Conference Agenda
Thursday, November 13, 2008
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Continental Breakfast in Exhibit Hall
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Conference Chair's Opening Remarks
Mark Fogarty
Group Editorial Director
National Mortgage News
9:15 AM - 10:00 AM
Keynote
Mortgage Fraud: Eating Away at the Economic Stability of the Country
As the government's head of the investigation in the savings and loan industry collapse of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Donohue is no stranger to mortgage fraud. Today, as the Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Donohue is looking into fraud and abusive lending practices related to mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. In this keynote presentation, Mr. Donohue will review the scope of his office's work, the root causes of the jump in fraud and abusive lending practices, and his concerns about proposed changes at the FHA in response to the turmoil in the subprime mortgage market.
The Honorable Kenneth M. Donohue, Sr.
Inspector General
U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM
Fraud Prevention Through Training: The Core of the Anti-Fraud Initiative
Effective anti-fraud training is more important than ever in today's mortgage marketplace. Thorough and comprehensive training clearly demonstrates to the industry and regulators that a lender is operating with a preventative mindset. And the cost of such a program is significantly less than the cost associated with the loss of just one infected loan. This makes anti-fraud training the most economical form of fraud prevention available. The knowledge and skills obtained during fraud detection training will also transcend through years of professional development. A recent TowerGroup report indicated that every $1 invested in prevention results in $8 of savings. Taking such steps now can help institutions lose less of their money to fraud and eliminate repetitious attempts of mortgage fraud by fraudsters preying on selected institutions.
Moderator:
Michael H. Gottschlich
Partner
Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Panelists:
Rodney Nelsestuen
Research Director
TowerGroup
Linda Roddenberry
Group Vice President, Loan Risk & Recovery Department
SunTrust Mortgage, Inc.
Robert J. Strupp
Director of Research and Policy
Community Law Center
10:45 AM - 11:15 AM
Morning Networking & Refreshment Break in Exhibit Hall
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Risk Control Assessments: Policies & Procedures
The appropriate risk control policies and procedures should be paired with fraud-related risk associated with specific loan products in order to produce high quality loans and mitigate the risk of repurchase demands. Having an independent risk control assessment oftentimes reveals gaps in controls not recognized during the normal course of day-to-day activities. Mortgage lenders who prescribe independent risk control assessments obtain valuable insight into more effective controls and can demonstrate this to business partners, such as warehouse lenders and investors to whom they sell loans.
Moderator:
Richard Wohl
Fortace LLC
Panelists:
Dr. Gary Lacefield
Executive Vice-president, Director of Compliance
WR Starkey Mortgage LLP
Al Macdonald
CEO & Founder
NominoData - CheckForRisk
12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
Mortgage Servicers: The Latest Victim
Early payment defaults have been one of the industry's most vexing problems in recent years. And fraud, more often than not, is one of the factors when loans go sour so fast. Servicers need to be alerted to suspicious activity. It may seem too late to worry about once a loan is on the books, but in truth the more a servicer knows about what happened at origination, the better positioned the servicer is to deal with that loan (and also with the originator who sent the loan to the servicing shop).
- Foreclosure bailout scams
- Modifications
Moderator:
Robert J. Strupp
Director of Research and Policy
Community Law Center
Panelists:
David M. Bizar
Partner
McCarter & English, LLP
Michael B. Goldberg
Vice President & Assistant General Counsel
Wachovia Corporation
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM
Luncheon for All Participants
1:45 PM - 2:30 PM
Reverse Mortgages - Watch for Suspicious Activity
The reverse mortgage sector has not been overlooked by the scam artists that have pillaged the rest of the mortgage business. Some red flags include:
- Servicing and originations
- Multiple draws within a single month
- Frequent changes in phone numbers and addresses
Moderator:
Jeffrey Gentry
Vice President, Emerging Services
Kroll Factual Data
Panelists:
Linda Bridges
Assistant Vice President, Reverse Mortgage Servicing
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Nationwide Licensing System
In a bid to better coordinate supervision of mortgage originators and brokers, several state regulators launched the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System. The system will make it a lot more difficult for scam artists to commit fraud.
