From Reuters through the blog, Chink In The Armor –
The U.S. Justice Department urged Congress on Wednesday to require mortgage companies to retain records for 10 years to make it easier to prosecute fraud.
Rita Glavin, acting head of the department’s criminal division, told a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee that mortgage settlement statements and other loan documents are critical to investigating or prosecuting fraud.
But they can be hard to get from lenders, brokers and title companies that provide loan services. “All too often, such entities go out of business, and their records are either abandoned or destroyed,” Glavin said in testimony submitted to the committee.
She said half of the top 10 U.S. subprime mortgage originators in the second half of 2006 had either gone out of business or been sold a year later.
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