Mortgage fraud on rise as economy improves, say NFA

Date:Tuesday 16th March 2010
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Bernard Herdan, chief executive at the National Fraud Agency (NFA), said sub-prime, buy-to-let and self-certified mortgages, which make the market more competitive, all maximise the risk of fraud.

He added: "The economic climate also has increased pressure on lenders to reduce costs, so there has been a greater emphasis on fraud prevention, detection and recovery of losses."

Attorney general Baroness Scotland QC, believes that "good progress" has been made since the NFA published its last report and hopes fraud prevention remains a priority for government and businesses.

Almost £114 billion was loaned to homeowners in mortgages in the last year and the NFA calculated that an annual £1 billion is the average total of money which is falsely claimed in the housing market.

The Financial Services Authority recently noted that the value of outstanding mortgage loans has increased by one per cent on last year and now stands at £1,207 billion.