TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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on the web loans was 50.9 percent, down from 51.1 percent in June but up from 49.9 percent last year. "In July, there was some continued improvement in loan-to-value ratios, but it was offset by a small upward shift in the Treasury yield curve," said DebtX managing director Will Mercer. "The secondary loan market remains active and little changed in terms of price. Loan values are essentially right where they were a year ago." Meanwhile, DebtX's Loan Liquidity Index, a monthly barometer of liquidity for pools of loans sold in its marketplace, was 97.9 in July, an improvement from 96.4 in June 2013. The index was 111.7 in July 2012. Looking at mortgage loan fraud levels, researchers at LexisNexis determined that most states have seen fraud fall to normal levels since 2008, though the fallout from prior years continues to build. ON THE WEB Acopia Home Loans Moves to Publish Lending Library Through AllRegs The resource will be available to the company's internal contacts and business partners. T ennessee's Acopia Home Loans announced the publishing of its lending library through AllRegs. From this point, Acopia will leverage AllRegs' technology platform and publishing expertise to manage and maintain its underwriting guides. Users will be able to take advantage of a variety of productivity tools, including an electronic "Table of Contents" tree with links to guidelines, a robust search engine that features a thesaurus with industry jargon, and relative matching results. Internal Acopia staff and business partners will be able to check content online, giving them access to product descriptions and matrices, credit policy, representations and warranties, and more. The Acopia Lending Libraries also feature a "Recent Updates" section and email alerts to quickly notify users of changes to content. "Our proprietary AllRegs publishing system provides a robust resource for delivering content and searching mortgage guidelines," said Dan Thoms, EVP of AllRegs. "We at AllRegs are very excited to help Acopia provide their staff and business partners with a resource that will streamline their business processes and increase productivity." "Acopia is very excited to offer our Underwriting and Seller guides to staff and business partners using the AllRegs Lending Libraries," said Scott Dunn, VP of compliance and quality assurance for Acopia. "The breadth of information available and the ease of navigation will allow for immediate, up-to-date information and promote efficiencies across our business channels. As AllRegs is an industry-leading information provider, the partnership with AllRegs was an easy decision to make." Some States Still Suffering from High Fraud Levels New Jersey is still struggling with the most fraud cases in the nation, according to recent report. W hile Florida, Nevada, and California are some of the most commonly cited examples of states hit hard by the housing implosion, an analysis of fraud data submitted to LexisNexis' Mortgage Industry Data Exchange (MIDEX) shows New Jersey might have taken the worst impact. In its 15th Annual Mortgage Fraud Report, LexisNexis Risk Solutions put a spotlight on three economic indicators: mortgage fraud and misrepresentation involving industry professionals, potential collusion activity, and volume of properties in default. Together, the three indicators show the full extent of the damage caused over the last few years by the housing market's crash, the company says. Looking at mortgage loan fraud levels, researchers at LexisNexis determined that most states have seen fraud fall to normal levels since 2008, though the fallout from prior years continues to build. For example, Florida ranked No. 1 for fraud activity under investigation in 2012 with an index value of 805—more than eight times the expected level of fraud given the state's origination activity. However, when originations before 2012 were removed, the Sunshine State's index fell to 169. For all of its improvement, however, Florida's economic prognosis still looks shaky. Despite the drop in fraud levels, the state still ranked among the top 10 for fraudulent reports in 2012, and it also placed highest for percentage of properties in default, with 5.42 percent. "This year's study suggests that the more shared problematic economic indicators a state has, the greater its financial challenges will be in the coming years," said Tom Brown, SVP of financial services at LexisNexis. "With Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulations going into effect in January 2014, and demanding new rules for quality loans, it will be interesting to see what impact this has on overall mortgage defaults." Based on Brown's suggestion, New Jersey is looking at the most trouble ahead. The Garden State ranked on all three top 10 lists for mortgage fraud and misrepresentation (with a reading of 120 for investigations and 213 for 2012 originations), potential collusion (with a reading of 233), and properties in default (3.06 percent). The M Report | 9