Mortgage Fraud in Canada and What Brokers Have to Say!

We recently concluded our first Fraud Awareness Month during which we dedicated our social media to fraud awareness and increasing the dialogue between lenders and brokers about types of mortgage fraud in Canada that are prevalent in the industry. It was a huge success!

So many financial professionals chimed in with amazing insights and feedback that we wanted to highlight some of those dialogues.

Brokers acknowledge that lender/broker relationships are incredibly important. Lenders who receive business primarily from brokers count on brokers as a first line of defense. This is one thing that is very attractive about accepting mortgages from brokers – they do so much of the legwork. One thing that came out of Fraud Awareness Month was that brokers across the board really care about the quality of the deals they bring forward to their lenders and are summarily committed to deploying whatever tools they have in their arsenal to combating mortgage fraud in Canada.

Many are even leveraging the most current technology, incurring personal expense to take extra measures when performing due diligence including verifying:

·         Home ownership information

·         Registered mortgage information

·         Sales history information

·         Value of the property and more

Many are using much of the same technology that you use – like AVMs, running property searches, even independently picking up the phone to verify employment. Mortgage fraud in Canada and as a whole has been acknowledged across the board as a major issue and it seems financial professionals on every level are realizing that we all play a valuable role in the process of spotting fraud.

Working with brokers the likes of whom were vocal during Fraud Awareness Month can give you peace of mind that you are going to receive deals that close and are unlikely to have issues later. How can you know if you’re dealing with one of these types of brokers?

When interviewing new brokers – ask lots of questions. What is their position on mortgage fraud? Do they see mitigating mortgage fraud as one of their roles in the mortgage process? What tools do they deploy to combat mortgage fraud?

Also, sharing with brokers the tools you use to mitigate mortgage fraud (like Purviews fraud check as one example) is a great way for brokers to seek out broker versions of these tools so that your information is aligned with their information.

Increased alignment, dialogue and sharing on issues surrounding mortgage fraud in Canada lead to strong relationships and a healthier Canadian financial industry.

When it comes to conquering mortgage fraud, we all play a roll, and working together makes it that much easier. Check out how Purview For Lenders contributes to the challenge: http://lenders.purview.ca/.