Fiserv: Innovation, Execution Keys to Success

The mortgage market will continue to undergo a reshuffling over the next year, and "innovation and execution" will be the keys to success, according to Fiserv president and chief executive Jeff Yabuki.Speaking at the company's annual client conference in Nashville, Tenn., Mr. Yabuki said alternative-A, subprime, and nonconventional borrowers are not going to go away, but how mortgage lenders lend to them will have to change. He joked that Fiserv launched its 2.0 effort last year just in time for the industry to go through lending 2.0. Existing conditions will cause the emergence of new leaders and the disappearance of old ones as the market corrects, he said. The keys to ensuring that a lending institution emerges as a leader will be "innovation and execution," Mr. Yabuki said. Fiserv intends to give lenders more control to define their business practices by introducing new scripting functionality, embracing open architecture, and helping them consolidate into one unified system. Lenders that execute well over the next year will be the next leaders, Mr. Yabuki predicted. "Everything is going to be fine," he said in talking about the health of the mortgage industry in the long term. Mr. Yabuki advised lenders to just "get back to work."