our different speakers that run the gamut within the lending industry will come together at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual meeting in Atlanta to discuss how insider fraud is still running rampant within the mortgage lending space.
During the session, “Insulating Your Business Against Insider Fraud,” the panelists will speak about some of the third-party tools they are incorporating from a best practice perspective to protect their portfolios from continued insider fraud, according to Janet Ford, vice president of The Work Number, St. Louis, who will moderate the session.
“Whether it’s happening on the part of the applicant or as part of the appraisal process or the underwriting process, there are best practices that you can put in place to insulate yourself from that,” she said.
Paul Anselmo, the chief executive officer for SigniaDocs, is another panelist who will be focused on regulatory issues.
He will offer expertise in terms of electronic underwriting and how to apply efficiencies and automation to the process.
Joe Dahleen, vice president and chief strategy officer, Brightgreen Home Loans, will bring to the table his mantra of, “Verify everything. Ask very specific questions. Don’t leave anything to chance,” Ford described.
Rounding out the panel will be Kurt Lofrano, vice president of quality assurance at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. He will share his “very strong expertise” in the home mortgage lending space and talk about “ways to detect and protect against fraud,” along with Brenda Clem, manager of secondary marketing loan delivery for Fifth Third Bank.
Application fraud remains high, accounting for 59% of all mortgage fraud, Ford added.
“That’s just one piece of it whether borrowers are able to either intentionally or unintentionally misrepresent information on their application. We plan to talk about several tools that can protect lenders against that type of fraud,” she said.
Declining economic conditions, liberal underwriting standards and declining home values make schemes like property flipping, loan modification and refinance fraud, and mortgage servicing fraud a more likely occurrence within the industry.
Tom Fischer, marketing manager for The Work Number, says the MBA does an excellent job of putting all of the third parties and the vendors together who can assist mortgage bankers with information.
“A good part of our panel is talking about what tools and technologies are available. Not only can they hear about that in our panel, but they can also go out to the exhibit hall and hear directly from those companies as well.”
The panel will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 3:45 p.m. in room 411 of the Georgia World Congress Center.
