The number of reports of mortgage fraud filed by mortgage lenders was higher for the 10th year in a row and reached an all-time high.
The findings were disclosed Wednesday in the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s SAR Activity Review – Trends, Tips & Issues.
Last year, a total of 1.3 million Suspicious Activity Reports were filed, slightly more than during 2009. Depository institutions were responsible for 0.7 million of 2010’s SARs filings, while 0.6 million were filed by non-depository institutions.
Mortgage fraud reports accounted for 70,472 of last year’s reports, FinCEN said. It was the highest number of mortgage fraud SARs filings on record based on data back to 2000.
The number of mortgage fraud SARs was up from 67,360 filings in 2009.
“Mortgage loan fraud is the only summary characterization that has experienced an increase every year since 2001, with the past two years (2009 and 2010) accounting for 39 percent of all noted instances of this specific activity,” the report stated. “Note that depository institutions may submit mortgage loan fraud SARs well past the actual date of the activity.”
