Responding to recommendations made by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) that regulatory and governmental bodies should work towards implementing an electronic verification system for mortgage applications, director of industry relations at CallCredit, Mel Mitchley, said that adopting the technology would be the only effective way to combat the growing problem of mortgage fraud.
Mitchley added that alongside this will bring to the whole mortgage application process, it is also a cost effective solution to the reams of documentation currently needing to be sent back and forth.
"The report from makes some acute observations on the way mortgage applications are verified. With businesses spending between £3 and £8 per applicant simply trying to obtain, check out and send back documentary ID, paper-based checks are costly and time-consuming.
"On top of this, sophisticated photo-editing, copying and printing software available from any desktop means that fake documents can be very hard to spot, even for trained staff."
