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the latest Or ig i nat ion SERVICING Stearns Appoints Wells Fargo Exec to Leadership Post s e c on da r y m a r k e t a na ly t ic s Se r v ic i ng Kathleen L. Vaughn will join the company in a newly launched position. I Mortgage Fraud Risk Down in Q2 While fraudulent activity did see an uptick, overall risk tumbles year-over-year. M ortgage fraud risk declined year-overyear in the second quarter, though fraudulent activity was up slightly on a quarterly basis. CoreLogic released recently its quarterly Mortgage Fraud Report, which measures overall fraud activity based on the company's Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index. The report also examines fraud data within six specific indexes: income, occupancy, employment, identity, property, and undisclosed debt. According to CoreLogic's data, fraud risk among mortgage applications declined 5.6 percent year-over-year in Q2, with approximately 19,700 (0.8 percent) of mortgage applications being flagged as having a high risk of fraud. In Q2 2012, the company identified 20,900 high-risk applications, which represented about 0.7 percent of all applications tracked. Quarter-over-quarter, fraudulent application volume was relatively flat from Q1. In dollar volume, fraudulent mortgage loan applications totaled an estimated $5.3 billion 44 | The M Report nationally, down from $5.5 billion last year but up slightly from $5.2 billion in the first quarter. "Since the beginning of 2012, mortgage application fraud risk has totaled more than $30 billion nationally," said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. "While the propensity toward application fraud risk has declined based on our index, as the housing market recovers, the volume of mortgage applications is rising and increasing the total amount of fraudulent mortgage loan application dollars." The total dollar amount of fraudulent mortgage loan applications increased in 27 states compared to the prior quarter, CoreLogic reported. The states with the highest estimated value of fraudulent applications were California ($864 million), New York ($278 million), Florida ($273 million), Texas ($261 million), and Virginia ($231 million). Year-over-year, Ohio saw the highest rise in application fraud risk at 30.1 percent, followed by Hawaii (19.6 percent), Kentucky (16.6 percent), Connecticut (15 percent), and Alaska (13.8 percent). n California, Stearns Lending, Inc., appointed Kathleen L. Vaughn to the newly created role of EVP of national third-party production. Vaughan has a long history holding high management positions, having served as COO at two separate mortgage banking firms in the 1990s and having worked most recently as EVP at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, where she led the wholesale business channel to a No. 1 market share position. In her 19year tenure at Wells Fargo, she also served as EVP of home equity and SVP of correspondent lending. In addition to her industry work, Vaughan is a founding member of the Fortune/U.S. State Department International Mentorship program and has been recognized by the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit since 2006. She also serves as a member of the board of directors of Vital Voices, a nonprofit that has trained and mentored more than 14,000 emerging women leaders from all over the world. In her new position at Stearns, she will lead the company's technology-driven third-party origination platform, which includes both wholesale and correspondent lending channels, as well as the rapidly growing mortgage servicing rights acquisition unit. "We are very pleased to welcome Kathleen to the senior management team at Stearns Lending," said CEO Brian Hale. "With 25 years of mortgage industry experience and her impressive ability to drive results, Kathleen will be an invaluable asset to the entire organization, but especially to our wholesale and correspondent division teams and clients." StoneHill Group Expands Staff Company adds more IT people and a new system administrator. T he StoneHill Group, which offers mortgage quality control, due diligence, compliance audits, and more, has hired Stephen M. Witters as system administrator. Witters is a computer network and systems administration professional with 11 years' experience in a variety of technologies, including Microsoft and Cisco products. Prior to joining the StoneHill Group, he was a network administrator at Tensar International Corporation. According to a release from the company, Witters' hiring was necessitated by recent expansions at the company's Atlanta headquarters and by the addition of a new office in Florida. "Maintaining a state-of-the-art data center and keeping our technology infrastructure secure allows us to continue our compliance to SSAE 16 auditing standards," said David Green, president of the StoneHill Group. "Stephen's experience and credentials will help us continually grow that infrastructure as we add new clients and develop new mortgage banking services."