Steve Fraser, the visionary and charismatic founder of the IMX Exchange, was a man that didn’t wait for the mortgage industry to change—but acted to make change happen. Acting in the moment turned out to be a canny choice for him. He died at the age of 33.
In recognition of his contributions to the mortgage industry, Mortgage Technology magazine created the Steve Fraser Award, a lifetime achievement kudos given to a technology visionary. The first award was first given almost 15 years ago, and this year’s winner was Jeff Lebowitz, the well-respected founder of the Mortech study.
From the start, there were people that questioned the reason Fraser deserved to be memorialized with an award, at least one of whom went on to win the award and accept it with pride. Fraser never shied away from controversy, so I’m certain he would enjoy the commotion the award continues to cause.
Moreover, in the short time that has passed since the most recent Mortgage Technology Awards ceremony, I’ve thought a lot about the Steve Fraser Award. That’s because I’ve spoken to several attendees who did not know what he accomplished, and thought the name of the award needed to be changed. I disagree with that opinion, find it to be in poor taste, so it is for people of that mindset that I’ve penned this column.
Fraser created the then fledgling Internet’s first exchange, designed to bring wholesale lenders and brokers together online to transact business. At the time, for instance, there was no eBay or Priceline. The concept of auctions scared the heck out of lenders because brokers with a few keyboard strokes could receive several bids from lenders.
While that was advantageous to brokers and their clients, lenders were less than pleased with the concept. They felt it placed too much emphasis on price, commoditized mortgage transactions, and threatened profit margins.
That angered and scared the heck out of lenders. Fraser, best I could tell, took great pride in that.
Lenders knew IMX brokers would have more price and product information than in the past, and therefore, could select the best offers, reducing lenders’ profits. To be sure, few things receive a lender’s scorn faster than the possibility that their profit margins will be eroded. But Fraser’s objective was to provide more choices to brokers, and if a more competitive marketplace evolved as well, so be it. IMX was designed to empower brokers and lenders thought that undermined them.
Fraser’s IMX threatened to disrupt the business as usual mentality of lenders, of brokers, of anyone else as long as efficiency was improved. It made it possible for brokers to shop quickly and inexpensively for loans that met their needs. It helped make the Internet acceptable as a channel through which client data could be transmitted and helped pave the way for the reliance on the Internet that’s common in the mortgage business today. Across the web now there are more exchanges than can be counted, trading thousands of different products.
He saw all of that and more.
To those who knew Fraser, worked with him, and competed against him, he personified Theodore Roosevelt’s “doer of deeds.” TR wrote, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.”
That’s the Steve Fraser I remember. His life’s work merits being remembered with the Steve Fraser Award.
Matt Strickberger is the managing partner of OnPoint PR and Consulting LLC, a public relations firm that represents lenders, servicers, technology companies and others. He was editor of Mortgage Technology magazine from 1997-2000. If you have comments or suggestions for future columns, email him at mstrickberger@onpoint-pr.com.
