Data Breaches from Email Phishing Scams Still Rocking Mortgage Industry: WEI Mortgage latest victim.

Just today the industry learned that WEI Mortgage has discovered a data breach from an email phishing scam last Fall that appears to have exposed loan file information and borrower personal identifying data such as Social Security numbers to outside parties. Back in October 2016 I wrote that Wells Fargo Bank and the Federal Bureau […]

Why Settlement Agents Pose the Greatest Risk to Mortgage Lenders and Borrowers

Settlement agents, the men and women who manage the closing of residential mortgage loans, carry a great burden with them. Each time they close a loan they have access to mortgage proceeds, lender documents including the important collateral security instruments (note and mortgage) and borrower personal and financial information (in the final 1003 and other […]

The Unique Conduct of Mortgage Closings in California Amid Concerns Over Fraud

According to figures published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Corelogic, Interthinx and LexisNexis, based upon filed SARS reports and other available data, California has been cited in the top ten fraud states nearly every year for the past decade. In 2009 and 2010 California was 3rd in […]

NJDOBI Issues Wire Fraud Warning and Recommended Policies to Prevent Losses

Today the NJ Department of Banking and Insurance issued its advisory Bulletin No 18-04 addressing all banks in the state on the topic of wire fraud. The notice explains the recent increase in fraud schemes involving the changing of wire instructions in an effort to steal mortgage loan proceeds. It recommends that lenders do the […]

NJ To Create its Own CFPB, Following Pennsylvania. Consumer-Driven Financial Regulation of Mortgage Lenders and Banks is Not Going Away.

Just when lenders were expecting the CFPB in Washington to fade silently into the mist of the night, there were rumblings that states were considering enacting their own CFPB organizations and regulations to prevent the Trump Administration from killing consumer protection oversight. Today those rumors have gained serious traction. According to the New Jersey Mortgage […]

Enterprise Risk Management: What’s in Your MROM?

Increasing regulatory pressures on banks and lenders to adopt greater risk management systems and processes are aimed at establishing a more uniform approach to quality control industry-wide. At the same time these pressures seek to protect consumers from the type of non-managed business decisions that were at the root of the financial industry collapse several […]

The Mortgage Fraud Triangle: What It Means For Your Business

Fraud is pervasive in virtually every industry. The reason is that fraud is the consequence of a human condition that exploits the opportunity to gain assets through rationalization and need. Every one of us is vulnerable to committing a fraud crime given the right circumstances and the opportunity. Mortgage lenders and banks need to understand the underpinnings of […]

CFPB, CFPB Where For Art Thou CFPB?

Th election of President Donald Trump signaled for many in the mortgage industry that finally something would be done to reign in federal regulation and allow lenders to make more loans. There was also a secret desire that the potential elimination of the super federal regulator would mean that the millions spent on building out […]

Mortgage Industry Vendor Risk Policies: All Businesses Are Not the Same

When the CFPB issued Bulletin 2102-3 (reaffirmed again in 2015), forever changing the way that banks and lenders nationwide look at third party relationships, they offered only a bare outline of detail regarding what that risk management should include. The general directive included: risk evaluation, ongoing monitoring, and verification of internal controls. Since then lenders […]

How Are You Protecting Borrower Data Collected in the Mortgage Loan Process?

“Data privacy” and “data security” are terms most lenders are hearing over and over again these days. The reasons for this are numerous but include the CFPB’s focus on the issue, increased publicity over data breaches in business and industry, and heightened concern by consumers about how their sensitive non-public information is being managed by […]