It is "up to us as an industry, to take a lot of action ourselves," says Richard Wohl, president, IndyMac Bank, Pasadena, Calif., noting that this is both a "good time and a bad time to be addressing mortgage fraud." The industry is in a "pronounced down cycle," says Wohl, conceding: "I've seen deals that we push in our shop that should never have come through the front door."
In arguing for better data sharing, he says the industry needs to create a national valuation registry, like MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registry Service); a national database where appraisal information would be attached to each file."
The mortgage industry spends $3 billion to $4 billion on appraisals, compared with $6 billion in fraud losses each year, figures Wohl, so "doesn't it makes sense to share that $3 billion of work product to help prevent that $6 billion in losses?"
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