My wife was an underwriter in the sub-prime mortgage industry. She worked for three companies, and they were all pretty bad. At least a few times a month if she turned down a loan for not meeting guidelines, she would have a loan officer standing at her desk screaming and swearing at her.
If they couldn't browbeat the underwriter, then half the time the company president would override the guidelines. The guidelines themselves were a sham. They were written in house by people with no particular expertise, then rubber-stamped by investors on Wall Street.
In the trenches, everyone knew there were bad deals. They were just making too much money to care.
