Interest rates are now below 5%, refi applications have surged in the past couple of weeks, so will lenders continue to do business as usual or will they embrace vendor’s technology to address this current surge? As we close the door on one of the worst years in the mortgage industry’s history, what lessons have we learned? Will we simply repeat our recent history?
In the past, many lenders typically added additional resources to handle the increased volume. Will 2009 be any different for mortgage lenders? While the mortgage industry and our economy as a whole would welcome new hires to handle this current surge, is that what will put the mortgage industry in the best position for long term sustainability?
What about looking to the vendor community and their innovative technology to help solve this current surge while providing insight, knowledge and solutions that will keep lenders competitive for the long term. Has the time come for lenders and vendors to truly foster a spirit of collaboration by embracing these challenges head on with innovative thinking and innovative solutions?
Instead of lenders just adding staff and vendors trying to figure out what lenders need as the mortgage landscape changes radically, why not pull together to proactively redefine the mortgage process. By working together lenders and vendors can gain a greater understanding of the problems that need to be solved, the processes that can be improved or eliminated and the technology that is available to accomplish these tasks.
With complete transparency and a willingness to confront the issues head on, lenders and vendors can begin to reshape the industry together. How can collaboration with vendors assist in using technology (business rules, workflow automation, and analytics) to improve current processes to handle the recent surge in applications, without adding additional staff?
What solutions can we bring to the table that will minimize fraud once and for all? How can the move to paperless processes streamline the mortgage process for lenders while improving data quality and transparency? By improving data quality and transparency can we begin to restore confidence? If we can pull together to address loss mitigation with loan modifications, can’t we take it one step further to identify potential troubled borrowers before they actually default?
How can the use of online lending tools improve the borrower’s experience, beginning the origination process electronically and driving the adoption of e-mortgages? How can innovative pricing models such as transaction based or SaaS allow lenders to address current market conditions and still provide vendors with a viable business model?
The bad taste of 2008 still lingers, but with current rates dropping to historic levels, lenders and vendors have an opportunity to collaborate with each other to deliver innovative thinking and solutions to the mortgage industry. We can work together to address these current challenges or we can continue to do business as usual.
If we continue on the current path, outsiders will soon dictate the way that we do mortgages. The time to unite is now. Let’s take this opportunity as lenders and vendors to collectively deliver innovative thinking and solutions, as we redefine the mortgage industry together.
