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"Our Industry Is Absolutely Crazy": The Subprime Wolf Of Wall Street In 125% Interest Clothing
The last time we wrote about the number 125% it was in the context of the return of that old Subprime 1.0 staple home loans that cover more than the purchase price of the home (because one must always have some leftover cash for improvements), i.e. 125% loan-to-value mortgages. Today 125% comes back and again it is in the context of subprime, only this time it is about the second coming of the credit bubble when, as Bloomberg writes, a certain group of distinguished individuals is now offering loans to troubled Americans at the whopping annual interest rate of 125%.
Which group of distinguished individuals? The same group that helped make The Wolf of Wall Street into a cult classic: the people who were trained by that born again scammer par excellence Jordan Belfort.
From an office near New York’s Times Square, people trained by a veteran of Jordan Belfort’s boiler room call truckers, contractors and florists across the country pitching loans with annual interest rates as high as 125 percent, according to more than two dozen former employees and clients. When borrowers can’t pay, Naidus’s World Business Lenders LLC seizes their vehicles and assets, sometimes sending them into bankruptcy.
If the phrase predatory lending comes to mind it is because this is precisely what it is:
"This is the new predatory lending,” said Mark Pinsky, president of Opportunity Finance Network, a group of lenders that help the poor. “And the predators, just as they did in the mortgage market, have gotten increasingly aggressive.”
Subprime business lending -- the industry prefers to be called “alternative” -- has swelled to more than $3 billion a year, estimates Marc Glazer, who has researched his competitors as head of Business Financial Services Inc., a lender in Coral Springs, Florida. That’s twice the volume of small loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration.
Naturally, since these are the kinds of loans that ordinary Americans who don't have defaults and a horrible credit rating would never touch, the probability of repayment is virtually nil. Which means that the probability of default on the new subprime loans is assured, and as such all that is happening is yet another case of credit money assisted wealth transfer: from the very poor to the very aggressive, and increasingly wealthy. In other words, what the Fed has done for Wall Street, subprime 2.0 is doing for its far shadier, and criminal some would say, subsector.
The name of the company that makes the loans is almost too cheese to fit into its own ironic meme:
Naidus, 48, chief executive officer of World Business Lenders, declined to be interviewed. Marcia Horowitz, a spokeswoman at public relations firm Rubenstein Associates Inc., said the company explains loan terms in plain English and takes steps to ensure that borrowers understand.
“World Business Lenders’ sales and marketing techniques, as well as the interest rates it charges and the default rates it experiences, are generally consistent with those throughout the industry,” Andy Occhino, general counsel for the company, wrote in a May 21 letter. “In serving the underserved small-business community along Main Street USA, World Business Lenders complies with all applicable laws and endeavors to ensure a positive experience for its customers.”
To be sure World Business Leaders (or WBL in short) are just that, and much more - you see they are pure humanitarians by nature:
Horowitz, the spokeswoman for World Business Lenders, said the company works with borrowers to avoid defaults.
“If the default cannot be cured, World Business Lenders enforces its rights under the loan documents, including the recovery of the pledged collateral,” she said.
The good news is that at least someone has collateral, unlike all those countries in Europe where the loan itself is the collateral repledged back with the central bank (several times).
Sadly, the only reason why WBL exists is simple: they supply a product that is in great demand...
“While I am not real thrilled about some of the prices being charged, in some cases businesses need to get something done in a hurry and it makes sense,” said William Dennis, who directs the research foundation at the National Federation of Independent Business. “It may not be the world’s best choice, but at least it’s your choice.”
Brokers are popping up around the country to originate loans on behalf of lenders including OnDeck and World Business Lenders. The companies pay fees to the brokers of about $6,000 for finding people willing to take a $50,000 loan, according to current and former brokers, most of whom asked not to be identified to preserve their job prospects.
... a demand that would not exist if the economy was truly, as some of the more humorous economists out there allege, recovering.
As for what the insiders think of their business model, it is the same as what the outsides would have to say:
“Our industry is absolutely crazy,” said Steven Delgado, who left World Business Lenders last year to become an independent loan broker. “There’s lots of people who’ve been banned from brokerage. There’s no license you need to file for. It’s pretty much unregulated.”
David Glass, 39, was still on probation for insider trading when he co-founded Yellowstone Capital LLC, a New York-based brokerage and lender that originated $200 million in loans last year, including for OnDeck.
