Stemming Mortgage Fraud

Currently Utah already regulates the lending industry with background checks, prelicensing education, testing and enforcement actions against unscrupulous practices.

In October 2007, in an effort to stem mortgage fraud in our state, Governor Jon Huntsman and the U.S. Attorney for Utah, Brett Tolman formed the Utah Mortgage Fraud Task Force. The task force is a joint effort between Federal, State and Local Governments that meet regularly to plan and implement a program for stemming mortgage fraud in our state.

Now Congress is stepping it up in Title V of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 by creating the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 that requires a more coordinated effort among states to regulate mortgage loan originators and requires those getting their lending licenses to meet minimum federal standards.

So far from what we know about these actions we think these are steps in the right direction.