Photo by Angela Rowlings
TOUGH BREAK: Boran Yi Armstrong fell behind on credit-card payments due to kidney transplant surgery. That could cost her a mortgage broker’s license due to a new state law requiring brokers to pass credit checks.
May not get broker license
By Jerry Kronenberg
The Boston Herald
Boran Yi Armstrong survived Cambodia’s “killing fields” and two kidney transplants, but isn’t sure how she’ll pull through a run-in with state mortgage regulators.
“All I want to do is work and support my family,” said Armstrong, who’s facing banishment from the Massachusetts mortgage industry over an $8,000 unpaid credit-card debt.
New state laws passed in the subprime-mortgage meltdown’s wake require loan brokers to undergo credit checks proving financial responsibility - even with household bills.
Unless Armstrong can pay off her debt by next week, regulators plan to deny the Methuen woman a license required under the new laws. That will block the 34-year-old from selling loans to Bay State customers, decimating her income.
But Armstrong, who’s just getting back to work following her latest kidney transplant, says she doesn’t have $8,000. After all, she’s raising a 12-year-old son, going through a divorce and paying some $525 a month for prescriptions and doctor’s visits.
“It’s very frustrating,” the woman said. “I think about people on welfare who abuse the system, but the only time I’ve ever had off of work since I was 13 was when I got sick.”
Armstrong’s boss, Dennis Wright of Hanover firm Direct Finance, said he has no reason to question her fitness to sell loans. “She’s been a very good employee for us (and) we’re obviously 100 percent supportive of her,” he said.
In fact, Armstrong has already overcome big obstacles in life.
Born in Cambodia, the woman lost her soldier-father during a civil war that brought communist Khmer Rouge rebels to power in 1975. The rebels later went on to kill millions of Cambodians in purges later dramatized in the 1984 film “The Killing Fields.”
Armstrong remembers seeing stacks of bodies, as well as bullets grazing her grandfather as the family fled the country.
As an adult, the woman needed a kidney transplant in 2000, then a second operation this past August after the first one failed.
Armstrong said she’s twice written state banking officials to explain her situation, but gotten no real response.
Kofi Jones, spokeswoman for state Housing Secretary Dan O’Connell, said she didn’t have specifics as to why officials rejected Armstrong’s requests for help.
Direct Finance owner Alain Valles said he understands the state “has to draw a line at some point. Hopefully, no one gets hurt.”
Still, some mortgage executives are critical of the new credit checks, which have held up about 1,000 brokers’ license applications.
“Loan officers who were expecting a clear pathway (to licenses) are expressing frustration over being held to a very strict standard,” said Kevin Cuff of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association.
Boran Yi Armstrong survived Cambodia’s “killing fields” and two kidney transplants, but isn’t sure how she’ll pull through a run-in with state mortgage regulators.
“All I want to do is work and support my family,” said Armstrong, who’s facing banishment from the Massachusetts mortgage industry over an $8,000 unpaid credit-card debt.
New state laws passed in the subprime-mortgage meltdown’s wake require loan brokers to undergo credit checks proving financial responsibility - even with household bills.
Unless Armstrong can pay off her debt by next week, regulators plan to deny the Methuen woman a license required under the new laws. That will block the 34-year-old from selling loans to Bay State customers, decimating her income.
But Armstrong, who’s just getting back to work following her latest kidney transplant, says she doesn’t have $8,000. After all, she’s raising a 12-year-old son, going through a divorce and paying some $525 a month for prescriptions and doctor’s visits.
“It’s very frustrating,” the woman said. “I think about people on welfare who abuse the system, but the only time I’ve ever had off of work since I was 13 was when I got sick.”
Armstrong’s boss, Dennis Wright of Hanover firm Direct Finance, said he has no reason to question her fitness to sell loans. “She’s been a very good employee for us (and) we’re obviously 100 percent supportive of her,” he said.
In fact, Armstrong has already overcome big obstacles in life.
Born in Cambodia, the woman lost her soldier-father during a civil war that brought communist Khmer Rouge rebels to power in 1975. The rebels later went on to kill millions of Cambodians in purges later dramatized in the 1984 film “The Killing Fields.”
Armstrong remembers seeing stacks of bodies, as well as bullets grazing her grandfather as the family fled the country.
As an adult, the woman needed a kidney transplant in 2000, then a second operation this past August after the first one failed.
Armstrong said she’s twice written state banking officials to explain her situation, but gotten no real response.
Kofi Jones, spokeswoman for state Housing Secretary Dan O’Connell, said she didn’t have specifics as to why officials rejected Armstrong’s requests for help.
Direct Finance owner Alain Valles said he understands the state “has to draw a line at some point. Hopefully, no one gets hurt.”
Still, some mortgage executives are critical of the new credit checks, which have held up about 1,000 brokers’ license applications.
“Loan officers who were expecting a clear pathway (to licenses) are expressing frustration over being held to a very strict standard,” said Kevin Cuff of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association.
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