He said he learned to sell in the 1990s at Sterling Foster & Co., a Long Island firm where he got his friend a job interview that inspired “Boiler Room,” a movie that portrayed a college dropout’s foray into high-pressure stock sales. Glass said he coached actor Vin Diesel on cold-calling for the film. “A natural,” Glass said.
How will all of this end?
World Business Lenders put up job listings seeking former brokers, and they came. A February orientation schedule provided by a former employee shows that training is run by Bryan Herman, who got his start under Stratton Oakmont Inc.’s Belfort, the con man portrayed in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Herman later ran his own boiler room in the 1990s and avoided jail by informing on other brokers when he was charged with fraud in 1998, court records show. Another salesman was released from prison in 2010 after serving about a year for penny-stock fraud
Herman has paid for his crimes, according to his lawyer, Marty Kaplan.
“It’s really like saying Bill Clinton smoked dope in college,” Kaplan said. “Who cares?”
Indeed: who cares. Certainly not the Fed, for whose erudite members this too will be a perfectly normal occurrence and hardly a signal that something is horribly wrong with its centrally-planned, Frankenstein economy.
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put me down for two. i will see you at the bankruptcy proceeding.
Loan wolf shark of Wall St.?
Carefully scour the fine print of the closing documents for the baseball bat to the knee cap clause!
This is no different than the IMF.....
This is very different than the IMF. The IMF will take payment in blood. These guys won't- they just want the cash.
We Break Legs
A loan for Dumb & Dumber
125 % per..... year...... month ........day???
Does it matter? It's not going to be repaid anyway.
The lucky fucker who gets to pay will pay for himself, the guy next to him and two afterwards. Effective annual rate is about 50% for nominal of 125%. My math is off, but hey who cares, that coke is about to kick in.
Check out the UK subprime lenders...3,000% p.a.
Fuckin WBL are minor league compared to Wonga.com...tossers!
If your that stinkin stupid.....
Timmay! Nice.
A Loan at only 125%....
I'll take three of them !
They make repayment so easy too! From their web site: "WBL loans are repaid through small, daily automatic payments (excluding weekends and holidays) from the borrower’s business checking account. Since our borrowers typically generate income on a daily basis, WBL’s daily repayment program enables businesses to manage their cash more easily than if they were on a monthly payment schedule."
Who's the real bottom feeder in this? The loaner or the loanee?
Yellen
they should run commercials on TV where Obama endorces them while taking a brown enveloppe from the bankers.
DA HOMMEY IS MAKING MONEEEEY!!!
Obama!
Selling weed to solve the deficit, playing robin hood to the poor so he can use them as a human shield and doing some loan sharking on the side!
But the brother can't be connected and his allibi is "I WAS OUT GOLFING MAN!!"
Still sells too.
Damn man! That's too funny! Thanks.
what's the juice on the belgian margin?
125:1
Looked for it, got left out.
Usury... the mortal sin that was, and now is not... (Michael Hoffman)
http://www.amazon.com/Usury-Christendom-The-Mortal-that/dp/0970378491
john39 Usury... the mortal sin that was, and now is not... (Michael Hoffman)
---
Excellent. And I believe the NY has a usury law of 16%. I see lots of litigation and lawsuits in the future regarding WBL.
I'm sure there's loopholes. Most of the usury laws are for consumer and not business loans.
Even then, nothing says you can't set up shop on an indian reservation and bypass everything like they did with consumer loans.
>>indian reservation
funny you say that, both the federal and state governments have cracked down on tribal lending... lawsuits pending across the country in fact. not sure why, what the motivation for the crack down was, probably protecting campaign contributors...
It was out of control and so far beyond usury that I'm not surprised. They may have been catering to payday lenders or something, but every finance option looks better than the indian loans.
Before they shut down Western Sky was averaging about a 140% APR. And unlike payday lenders, they really were loaning for a year, so that's not some annualized figure.
Around here in SE VA, there are car title loans all over the place. I was working with one client and overheard them quoting the potential customer a max of $5k with a $450 TITLE SUBMISSION FEE-non refundable. Only took newer vehicles and the customer had to own the title and sign it over to them. This was for a 30 day loan, with provisions to extend if needed. For a cost, of course. Unfucking believable.
http://gizmodo.com/the-world-is-running-out-of-gold-1579512815
Oh cool! That means it will get cheaper still.
What valuable resource is the world not running out of?
Suckers.
Supidity, greed, hubris and corruption.
