Compliance

The Pennsylvania Department of Banking's Bureau of Compliance, Investigation, and Licensing has launched an initiative to identify unlicensed mortgage activity in Pennsylvania. The department will target all mortgage licensees and is expected to continue into 2011.

To secure title insurance on REO sales, Bank of America has agreed to indemnify a major insurer if the title is challenged due to robo-signings and other improper foreclosure processing practices.

A Nigerian national who headed a multi-national identity theft and fraud ring, which involved stealing money from home equity lines of credit accounts, was sentenced to 69 months in prison.

On Sept. 29, Lawrence William Dunning, 78 of Highland Beach, Fla., was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $2,889,492 followed by three years of supervised release for mail fraud. Additionally, three individuals have been sentenced for their roles in the multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme or other related offenses, and two more individuals await sentencing.

As waves of foreclosures and a strained economy continue to ravage neighborhoods throughout the country, public agencies, private companies and residents are banding together to develop solutions to preserve their communities and make sure they come back stronger than ever.

Following the latest "foreclosure-gate" headlines, rumors are sparking that due to the "MERS mess" there may issues with getting title insurance. Many say this could "snowball out of control and get ugly." Find out more here.…

Four 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.

If he had a half-million dollars of his own, Roy DeLoach said he would be filing suit to stop the Federal Reserve Board’s loan officer compensation rule because of its anti-competitive nature.

A licensed real estate broker who appraised loans for Staley Credit Union in Decatur, Ill., was convicted Friday of providing phony appraisals on 40 real estate loans, which may cost the lender $1 million in losses.

With massive delays feared for many foreclosures, should brokers move away from the big banks and work with small community banks to carve their niche in the business. Find out what Grapevine users have to say about how government regulations could impact lending practices. Click here to read more.

What a difference five years make. Back in 2005 lenders didn’t have the same incentive they have today to use technology and analytical services on their loan originations because they didn't have much, if any, skin in the game.

Efforts to minimize LoSses in general are attracting a lot of market attention when it comes to short sales, but the fraud factor in this area is sometimes overlooked.

The purchaser or assignee that acquires the loan must provide the required disclosures no later than 30 days after the date on which it acquired the loan. This applies to any consumer credit transaction secured by the principal dwelling of the consumer. This became effective May 20 to all mortgage loans sold or otherwise transferred on or after that date.

Due to growing concerns raised by the GMAC foreclosure scandal, Fitch Ratings believes loss severities on residential MBS could worsen, and is warning servicers to double-check how they foreclose on troubled loans.

Grapevine visitors discuss a specific situation where a borrower has a foreclosure due to going through a divorce. Find out what advice readers have to give to this banker.

A replacement for the Home Valuation Code of Conduct is coming soon and the Federal Reserve Board is also working on new rules for ensuring lenders and others don’t exert undue influence on the appraisal process.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling are encouraging consumers and small business owners across the country to fight identity theft by taking part in the Third Annual Protect Your Identity Week, Oct. 17-23.

Any mortgage fraud that is being reported today might not get dealt with until at least two years from now because federal agents are still dealing with cases from 2005 through 2008, a pair of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents told attendees at the Northeast Conference of Mortgage Brokers in Atlantic City, N.J.

On Sept. 17, Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren was appointed to launch the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren also will have a broad portfolio of duties, advising President Obama on "policies and programs that are designed to protect the financial interests of middle-class families," the White House said.

As the national foreclosure prevention campaign and other efforts have begun to mature, loan modification fraud is becoming more defined, increasingly falling into two categories.