Data security

While depository mortgage lenders should exercise some caution before welcoming trended data and alternative credit scoring into their process, they must become inclusive or face losing market share to newer industry players like SoFi.

Data aggregation and analytics platform provider Envestnet-Yodlee has created a new automated mortgage asset verification product.

Personal information for roughly 480,000 people was exposed in two separate privacy incidents earlier this year involving the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's website.

Lenders and servicers haven't faced the same scrutiny over data security as their peers in retail and other financial services sectors. But mortgage companies must remain vigilant, as the extensive data they collect can expose consumers to identity theft if it got in the wrong hands.

Cybersecurity precautions often focus on preventing a data breach. But what if those precautions aren't enough? Here's a look at steps lenders and servicers can take now to prepare their response in the event of a catastrophic data breach.

The events of the past 40 years pale in comparison to the strides the mortgage industry has made with technology, from pen-and-paper processes to handheld interest rate checks in minutes. The most exciting part: the best is yet to come.

The promise of digital verification, beyond process improvements and time savings for lenders, is the ability to help both consumer and lender drive to the right outcome more quickly, with greater transparency and predictability along the way.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is keeping lenders in the dark about how it will ensure borrower data is secure and private under the expanded Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting requirements.

Bank of America's newest service allows consumers to track their loan status online.

As the war for talent heats up and lenders face tougher decisions in recruiting and hiring loan officers, the need to deploy certain tactics might seem appealing, but will ultimately create more problems than they are worth.