Fremont Investment & Loan Review

Author: Rob K. Blake | Date: October 29, 2008 | Filed In: Mortgage Company

Fremont Investment & Loan specialized in subprime, no doc, and other portfolio mortgage products. Fremont Investment & Loan marketed their mortgage programs through a nationwide network of independent mortgage brokers who (like many regional depositor banks at the time) were enticed by high-return wholesale mortgage lending.

Our review is only of the mortgage side of Fremont Investment & Loan and is ugly. We located three telephone numbers, one website, a list of complaints and lawsuits against them.

Fremont Investment & Loan Website and Phone Contacts

Fremont Investment & Loan Website: http://www.fremontgeneral.com
Fremont Investment & Loan Phone:
(877) 537-3666
(714) 961-5000

Fax: (800) 352-0665

Address: 2727 East Imperial Highway, Brea, CA 92821

After Buyout by CapitalSource Bank:

Operating Subsidiary

Fremont Reorganizing Corporation
(formerly Fremont Investment & Loan)
2727 E. Imperial Highway
Brea, CA 92821
(714) 961-5000
Website: www.fmtinv.com

Fremont Investment & Loan Mortgage Review

Fremont Investment & Loan is the worst example of subprime mortgage lending gone bad. We ran across them as mortgage brokers in Denver and never gave them or their programs a second look. The underwriting requirements were too liberal and in my opinion, only served to put borrowers in a position to default. I could not originate loans, no matter how much a borrower wanted it, in that irresponsible fashion.

Most brokers did not share my attitude and used Fremont’s liberal programs to feather their bed with outrageous commissions. Fremont Investment & Loan encouraged the practice, but eventually it caught up with them.

In March of 2007, Reuters published a story showing what US bank regulators thought of their lending policies…

“The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced the cease-and-desist order with Fremont Investment, a bank based in Brea, California, and its parent companies, Fremont General and Fremont General Credit. The companies agreed to comply with the order without admitting or denying the FDIC’s allegation that Fremont Investment was operating “without effective risk-management policies and procedures” in its subprime mortgage and commercial real-estate lending operations.

The FDIC said it had found that, among other things, the bank was making subprime mortgage loans without having the proper criteria for assessing borrowers’ ability to repay, and that it was marketing and making the loans “in a way that substantially increased the likelihood of borrower default or other loss to the bank.”

In July of 2008, all of Fremont Investment and Loan assets were sold to CapitalSource Bank which put an end to the wholesale mortgage division.

In my opinion, any bank receiving a admonishments from regulators is a bank or wholesale mortgage lender to stay far, far away from.

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If you currently have an old Fremont mortgage it’s probably serviced by Litton Loan Servicing, so if you are seeking a loan modification…see this post…

I searched for complaints against Fremont Investment & Loan, there are many. Click here to see all the Fremont Investment & Loan complaints listed in Google.

BBB Activity on Fremont Investment & Loan

BBB Rating: D

“Our opinion of what this rating means:
We have enough concerns about this company (for example, their offer, customer complaints, advertising, etc.) that we recommend caution in doing business with it.”

“Our complaint history for this company shows that the company responded to and gave proper consideration to most complaints. However, some complaints are unresolved meaning the company failed to properly address the complaint allegations or their response was inadequate.”

See Comments Below to Add/Read Customer Opinions On Fremont Investment & Loan Mortgage Services

Author: Rob K. Blake