After Interthinx’s mortgage fraud risk report found that employment and income fraud increased by 30% in 2010, the provider of risk mitigation solutions has added new features to its FraudGuard tool.
FraudGuard will now allow consumers to conduct a business search and have bankruptcy data that ensures a more concise overall borrower risk review, can improve loan quality and provides users a more comprehensive fraud prevention report. The purpose of adding these data points is to help lenders identify high-risk borrowers.
“Our product team has kept a close eye on this insidious trend, and we’ve focused key development in the area of identifying employment fraud and misrepresentation,” said Mike Zwerner, senior vice president of Interthinx, Agoura Hills, Calif. “We’re excited about the added data and analysis within FraudGuard and the further protection and intelligence this proven tool brings to the residential mortgage lending industry.”
The bankruptcy and associated business search features are optional and highly customizable. FraudGuard users can choose to order the new options on all loans or just certain loans.
Zwerner said the firm’s FraudGuard solution is designed to help increase loan processing efficiency, minimize costly errors and close loans faster. At the same time it provides secure data transmission for sensitive consumer information that ultimately helps minimize fraud-related losses.
“This essential product development provides our customers yet another layer of crucial information before funding a loan,” said Kevin Coop, president of Interthinx. “Within seconds, our customers will now have answers to questions such as, is the borrower associated with another business that is not the current employer? Is the borrower’s employer an inactive corporation? Does the borrower have a bankruptcy record within the last four years? Is there a bankruptcy after the application date? With this type of insight, lenders are better prepared to make informed underwriting decisions during this time of emphasis on loan quality over loan quantity.”
