Household: No Weaseling Out of Settlement

Household International is not going to "weasel" out of its settlement agreement with 41 states to clean up its lending practices by changing to a national charter, a company official has told state regulators."There are a lot of regulators who still think Household is going to try to weasel out of this multistate agreement. That is not the case," Household's Jim Kauffman told the annual meeting of the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators in Washington. The company's chief compliance officer stressed that Household and its mortgage business will remain a state-regulated entity even though an affiliate, HSBC Bank, has converted to a national bank charter. In October 2002, Household agreed to a $484 million settlement with state regulators for overcharging loan customers, and it agreed to 24 separate restrictions on its business practices. Mr. Kaufman told the state residential mortgage regulators that Household just got a "clean audit" from PricewaterhouseCoopers showing that it is in compliance with the settlement agreement.