How'd I do?
Better than those who voted for you. The question was what VALUABLE resources are we running short of?
Those are all extremely profitable to some, and therefore quite valuable.
Unused brains
Unfit, non qualified leaders?
All above gold is still availabe. It does not get consumed. Look at the stock to flows... Gold is not a commodity
One point of the article is that, increasingly, it does get consumed.
Bastiat One point of the article is that, increasingly, it does get consumed.
---
Which is a fallacy that the unintelligent don't understand. Gold used can be recycled. It doesn't get destroyed by consumption.
Its not really practical to recycle the gold used as plating on various electronic parts, etc. That gold is forever lost.
"All above gold is still availabe [sic]"
Nonsense. It exists, but vast quantities of it are certainly not available.
Bill of Rights The World Is Running Out of Gold
----
Yet it seems every week we get a story about India, Russia, or China buying billions in gold. The only ones having trouble with delivery are those that stored their gold with the US government and want it back.
PM dealers were happy to sell you gold, but why, if supply is so strict. Now they are pushing silver in the same manner.
PM dealers make money on the spread. As long as prices don't drop too fast, they are making money. They sell gold and silver for fiat profits, but(the ones I have talked to) mostly save in physical gold and silver. But, as long as they are able to keep getting more from the mints, they sell as much as they can at a slight markup. The place I go had( last friday) eagles, maples, and phiharmonics for 23. iknow one who sells all gold as soon as he can and only holds silver because he fears confiscation. But yes, I've never not been able to buy anything I wanted in this store. Even when every online store was out of every 1/10 oz gold coin made, I was able to pick one up at this store.
Is this the same tit that wrote the book ?
The Mafia has come a long way from it's humble beginnings in smoke-filled rooms and back alleys. Good to see they still know how to charge a hefty vig and break a few kneecaps when necessary.
Thank God Obamacrae will take care of those knees now. But will it cover repeat operations?
Oh, sure it will. Can't be refused for a pre-existing or chronic condition. Of course you might have to wait so long to get the operation you'd wish you were eligible for VA benefits instead.
There's always disability!
Satanic world.
“It’s really like saying Bill Clinton smoked dope in college,”
No, it's not at all like that.
I work with a number of small businesses and have seen these financing deals first hand. Absolutely brutal as these financing groups (with warehouse loan facilities from big banks that of course are borrowing from the Fed at dirt cheap rates) have no ethics, morals, and/or care for the ultimate survival of the small business. Or in the words of Henry Hill played by Ray Liotta from Good Fellas "Had a bad week, fuck you pay me, weather was crappy, fuck you pay me" or something like that. This industry is beyond what is often referred to as "hard money" as the implied/effective rates are so high that they can exceed even 200% depending on the loan term and structure.
I actually spoke directly with one of these lending groups about their portfolio, tactics, strategies, etc. and it was clear that they simply prey on the smaller, weaker businesses that don't have any idea on how to even calculate the effective interest rate as they simply need the funds too bad. Just another straw adding to breaking the back of small businesses as between loan sharked capital, Obamacare, excessive regulatory and compliance requirements, etc., etc., etc., small businesses are fading fast.
This is nothing more than legalized loan sharking which is being fueled by the finance industry that has no interest in supporting the growth and development of a small business. Rather, it's nothing more than another tool being used by the finance industry to accelerate the greatest transfer of wealth this country has ever witnessed.
"and/or care for the ultimate survival of the small business."
Moreover, they don't even care about their own business.
You got that right Delivered!
I also love those lenders that secure on your future credit card transactions - and require you run your cards through them. They can skim right off the top, in addition to your usual swipe fees.
Daily deductions from your bank account and from your card batching. What could go wrong with that? :)
This is the libertarian side of me coming out... we can't regulate away bad decisions, and we shouldn't try.
If somebody wants to try crack, then they should live with the consequences. I hold nothing against the crack dealer and crack user as long as their decisions don't impact me. Likewise for these lenders.
there are countries where this kind of laws like usury are apllied effectively
I'd agree with you if this country at least attempted to have some values and morals. When everyone from the top down does whatever they can get away with then things get out of control. The second part is that you need consequences equaling the interest rate when the lenders do wrong, and our perverted justice system would never let that happen.
