Reverse Mortgage Trade Association Endorses Tools to Reduce Risk, Defend Against Fraud

9/6/2017

ATLANTA — LexisNexis® Risk Solutions and the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) today announced a new agreement to encourage broad participation by NRMLA member companies in the LexisNexis® Mortgage Industry Data Exchange (MIDEX®), the leading industry-contributed repository used for verifying, credentialing and monitoring professionals and companies. The involvement of NRMLA and its membership in MIDEX® will further strengthen the mortgage industry’s ability to identify, report, and deter fraudulent behavior and unethical practices in the marketplace.

MIDEX contains information regarding mortgage professionals, consisting of public administrative and legal sanctions reported by more than 200 regulator and oversight organizations in the mortgage, commercial banking, appraisal, real estate and securities industries, as well as voluntarily contributed non-public data of alleged fraud, material representation and serious misconduct.

Tim Coyle, senior director, Real Estate and Mortgage, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, commented: “Our new alliance with NRMLA will significantly increase access to information to this important segment of the mortgage industry, and thus transparency, about mortgage professionals and companies. MIDEX is a powerful tool that helps defend against mortgage fraud and streamlines professional credentialing. Increased industry participation is key to its success. We are pleased that NRMLA is joining us and expanding the database, helping the industry accurately self-report fraudulent and misrepresentative practices and further protect the customers they serve.”

MIDEX is widely used by mortgage lenders, investors and insurers, as part of their due diligence on new or existing business relationships, such as those with mortgage brokers, correspondent lenders, appraisers, warehouse lenders and more.

NRMLA president and CEO Peter Bell said, “NRMLA is very pleased to align ourselves with LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a company that shares our commitment to transparency and professional excellence. Every member of our association adheres to a strict code of ethics and professional responsibility, which extends to the business practices and activities of the third-party vendors they hire. The MIDEX database will provide our member companies with a platform for evaluating potential vendors, reviewing ongoing relationships, and reporting bad actors. We hope all of our members will take advantage of this relationship. It is to their advantage, and most importantly, in the best interest of their clients.”

The robust linking and intelligent analytics programming of MIDEX helps safeguard businesses by providing public records, professional licenses and real estate related sanctions all in one report. This eliminates the need for mortgage industry participants to search multiple state regulatory databases, simplifying complex cross-referencing and helping identify individuals, properties and businesses faster.

About the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association
The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) is the national voice for the industry and represents the lenders, loan servicers, and housing counseling agencies responsible for more than 90 percent of reverse mortgage transactions in the United States. All NRMLA member companies commit themselves to a Code of Ethics & Professional Responsibility. Learn more at www.nrmlaonline.org and on our consumer education website www.reversemortgage.org.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data, sophisticated analytics platforms and technology solutions to provide insights that help businesses across multiple industries and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, please visit LexisNexis Risk Solutions and RELX.