming strongly associated with the subprime mortgage crisis.
IndyMac, a contraction of Independent National Mortgage Corporation, was an American bank based in California that failed in 2008 and was seized by the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Batman The Escape was a stand-up roller coaster located at Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas, United States. Manufactured by Intamin, the ride featured one inversion and originally opened as Shockwave at Six Flags Magic Mountain in 1986. After briefly operating at Six Flags Great Adventure, it was moved a second time to AstroWorld, where it reopened in 1993 as Batman The Escape. The coaster operated there until the park's permanent closure in 2005. The track was eventually moved to Six Flags Darien Lake, placed into storage, and never reassembled.
The subprime mortgage crisis impact timeline lists dates relevant to the creation of a United States housing bubble, the 2005 housing bubble burst and the subprime mortgage crisis which developed during 2007 and 2008. It includes United States enactment of government laws and regulations, as well as public and private actions which affected the housing industry and related banking and investment activity. It also notes details of important incidents in the United States, such as bankruptcies and takeovers, and information and statistics about relevant trends. For more information on reverberations of this crisis throughout the global financial system see 2007–2008 financial crisis.
Prospect Mortgage was a residential retail mortgage lender that offered a range of home loans. The company was founded in 2007 and was headquartered in Sherman Oaks, California with retail offices across the United States. The company was backed by the private equity firm Sullivan Partners. In 2011, Prospect Mortgage was ranked number 2 on Mortgage Executive Magazine's list of the "Top 100 Mortgage Companies in America", and was a top 10 national home purchase lender in 2012.
Self-Help is a national community development financial institution headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. Between the years of 1980-2017, Self-Help reportedly provided over $7 billion in financing to 146,000 families, individuals and businesses. It aims to drive economic development and strengthen communities by providing financial services, lending to individuals, small businesses and nonprofits. It also aims to develop real estate and promote fair financial practices across the nation. Through its credit union network, Self-Help serves 150,000 members in North Carolina, California, Illinois, South Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin and Florida.
Bruce E. Karatz is an American businessman and philanthropist. He served as Chairman and CEO of KB Home, and engaged in philanthropic efforts to help rebuild both Los Angeles after the L.A. Riots and New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Karatz was CEO for two decades while KB Home grew revenues from $491 million to $11 billion and annual home deliveries increased from 4,500 homes in 1986 to over 39,000 homes in 2006. In March 2013, Karatz was a recipient of The Malibu Times' 23rd Annual Dolphin Awards. Karatz operates BK Capital LLC based in Beverly Hills, California.
Guaranteed Rate Companies, doing business as Rate, is a U.S. residential mortgage company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 2000 by Victor Ciardelli, the company had $55 billion in funded volume in 2022, down 25% since 2020. As of 2021, the company had more than 10,000 employees and more than 850 offices nationwide with locations in 50 states. As of 2024, the company has shrunk to fewer than 5,500 employees.
Black Knight, Inc. is an American corporation that provides integrated technology, services, data and analytics to the mortgage lending, servicing and real estate industries, as well as the capital and secondary markets. Black Knight is also known for its monthly benchmark data reports: Mortgage Monitor, a month-end analysis of mortgage performance statistics derived from Black Knight's loan-level database representing the majority of the national mortgage market; and Originations Market Monitor, the industry's earliest and most comprehensive view of single-family residential mortgage originations based on daily rate lock data from Black Knight's Optimal Blue PPE. In 2023, Intercontinental Exchange acquired the company for $11.7 billion.
Reza Jahangiri is an American entrepreneur. He is the CEO of American Advisors Group (AAG) and past co-chair of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA). He was also senior publisher for The Reverse Review until it was sold to HousingWire in 2018.
MidFirst Bank is an American bank based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As of 2023, it was the largest privately owned bank in the United States, with $39.0 billion in assets. MidFirst Bank has locations in Arizona (Phoenix), Southern California, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
SoFi Technologies, Inc. is an American personal finance and financial technology company. Founded in 2011 at Stanford University, it operates as a direct bank and supports other financial institutions through its technology platform. As of 2024, SoFi reports 9.4 million customers and 160 million platform accounts.
The Fanatical Change Foundation is an American charity based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by businessman Steven Kaufman and Juan Cuevas in 2008 in response to Hurricane Ike. It was designed to allow donators to see who was receiving the donations, and collects donations by throwing lavish parties, where attendees can buy tickets and see videos of the families to whom they are donating. As of October 1, 2014, the Foundation has raised over $600,000 for 77 families, and has been sponsored and recognized for its philanthropic efforts. Kaufman also received recognition for creating it, receiving an award from the Houston Astros called the "Hometown Hero." Juan Cuevas was awarded 2015 Houston Humanitarian of the Year in 2015 by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation for his work with Fanatical Change.
Christopher Hurn is an American writer, entrepreneur, and business executive who works primarily in the field of small business lending. He is the founder and CEO of Fountainhead, a company that provides commercial real estate financing and growth capital for small business owners. He previously founded Mercantile Capital Corporation, a financier of owner-occupied commercial real estate and an Inc. 500 company. He served as CEO of that company prior to leaving in late 2014 to launch Fountainhead.
