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Wells Fargo is coming under fire again.

The bank stands accused of making changes to customers' mortgages without telling them. The charges, set out in lawsuits, come as the bank attempts to recover from the reputational carnage wrought by the fraudulent accounts scandal that cost the firm $185 million in fines last year.

Even as the company's accounts scandal was coming to a boil in 2015, Wells Fargo was making unauthorized changes that extended the life of customers' home loans, especially those in bankruptcy, according to a class action lawsuit and other lawsuits reported by Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times. 

The changes lowered home owners' monthly mortgage payments, but it also meant they'd owe Wells Fargo a lot more money over a much longer period of time. 

Here's Morgenson: 

"Any change to a payment plan for a person in bankruptcy is subject to approval by the court and the other parties involved. But Wells Fargo put through big changes to the home loans without such approval, according to the lawsuits.

"The changes are part of a trial loan modification process from Wells Fargo. But they put borrowers in bankruptcy at risk of defaulting on the commitments they have made to the courts, and could make them vulnerable to foreclosure in the future."

In one lawsuit the Times cites, a couple going through personal bankruptcy alleges they received notice that Wells Fargo had reduced their monthly mortgage payment from $1,019.03 to $663.15 — without receiving approval from the couple, their lawyer, or the bankruptcy court. The changes would have extended the life of their loan from nine years to 40 years and would have resulted in $40,000 in additional interest payments, according to the complaint.

Wells Fargo strongly denied the claims and characterizations made in the lawsuits, saying that both borrowers and the courts were notified.

"Modifications help customers stay in their homes when they encounter financial challenges," Tom Goyda, a company spokesman, said to the Times, "and we have used them to help more than one million families since the beginning of 2009."

Read the full story at The New York Times. 

SEE ALSO: 'Without fraud, the math didn't work': Wells Fargo's cutthroat culture was reportedly simmering for decades

SEE ALSO: Federal regulator is looking into allegedly inappropriate charges in Wells Fargo mortgage practices

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Online lenders may be lowering their standards and taking greater risks on borrowers as they chase higher profits. 

Prosper Marketplace and Lending Club, two of the largest players in the online personal loan business, don't always verify key borrower information like income and employment, according to a report from Bloomberg's Matt Scully. 

Bloomberg found that the two companies frequently take the customer's word on key loan information, and they don't necessarily nix a loan if it has errors, such as overstating income.

Here's Scully:

"Prosper Marketplace Inc. doesn’t verify key information like income and employment for around a quarter of the loans it makes, according to documents tied to bonds that Prosper sold last month. LendingClub Corp. said it only verified income about a third of the time for one of the most popular loans it made in 2016, according to company data seen by Bloomberg. If either lender finds mistakes in a borrower’s application, such as overstated income, they may still go ahead with the loan, according to disclosures linked to bond sales from the companies, including documents for securities that LendingClub is offering now." 

The companies defended their practices, citing advanced risk-control procedures that help root out fraud. 

Prosper told Bloomberg that it verifies identities and bank accounts for all of its loans, and that it has “developed some of the industry’s leading risk-mitigation controls.”

A Lending Club representative told Bloomberg that the company uses “machine learning and other techniques to build robust models that segment which borrower applications need verification and which do not.”

Despite a relatively robust economy, online lenders have seen loans falter quicker than expected, Bloomberg noted, citing data from Morgan Stanley. 

They aren't the only lenders hitting bumps and coming under scrutiny. Moody's revealed last month that Santander Consumer USA, one of the country's largest subprime auto lenders, checked income on just 8% of borrowers as part of a $1 billion bond offering. 

Meanwhile, credit card companies have seen customer defaults spike, suggesting that they've also started to loosen their standards and issue credit more aggressively.

Read the full story at Bloomberg. 

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Viking Global Investors, one of the world's largest hedge funds, is returning about a quarter of its capital to investors as its chief investment officer steps down, according to a letter the firm sent to investors Monday morning.

The $32 billion hedge fund said in its letter it would be returning $8 billion beginning in August as part of a plan to let its traders hold smaller, more liquid positions. It also informed investors that Daniel Sundheim, the firm's chief investment officer, would be leaving "to pursue entrepreneurial interests" after 15 years at the firm.

Sundheim had been CIO since 2014, and Ben Jacobs and Ning Jin are now serving as co-CIOs, the letter said. Bloomberg News earlier reported about Viking's letter.

Sundheim's departure appears to be amicable, and Sundheim is considering starting a hedge fund of his own, people familiar with the matter said. Still, the departure could prompt investors in the fund to pull assets, according to a Viking investor who spoke with Business Insider on the condition of anonymity.

Rose Shabet, a spokeswoman for the firm, declined to comment.

"He is in a league of his own as a stock picker and portfolio manager and has earned the respect of every Viking and many others," the letter said.

About two-thirds of the $8 billion will come from Viking's flagship equities fund, with the rest coming from its long fund, the letter said. The firm is allowing investors a "one-time liquidity option" for the end of July and will consider taking in new money from its waitlist, the letter added.

Viking, founded by billionaire Andreas Halvorsen, had a rocky year in 2016, with its flagship fund losing 4% while the S&P 500 gained 12%. That fund has regained this year, returning 7.1% net through May 31, according to an investor document that was reviewed by Business Insider.

Some investors, including the state of Rhode Island, asked for some of their money back following the down year, only the fund's third since it launched in 1999. The company retooled its stock-picking team in response, Reuters reported in January.

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A one-time portfolio manager at a New York hedge fund that shuttered last year amid an insider trading scandal has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Stefan Lumiere was found guilty earlier this year of inflating bond prices in Visium Asset Management's credit fund and hiding those losses from investors.

