AAPL has formed a member-led fraud steering committee and launched additional initiates to combat fraud in the private lending industry.

Because technology has made it easier than ever to perpetuate all kinds of fraud, lenders must defend themselves on multiple fronts.

Borrower fraud is one area where our industry stands to lose the most. Whether through the many presentations of asset and income fraud, identity theft, appraisal fraud, straw buyer schemes, occupancy fraud, same-day-close flipping scams, title fraud, and air loans—the list goes on—the list can seem overwhelming and endless—and all with the lender in a losing position.

During recent panel discussions at Geraci’s April Innovate Conference, lenders discussed a growing need to combat rampant borrower fraud, highlighting this fraud class as one of their largest concerns both within their own operations and for the private lending industry.

What’s more, the panelists—all executives at their own private lending companies—called for action from AAPL, citing our standing in the industry as their preference to spearhead a solution.

We answered this call, beginning immediately following the event. We are now in the planning stages to structure a member-led borrower fraud steering committee. Although the committee itself will have a finite number of appointments, we’ll host public open comment periods at aaplonline.com/committees/comments to gather insights on various topics and needs the committee identifies.

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The steering committee will not be our first foray into industry fraud defense. Fraud—both what it looks like and how to combat it—is a frequent topic of our webinars and at the annual conference, here in Private Lender, and in our online article archive. Additionally, in 2023, we launched the industry’s first business identity theft and credentialing scam prevention initiative to protect AAPL brand assets from use by bad actors and to monitor for cloning of member websites.