The Mortgage Bankers Association has released a new paper on mortgage fraud, citing Federal Bureau of Investigation) statistics that show lenders losing as much as $4.2-billion due to fraudulent activity in the mortgage sector.

The paper, titled “Mortgage Fraud: Strengthening Federal and State Mortgage Fraud Prevention Efforts,” says according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury statistics, the number of mortgage-related Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed in the U.S. jumped an average of nearly 60-percent per year over the past four years.”
In the paper, the MBA pushes for more fraud prevention and attempts to create a roadmap for policy makers to follow in helping the nation protect itself against predatory mortgage practices.
“We do not need more federal laws to combat fraud. Instead, we need a more coordinated effort and more resources to investigate and prosecute,” said Jonathan L. Kempner, president and chief executive officer of the MBA. “In addition to being illegal and costly, we know that fraud has also contributed to the recent rise in delinquencies and foreclosures, and the industry and government must step up our anti-fraud efforts to help curtail these related problems.”