Annual report outlines mortgage fraud data

MARI’s ninth Periodic Mortgage Fraud Case Report was released May 16. The report examines residential mortgage fraud and misrepresentation in the United States, based on data from participating lenders.

“Fraud against mortgage lenders is a growing concern to all who have a stake in our industry,” said John M. Robbins, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a news release. “While we continue to try to get our arms around the full scope of the problem, the MARI report significantly helps the industry better understand where we need to focus efforts in defending our companies and communities against mortgage fraud as it increases in frequency across the nation.”

MBA has worked to raise the national profile of mortgage fraud against lenders, and is leading an effort to obtain an additional $6.25 million annually for the FBI to hire more investigators and prosecutors to handle cases of fraud against lenders.

MARI’s report showed that incidents of mortgage fraud are now more evenly distributed across nearly all states whereas, in prior years, reports tended to be concentrated in relatively few states. There are changes in the rankings of the states in terms of their mortgage fraud experience, with Florida taking over the top spot and Georgia showing the greatest improvement from prior years’ rankings.

“Collaboration is the key for the mortgage industry as it continues its efforts to fight mortgage fraud against lenders,” said Merle D. Sharick, vice president and national manager of business development for MARI, in the release.

MARI provides MBA members the annual reports as well as discounted fees to participate in MARI’s database, the Mortgage Industry Data Exchange. The MIDEX system allows mortgage lenders, insurers and agencies to exchange information about companies and professionals that have been involved in loan transactions containing alleged fraud or material misrepresentations.

MARI also offers the mortgage fraud alert system. This system issues periodic alerts to subscribers about suspicious activities related to mortgage lending.

A full copy of the report is available on both MBA’s Web site, www.mortgage

bankers.org and on MARI’s Web site, http://www.mari-inc.com/reports.html.[[In-content Ad]]