Question from an anonymous phone caller:

“I work at retail bank. When rates were dropping, I asked my processor to lock several FHA loans.  All the paperwork to lock was completed and sent to management.  Management did not lock the loans, hoping to ride the wave down and earn extra yield for the bank….rates rose and many of my customers lost the ability to lock at the rate we promised.  They were furious and not surprisingly took their refinance business elsewhere. I lost the ability to earn income on those loans and my company also lost interest and fee income. I feel horrible for those customers and I have all kinds of emails saved showing our company promised to lock their loans.  I complained to management and I was fired.  What can I do to report this? I don’t want to have this happen again to customers at that bank.”

 A: Is the bank state or federally chartered? If the bank is state chartered you can file a complaint with DFI.  If the bank is federally chartered, find out the name of their federal regulator from the bank’s website.  The FBI also takes whistleblower complaints on cases like this as the FBI is HUD’s enforcement arm: http://seattle.fbi.gov/ I ran this by our local Seattle FBI Field Office and Jim Siwek, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, HUD-OIG Investigations, says to contact the Seattle FBI office here: (206) 220-5390 or the direct HUD-OIG hotline: 1-800-347-3735. Other ways of contacting HUD:

Mail:
HUD OIG Hotline
451 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20410
 FAX: (202) 708-4829
 Email:  hotline@hudoig.gov