You might have heard that the inches-thick book of mortgage regulations has now been increased to feet thick. We’ve inveghed in this space against these regulations as being not just a waste of time, but an expensive, harmful, and even destructive waste of time.
But nobody that matters listens to us, so they just went ahead and passed them, or imposed them, depending on which regulatory body we’re talking about.
Today comes the news that mortgage fraud is up. I am shocked. Shocked!
More regulations are not going to stop fraud. There already was not one single case of fraud committed by accident. What the new regs do is make it harder for honest loan officers to make a living, which actually, and counter to intentions, makes fraud MORE likely as LOs scramble to keep their families from going hungry. Additionally, I could once say that only a really bad LO could accidentally do a loan out of compliance (usually unintentional paperwork errors); now I can definitively state that ANY loan officer can do a loan out of compliance without meaning to in the slightest. The rulebook is so thick and the paperwork so increasingly complicated that missing a form or having forms dated a day too late or, Heavens, talking to an appraiser is grounds for handcuffs.
Sigh.
I was asked today at the UMLA’s Spring Conference if the regulatory morass was going to get better. The answer is no. And that’s bad news for everyone, especially anyone that wants to get a loan.
Come to think of it, the subject of fraud deserves a long, detailed post. Another time, maybe.
Tags: fraud, UMLA, utah broker, utah mortgage
Posted on Thursday, 14th May 2009 by chrisjones
Posted in Blog & News | Comments (0)