Wall Street Journal via the New Jersey Real Estate Report
Flashback to 2007: Big banks' loan push: Illegal aliens
The nation’s big banks, scrambling for customers, are pitching mortgages to illegal [aliens]. -- Two years ago, making home loans to people who are in the U.S. illegally was largely limited to community banks that wanted to revitalize neighborhoods by offering low-cost mortgages to local workers...

New Jersey Real Estate Report
Real Estate, Economics, and PoliticsThu 3 May 2007
The (illegal) American Dream
Categories: National Real Estate , Risky Lending

From the Wall Street Journal:

Big Banks’ Loan Push: Illegal Immigrants
Mortgages Get Pitched To Underserved Market; Critics Find Some Risks
By ROBIN SIDEL
May 3, 2007; Page C1

The nation’s big banks, scrambling for customers, are pitching mortgages to illegal immigrants.

Two years ago, making home loans to people who are in the U.S. illegally was largely limited to community banks that wanted to revitalize neighborhoods by offering low-cost mortgages to local workers. There are signs that these loans, which comply with regulatory requirements and which represent a sliver of the nation’s $10 trillion mortgage market, are starting to take off in the broader banking industry.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is developing a pilot program to pitch mortgages to illegal immigrants in Maricopa County, Ariz. If the bank proceeds, the plan could launch as soon as this summer. The New York bank joins Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Fifth Third Bancorp, which also are experimenting with the loans.

Genworth Financial Inc., meanwhile, is testing insurance products tied to the loans. Deutsche Bank AG has teamed up with the Hispanic National Mortgage Association to develop a secondary market where big banks can sell and trade the loans, potentially reducing risk with keeping the mortgages on their balance sheets.

“Whoever hits the street first with these loans will be the winner,â€