Blog

Friends,

Security is always top of mind in our industry. We remain vigilant and do as much as possible to mitigate risks, but nevertheless, risk remains.

We have posted some red flags/what to look for as well as sample phishing emails. Feel free to print these and retain as reference material.

Some of these scams are sophisticated and difficult to spot. Please take a moment to view the screen shots below. Education and recognizing suspicious communications is everyone's responsibility.

By Seth Frotman

Over the past five years, student loan borrowers across the country have turned to us to submit complaints about the struggles they face when repaying their student loans. We have handled more than 50,000 student loan related complaints describing servicing breakdowns, debt collection hurdles, and “debt relief.” These complaints help us to recognize and work to stop industry practices that harm consumers and can serve as the first step in a process that halted industry practices harming some of the most vulnerable individuals, saved hundreds of millions of dollars for tens of thousands of student loan borrowers, and strengthened aspects of the student loan repayme...

1. Review your credit report. You are entitled to a free credit report every 12 months from each of the three major consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). You can request a copy from AnnualCreditReport.com .

2. Consider a security freeze. A security freeze or credit freeze on your credit report restricts access to your credit file. Creditors typically won’t offer you credit if they can’t access your credit reporting file, so a freeze prevents you and others from opening new accounts in your name. In almost all states, a freeze lasts until you remove it. In some states, it expires after seven years.

3. Set up a fraud alert. Fraud alerts require that a finan...

it’s up to you to determine if yours is worth catching.”

-Peyton Manning

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 18, 2017) - Mortgage applications increased 3.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 13, 2017. This week's results included an adjustment for the Columbus Day holiday.

The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 48.6 percent of total applications from 49.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 6.1 percent of total applications.

The FHA share of total applications increased to 10.4 percent from 10.3 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications decreased to 10.5 percent fr...

The Mortgage Bankers Association said it is open to a rewrite of homeowner tax breaks as part of a broader reform package, adding to the political momentum in support of a mortgage tax credit.

The MBA position comes days after the National Association of Home Builders broke ranks with the real estate industry to endorse changes to the mortgage interest deduction, a tax break that for decades has been considered untouchable.

"The mortgage interest deduction is important, but if there are other alternatives, we are open to them," MBA President David Stevens told POLITICO.

"In isolation, we would fight against modification to the mortgage interest deduction very hard," Stevens said. But in the con...

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump promised to dismantle the Obama-era rules on the banking and mortgage industry. As late as this April, Trump spoke of “a major elimination” of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

This wasn’t entirely hyperbole. In June, House Republicans passed a sweeping regulatory reform bill, the Financial CHOICE Act, that called for tossing out sections of the Dodd-Frank Act and establish a new regulatory framework. The banking and mortgage industry generally supported the bill, even if few lobbyists gave it much chance of gaining traction. The CHOICE Act received no support from Democrats, who deemed it the “...