My recent feature on the steep decline in lending standards drew some illuminating responses. I will reprint several of them this week, starting with the following letter from a man who once worked for World Mortgage, the primary lending arm of Golden West Financial Corp.. Although Golden West still enjoys a stellar reputation, the source quoted in my commentary raised doubts about whether the firm has continued the sound lending practices established under Herb and Marion Sandler, Golden West's co-chairs. The writer has only praise for the Sandlers personally but says the realities of the marketplace may have dictated certain changes in the way the company they run does business: 'I have enjoyed reading your articles on 321Gold.com, and your recent article "Lending Standards Plumb New Depths" caught my attention especially because I used to work for Golden West through their Savings and Loan Association, World Mortgage, in their Atlanta office. It was the best financial education that I every had in my career. What they taught me opened my eyes to the foolishness of the reality lending market. 'World Mortgage had to deal with competition like every other S&L, and even though the Sandlers kept a strict set of standards, there would always be the reality of the marketplace that we had to deal with. During that short time with the company, and in the industry, no-documentation loans were lighting rods for mortgage fraud. I had countless Realtors approach me with offers of shady deals, dual contracts, falsified loan applications, questionable incomes, and the like. The Sandlers gave total veto power to loan officers in the field. Herbert Sandler said that there is no shame in one of his loan officers saying 'no'. Golden West's Pride 'But after reading your article, it seems that their lending guidelines have changed
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