Taylor Scott International News
Half of UK mortgage brokers believe greater use of technology by lenders when carrying out due diligence on borrowers would reduce mortgage fraud, according to new research. Lying about occupancy to gain a mortgage on a buy to let property was the most common type of fraud that could be reduced by more use of technology, according to 46% of respondents to the survey carried out by online property data network EDM Mortgage Support Services. Other types of fraud that could be reduced by more technology cited by brokers include income or employment falsification, 44%, concealing debts and liabilities, 39%, identity theft at 37%, obtaining multiple loans on the same property, 34%, and over valuing properties at 24%. Despite this, only 17% of brokers believe lenders are implementing enough technology to deal with fraud. Some 35% of mortgage brokers say the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) has not reduced the chances of fraud at all while another 2% say it has actually increased it while 56% believe the MMR has reduced the chances of fraud. ‘The argument for more use of electronic data and communication is getting stronger, not just as a result of the greater administrative burdens resulting from MMR but other issues too, such as tackling fraud,’ said EDM MSS managing director Joe Pepper. ‘There is already some use of electronic data exchange, more than a third of the brokers in our survey say they between 81% and 100% of the information/correspondence they exchange with lenders is done so electronically,’ he pointed out. ‘But there is potential for this to be much greater and more extensive use of quality online systems would help the mortgage industry deal much more efficiently with large amounts of data and correspondence,’ he added. EDM Group is investing in EDM MSS to further enable it to capitalise on the growing data exchange and technology needs in the mortgage and property sectors. Taylor Scott International
Taylor Scott International, Taylor Scott
