The most utilized product in my portfolio was Countrywide's "Fast & Easy". It was pretty much a No Income, No Asset verification loan. There really was no reason to go with a different product for the people who qualified for it. It was simpler, easier, quicker, and the rate was the same, and sometimes better than a comparable full doc loan.
Its basic guidelines were a 720 middle score or better and at least 10% down, or an LTV of no greater than 90% on a refinance.
Unlike a lot of the liar loans, with the F&E, you had to have solid credit and at least 10% skin in the game. The liar loans that are going bad are the ones that had lower credit requirements and would go to 100%.
I would be interested in how the Countrywide F&E loans are performing. I suspect they are not suffering from late payments and foreclosure at near the rate the other liar loans are.
Lots of Floridians and Californians who refi'd to 90% LTV in 2004-05 are now seriously underwater and considering mailing in the keys.
The only safe lending guidelines which could have been used in those years would have taken into account the fact that real estate was in a classic speculative bubble, with the inevitable "pop" on the way. I'm not aware of anyone in the business at the time (perhaps you are?) who was willing to confront this.
We didn't do a lot of Countrywide, but your description was prevalent in southern Cal with many lenders. We've heard that Countrywide owned half of Murietta CA and they sold several large bundles of foreclosures for down to 65 cents on the dollar.
We were in a company where associates would stand up and brag about buying multiple homes at 100% per. They even borrowed from different lenders on multiple simultaneous buys.
I reported this to the department of Real Estate before we left the company. No one ever called or contacted me in any way. No sanctions on the company or investigations of the borrowers who were licensees.
The company has had to close 3/4s of their offices though and I don't know how many people they put in jeopardy with their marketing approach.