Moderator:
Ryan F. Thomas
Senior Managing Attorney
American Mortgage Law Group, P.C.
Panelists:
Deborah Bortner
Director of the Division of Consumer Services
Washington Department of Financial Institutions
Bill Matthews
President & Chief Executive Officer
State Regulatory Registry, a Conference of State Bank Supervisors Subsidiary
Felecia Rotellini
Superintendent, Financial Institutions
Arizona Department of Financial Institutions
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Afternoon Networking & Refreshment Break in Exhibit Hall
4:00 PM - 4:45 PM
"Operation Malicious Mortgage"
The FBI has charged more than 400 people in a national crackdown of mortgage fraud schemes, dubbed "Operation Malicious Mortgage." According to the Department of Justice and the FBI, this national takedown of mortgage fraud schemes is the culmination of coordinated efforts to identify, arrest and prosecute mortgage fraud violators throughout the U.S. The task force is probing a variety of tactics including lending fraud, foreclosure rescue scams and mortgage-related bankruptcy schemes.
Brian Weber
Supervisory Special Agent
Federal Bureau of Investigation
4:45 PM - 5:30 PM
The Ripple Effects of Mortgage Fraud on Wall Street
The potential impact of mortgage fraud on financial institutions and the stock market is clear. If fraudulent practices become systemic within the mortgage industry and mortgage fraud is allowed to become unrestrained, it will ultimately place financial institutions at risk and have adverse effects on the stock market.
- The impact of data integrity on the mortgage backed securities market
Moderator:
Diane Pendley
Managing Director, Operational Risk Group, Structured Finance
Fitch Ratings
Panelists:
Frank McKenna
Co-Founder & Chief Fraud Strategist
BasePoint
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Cocktail Reception in Exhibit Hall
Friday, November 14, 2008
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Continental Breakfast in Exhibit Hall
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Conference Chair's Remarks
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
Loan Origination Red Flags
- Inflated appraisals
- Exclusive use of one appraiser by a lender
- Sudden increases in commissions by lenders
- Bonuses paid (at settlement or outside settlement) for any fee-based service
- Higher than customary fees
- Falsification of loan application
- Requests to sign blank loan application
- Falsified supporting loan documentation (i.e. W-2, pay stubs, tax documents)
- Purchase loans disguised as refinance loans (requiring less documentation and lender scrutiny)
- Flipping property for guaranteed purchase prices
- Account executives - how to get it right!
Panelists:
Detective Chris Christopher
Real Estate Fraud Unit
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
David Fleck
Deputy District Attorney
Los Angeles County
Ann Fulmer
Vice President Business Relations
Interthinx
10:15 AM - 10:45 AM
Networking & Refreshment Break in Exhibit Hall
10:45 AM - 11:30 AM
Myriad of Scams
- Update from the GSEs on what types of fraud they're seeing and where they're seeing it
- New twists on old schemes
- "War stories"
- Builder-bailout schemes
- Foreclosure rescue fraud
- Identity theft used to drain home equity lines of credit
- Seller-assistance scams
- Occupancy fraud
Moderator:
Roland Reynolds
Partner
Palmer, Lombardi & Donohue LLP
Panelists:
Joan Ferenczy
Institutional Investigation Director
Freddie Mac
Amy Heinz
Mortgage Fraud Program Senior Industry Relations Manager
Fannie Mae
11:30 AM - 12:15 PM
The Mortgage Due Diligence Process & How it Has Changed
- The void of quality and consistency in the marketplace
- The rightening vs. the tightening of underwriting guidelines
- FACTA (identity theft red flags)
- FHA
- New regulations
Moderator:
Dr. Gary Lacefield
Executive Vice-president, Director of Compliance
WR Starkey Mortgage LLP
Panelists:
Merle D. Sharick, CMB
Vice President-Manager, CPS Mortgage/Real Estate Services Business Development
MARI
Bob Simpson
President
IMARC