No problem with people making decisions and being held responsible but I would like to bring your attention to two key issues. First, small businesses are not receiving proper disclosures for these types of financing agreements and being clearly told/informed at what the equivalent interest rates amount to. Interest rate disclosure is essential in most every other type of lending activity (e.g., auto loans, home mortgages, traditional business lending, etc.) but not in this Wild West Show. Second, these decisions do impact you indirectly as a result of the continued playing field being tilted towards big business while small businesses find it more and more difficult to operate. With capital flows to small businesses decreasing, capital costs increasing (which this article address), an increasingly hostile regulatory, etc., the very life blood of the US economy continues to be choked off, slowly and methodically. That is, the formation of small businesses to innovate, create jobs, and offer an avenue to accumulate wealth. Without this opportunity, the very foundation the country was built on is being slowly eliminated which is expanding the wealth gap and stifling real economic growth/progress.
People need to remember that most large businesses started out being very small (HP in a garage comes to mind). Without the free flow of fairly priced capital, focused on risk and innovation as oppossed to financial return and wealth transfer, the US is all but assured of killing the goose that laid the golden egg (freely functioning capitalist system that provides a level playing filed for small, innovative businesses). To think that this trend of predatory lending does not impact everyone in this country, either directly or indirectly, is dangerous.
BTW and in the movie American Hustle, a similar scam was run by taking a fee in advance on the promise of securing loans. The only difference with this scam is the fee is built into a "closed transaction" that has so much lending margin (i.e., borrow from the warehouse facility at say 8% and lend at 75+%) that it only takes a short time period to recover the loan's principal with the tail end of the payments being all gravy. As the old saying goes, the more things change the more things stay the same. Definitely holds true with this type of lending.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
I wouldn't oppose better / stricter disclosure regs to enable unsophisticated business owners to make better decisions, but your comment about "fairly priced capital" sends the hairs on my neck shooting upwards. As does your implication that someone with an 8% warehouse line shouldn't be allowed to quickly generate 75%+ returns.
What does "fair" mean? Do you think your definition of "fair" is fair? And applicable to everyone, everywhere, in all circumstances?
Also, I just don't see in the marketplace your point about small businesses being systematically starved of debt capital. Lenders are currently tripping over themselves to fund healthy, growing businesses. Term loans with 9% - 12% pricing and no warrant coverage are available with no or negative EBITDA covenants! True, revenues have to be growing. But that's the point, right?
You seem to espouse a fundamental premise along the lines of, "Every business deserves access to debt." To quote Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, "deserving" has nothing to do with it. If a business is hanging on by a thread, then it shouldn't be the end of the world if it goes under. This represents the beauty of a market clearing system. Just because this concept doesn't apply to the SIFIs and other TBTF vermin doesn't mean we should give up on it.
To look at this another way; what is the difference between what this article describes -and what I believe what 'Delivered' is saying- and some third world dictatorship intercepting monetary aid to needy people for their own enrichment.
Capital from the Fed is guaranteed by these same "unsophisticated business owners" but they never get access to it.
The "marketplace" has been completely perverted by those with connections & therefore access to affordable growth capital which should have been available to these small businesses. Strict adhereance to libertarian philosophy will be a bitch once there is no one to change your oil, bake you a donut, sell you a piano, or fix your teeth.
Usury laws have been in place since Biblical times & government exists (or should) to enforce those laws.
Basic Harvard M.B.A. mentality!
There will never be a shortage of dumb or desperate people willing to borrow from such scum.
Gold running out ?! WTF !! What's the dentist going to make my cap out of...Fiat paper ?!
okay... you can pay uuus tomoroow... but we take a finger okay?
will hurt only a little bit...
A finger is cheap compared to what these people take.
Pawn brokers for the real estate industry.
My neighbor whose upside down ona house she inherited and can't afford took one of those loans, she often hides her car, she quit claimed her upside down home to her mom, then her mom got a reverse mortgage (on a home with a negative equity of 160K).
Sounds very similar to one of my neighbors. It's a sad situation. I try to find levity and humor in most stuff, but sometimes a tear comes first. I hate the brutality of reality when it knocks down a weak person.
Only works if you have the courts in your pocket and can assure some kind of repayment via government violence.
Guido "The Bug" comes out from the shady corner variety store and gets an office downtown. Hires a few WASPy looking kids to work the marks.
Big deal.
Jordan Belfort needs to be taken out into an alley...AND BITCH SLAPPED, PISSED ON, SPAT ON....THEN KICKED A LA DE NIRO/PESCI - BILLY BATS....THEN THROWN IN A PONTIAC GTO TRUNK AND TAKEN OUT TO BE DUG A HOLE FOR...
