ChoicePoint's MARI introduces enhanced mortgage fraud tool: MARI Loan Fraud Alert Service ProMortgagePress.comMARI, mortgage fraud, ChoicePoint, Loan Fraud Alert Service Pro
The Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI), a ChoicePoint
company, has announced the release of the MARI Loan Fraud Alert
Service Pro (LFAS Pro). MARI LFAS Pro, with its patent pending
technology, assists lenders in discovering fraudulent loan
applications prior to funding through a combination of comparative
loan application analysis and Identity Risk Management tools.
Lenders will now have the ability to have a more comprehensive view
of their loan portfolio, not previously available in the
market.
MARI's original LFAS is a comparative loan tool that helps
uncover patterns of common mortgage fraud schemes during
origination. LFAS Pro takes that process one step further,
providing valuable insight into both the identity of applicants and
information about industry professionals that comprise the loan
transaction, such as the mortgage broker, appraiser and closing
attorney. LFAS combines the industry-leading MIDEX credentialing
database with ChoicePoint's Identity Verification tools (widely
used in the banking industry for account openings) and adds the
advanced capabilities of a comparative analysis loan tool.
"We are extremely excited about LFAS Pro for lenders since many
common fraud schemes such as chunking, flipping and multiple
closings would be much more evident to lenders in pre-funding,"
said Tom Chmielewski, vice president, ChoicePoint Financial
Services. "Lenders now have a tool that helps them ensure the loans
they are about to make are not tainted by fraudulent activity and
detect patterns indicative of fraud within their loan pipeline and
other contributed lender pipelines."
MARI's enhanced mortgage fraud solution provides a single view
into industry-contributed loan transactions through an intuitive
user interface. The transparency provided by LFAS Pro helps
identify hidden patterns of fraudulent loan schemes perpetrated by
applicants, industry insiders and their co-conspirators. By helping
identify risk at the earliest stages, lenders can improve overall
loan quality, reducing loan processing costs and increasing loan
profitability as a result.
LFAS Pro integrates several components of an effective Identity
Risk Management program that help determine if a loan transaction
may expose a lender to risk by combining services for:
• Identity Verification: ChoicePoint's Identity
Verification Service helps authenticate and verify the identity of
a borrower, and determine if a borrower is using synthetic aliases
or Social Security numbers.
• Licensing Verification: The Mortgage Industry Data
Exchange (MIDEX)--the industry standard for licensing and
credentialing, and the only industry-contributed repository used
for initial and ongoing verification and credentialing of
professionals and companies--helps users quickly identify whether
brokers, appraisers and realtors are appropriately licensed and if
they have been licensed in a different profession or state.
• Professional Credentialing Verification: MIDEX can also
help discover adverse activity, public disciplinary and other
derogatory information about professional third parties.
"According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation based on
existing investigations, a staggering 80 percent(1) of all reported
mortgage fraud losses are committed by industry insiders," said
Merle Sharick, vice president and national manager of business
development for MARI. "The mortgage industry is going through a
dramatic transformation, as standards are tightened and processes
are changed, so must the tools that detect and prevent fraud. By
incorporating a holistic solution like LFAS, lenders can ensure
that the loans they make have less risk involved, which contributes
to more predictable revenue in the long run."
For more information, visit www.marisolutions.com.