The sentence, which was set Wednesday, June 14, includes a $1 million fine and three years of supervised release.

Lumiere's sentencing had been scheduled for the end of May but was rescheduled after the judge found that the government had failed to provide sufficient information. 

Lumiere is the ex-brother in law of Visium's founder, Jake Gottlieb, a physician who founded the firm, which became known for investing in healthcare stocks.

The hedge fund attracted billions in assets, often from public pensions and endowments, even as Wall Street players distanced themselves, Business Insider previously reported. Billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen, for instance, stopped hiring from Visium before the government's indictment became public.

At its peak, Visium managed $8 billion, and its shuttering marked one of the most notable insider trading cases in recent years.

Sanjay Valvani, a star fund manager overseeing the firm's flagship healthcare fund, committed suicide last year days after he was accused of insider trading. Valvani had maintained his innocence. Gottlieb hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing.

Lumiere's boss, Chris Plaford, pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government investigation.

A spokesperson for Visium didn't respond to a request comment. 

Jonathan N. Halpern and Jonathan H. Friedman, who are lawyers for Lumiere at law firm Foley & Lardner LLP, said in a statement:

“We are pleased that our arguments resonated with the court, which imposed a sentence of 18 months rather than applying the range of 11 to 14 years under the Sentencing Guidelines that the government presented. Mr. Lumiere looks forward to pressing his claims on appeal.”

MUST READ: As Visium drew Main Street money, Wall Street was backing away

SEE ALSO: Behind the life and death of a star money manager accused of insider trading

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Black hat hackers are asking for bitcoin. White hat hackers, at the behest of clients need to pay up. But Coinbase is kicking the 'good guys' out.

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• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said empty properties in the surrounding area of the Grenfell Tower should be requisitioned for victims of the fire.
• A third of 5,321 adults said that they strongly support the proposal.
• 26% said they tend to support Corbyn's proposal, bringing the total to 59% in agreement.
• Corbyn's approach to the fire, which has so far killed 30 people and injured dozens of others, has been heralded by the public.

LONDON — 59% of people agree with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn that privately-owned empty properties in Kensington should be requisitioned by the state to house the Grenfell Tower victims, who lost their home in catastrophic fire.

YouGov asked 5,321 UK adults on June 16, 2017: "Jeremy Corbyn has called for luxury properties in Kensington that are owned but left empty to be requisitioned and provided as accommodation for Grenfell Tower residents who have been made homeless by the fire. Would you support or oppose such a move?"

The results, which are weighted to be representative of the GB population, showed that 59% agree with Corbyn:

Corbyn's approach over the Grenfell Tower fire, which has killed 30 people so far and injured dozens of others, has been heralded by the public.

Corbyn visited the scene of the Grenfell Tower disaster on Thursday, and was pictured with those who have lost their homes and neighbours in Tuesday night's fire. Corbyn hugged Councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrived at St Clement's Church, where homeless Grenfell residents have received relief. He also hugged residents who cried on his shoulder while telling their stories.

In stark contrast, May was pictured through a long lens camera being briefed by senior figures of the emergency services and did not meet residents. She later called for a full public inquiry into the catastrophe.

However, when she did visit residents at the same church Corbyn did, and later a nearby hospital, she was surrounded by angry crowds and rushed to her car, while they shouted "coward."

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LONDON — Cath Kidston is, to many people, the hallmark of entrepreneurial success. A business which began life in twenty years ago as a small shop selling floral tea-towels and brightly embroidered furniture has since transformed into a global brand.

Her instantly recognisable designs can now be found in 70 UK stores and a further 130 around the world,

Business Insider caught up with Kidston at an event in London hosted by the Budding Entrepreneur Club, where she told us about the challenges 

"Half the challenge of starting something up is going through all the difficult bits and pieces that come up," she says.

"I think the biggest challenge for any entrepreneur is having the confidence to take that leap, to go from a 9-to-5 job somewhere into creating their own business. In the end, I made a decision that I didn't want to look back later and think, 'Why didn't I ever try?' That would feel worse than not trying."

"But it was that fear factor that held me back for a long time: Fear of a lack of security," she says.

Many young entrepreneurs think they have a good idea but are unsure whether they'd make viable business models. How can you gauge that?

"Obviously you need to do research: I made a business plan, I went to an accountant, and I laid everything out. It never worked out remotely like the business plan, but I put the structure in place and the pattern in place about the worst case scenario and so on.

"I have to say I never set out to make a big business or a lot of money. I set out with a passion for an idea, and what I did was I did my day job which is I was trained as an interior designer. And so I ran my interior design business for 5 years, in conjunction with setting the company up. And it took a long time for it to take off. So I was very, very cautious.

"Holding on to too much of a business is difficult"

Kidston says that most of the young entrepreneurs she encounters don't have a whole skill package required to run a business. That becomes a problem when they try to run every facet of a growing company, she says.

"This wonderful guy came to see me the other day wanting help with his business. I told him to bring his business plan. He arrived and said, 'It's all in my head.' Well, that was great, but he needed to work with somebody who could help him articulate his idea. Sometimes holding on to too much of a business is the problem."

"When people try and do everything themselves and don't acknowledge what their weak spots are, it's quite difficult."

That is not a modern issue, Kidston says. "It's a real balance between bringing people in who you need in order to grow but also not giving away too much too soon. Sometimes people will give away a huge stake in the business. And actually they'd have been better to have paid a person to do a job and retained a little more. So it's an issue of common sense, really."

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