..THEN PISSING ON THE MOUND AFTER.....
Exactly.
Watched that "Wolf" movie and was dumb-founded on how his ripping people off was glorified and how there was hardly a mention of the the plight of his victims.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie and the acting, but what a depraved point of view about a depraved person--not the sex, but his frauds.
125% is that all??
How about these vermin: Wage Day Advance. The company offers payday loans to borrowers at an APR of 7069%.
Doug Nadius says he can relate to his customers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1ZK64mkI-8
(Also from the ad:
"i found an opportunity to help entrepreneurs."
"I found an opportunity to help myself to entrepreneurs' money"
Fixed it for you Asshole )
The way he lives really says "I can relate to my customers"
"This marble-floored duplex in the Upper East Side's The Seville was purchased in 2005 for $6.2 million by former MortgageIT CEO Doug Naidus. That was a year before the company was acquired by Deutsche Bank, and a few years before Deutsche Bank would be sued by the Department of Justice for MortgageIT's misrepresenting the quality of more than $5 billion government mortgages, filing false claims on more than $1 billion worth of government mortgages, and defrauding U.S. taxpayers. They were forced to hand over $202 million. But on the bright side, Naidus ended up with this very fancy apartment, which he would now like to sell for $11.25 million
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/03/10/marblefloored_upper_east_side_a...
does the FED even have a mandate for regulating that sector of the (fake) economy?
i wouldn't be surprised, but i'm too lazy right now to look up the details.
so, now the only way to do something is to have the american people raise this issue to their congressional representatives and/or form a real socialist, centre-left party to challenge the status quo.
what gives Team America occupy?
http://revolution-news.com/dublin-activists-occupied-the-bank-of-ireland...
Dublin activists occupied the Bank of Ireland on O’Connell street.
We take this action today to object to and raise awareness that the bank bailout continues today with a payment to an anonymous bondholder of €576,368,867 on behalf of the Bank of Ireland.
Billions been paid to bondholders while crippling cuts and new taxes have been imposed on the people of Ireland.
"American Ghetto." That would be all of America I might add.
Sad.
And ridiculous.
Absurd really. Once this check bounces there is no going back. Far better to let New York City go bankrupt than all of America you morons.
STOP CUTTING THE CHECK TO THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN HUMAN HISTORY!!!!!!!
"MortgageIT's misrepresenting the quality of more than $5 billion government mortgages"
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/03/10/marblefloored_upper_east_side_a...
MortgageIT's address was: 33 Maiden Lane, New York, NY
So it was in the SAME building as the FEDERAL RESERVE (which occupies a majority of the building)
http://www.manta.com/c/mmzn4ht/mortgage-it-inc
coincidence??
And then there's the Maidan and "the Maid who made a roaring trade (the Harlot of Jerusalem)" named Victoria Nudelman, who appointed the central wanker Yats to ru(i(n the Ukraine for the benefit of the Tribe, whose only 'culture' is sociopathic 'chosenness' and world dominance,
Coincidence, albeit with a bit of word-play.
Good thing the Fed pumped trillions into "legit" banks, etc.
And those shovel ready jobs kicked in cash to the Joe Six Pack economy.
Plus the $2,500 savings each year due to Obamacare.
Green shoots.
Forward!
They can only do this because money is loaned out of thin-air, if banks and institutions were actually risking "real" money on loans . . . they wouldn't be so brazen about their fraud and theft.
un fucking believable...
Jordan Belfort, Mark Pinsky, Marc Glazer, Marcia Horowitz, Rubenstein Associates Inc, David Glass, Bryan Herman, Marty Kaplan, etc.
No guinea loan sharks in that list.
I'm generally repulsed by comments like this but..
I did notice a certain similarity in the names mentioned..
is it still collateral if I snorted off a hooker's ass?
"a certain group of distinguished individuals is now offering loans to troubled Americans at the whopping annual interest rate of 125%."
uh, i'll take a secured 3.75 million worth of cash.
:)
"Here comes the camp train...choo choo! All aboard!"
125% is nothing.. in the UK 300% and up is normal nowadays: https://www.quickquid.co.uk
You see 1999% - 3600% APR on every other commercial on UK TV.
In the 90's I mutilated a Sears card because they went from 18% to 22%.
Isn't it possible to steal from these lenders?
As Marty Kaplan said, Who Cares?