Mortgage Loan Fraud: An Update of Trends Based Upon an Analysis of Suspicious Activity Reports

In calendar year 2006, financial institutions filed 37,313 SARs citing suspected mortgage loan fraud, a 44% increase from the preceding year, compared to a 7% overall increase of depository institution SAR filings. One reason for this increase may be that lenders are increasingly identifying suspected fraud prior to loan approval and reporting this activity. Suspected fraud was detected prior to loan disbursements in 31% of the mortgage loan fraud SARs filed between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007, compared to 21% during the preceding ten years. Total SAR filings in 2006 on suspected mortgage loan fraud, when divided by the subject s state address, showed the greatest increases in Illinois (75.80%), California (71.29%), Florida (53.04%), Michigan (51.50%), and Arizona (48.73%). Mortgage brokers initiated the loans reported on 58% of the SARs sampled for this report. SAR reporting includes examples of brokers acting both as active participants in the reported fraudulent activity, and as intermediaries that did not verify information submitted on the loan application.