Mortgage Fraud Fillings on the rise

New data from the US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network shows that fraud claims in the mortgage market rose in 2008. The absolute increase is unsurprising as the total number of filings has risen every year since 2000. More surprising is the rate of change of filings (the line graph in the figure below).

The chart shows that the largest percentage increase in filings was in 2003 and 2004, during the height of the housing bubble. The information should make us reconsider the argument that consumers were tricked by mortgage sellers into housing that they could not afford. At least the kind of massive fraud that Secretary Geithner commented upon back in March. Geithner's comments were about the incentives of financiers to engage in fraud a case that these numbers do not speak toward.

The data is only filings and as we learned when Harry Markopolos' repeated calls for Bernard Madoff to be investigated by the SEC reporting a suspected fraud doesn't mean that anyone is going to do though follow up. Even if firms were reported by a few savvy customers they may have continued to operate.

They may also have gotten more savvy themselves about not getting caught. This may explain the slow growth in fraud filings during the current crisis.

Banks Stress Competitiveness in TARP Repayment

Treasury has announced that it will allow 10 institutions to payback $68 billion in funds obtained via TARP’s Capital Purchase Program (CPP). The move comes as the Administration mounts pressure to limit executive compensation. Last week, Kenneth Feinberg, the man who handled compensation for 9/11 victims' families was reported to be taking a position as a compensation czar. The Wall Street Journal reported the new position as "Special Master for Compensation."

In testimony today, Secretary Geithner said that TARP has been successful but is only one piece of the solution. While calling for a “delicate balance between intervention and allowing market participants latitude to operate,” Geithner did call for a new regulatory structure.

So it's not surprising that the Treasury release did not name the banks that are paying back the funds yet Bloomberg had no problem naming them. In fact, an excited release from JP Morgan Chase touts the firm’s “fortress balance sheet." Firms want everyone to know that they are getting out of TARP. Ironically, when the CPP launched Treasury quickly gave funds to lots of institutions, some who may not have needed it, to obscure the unhealthiest institutions. By the end of 2008, 214 institutions had funds and at present 601 disbursements have been made.

These institutions want both potential employees and investors to know that they are steady enough to get rid of the TARP funds but more importantly they want to signal that they can get out before Congress or the Administration imposes new rules and regulations.