Monday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at news across the HousingWire weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues.
Today, it’s all hands on deck at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in Washington D.C.
HousingWire arranged several sneak peeks of all the launches and announcements coming out of the conference halls today. At least, those worth a mention, anyway.
But first, and foremost, The Web.com Tour and Ellie Mae announced today dates for the 2019 Ellie Mae Classic, which will return to TPC Stonebrae in Hayward, California, on July 29.
In addition to the 2019 date, the tournament also announced that HousingWire will return as the Presenting Sponsor of the Ellie Mae Community Pro-Am.
In 2018 the Ellie Mae Community Pro-Am brought together sponsors from across the mortgage banking industry, including Teraverde Financial, PrimeLending and Pulte Mortgage. The event raised $40,000 for its beneficiary, The MBA Opens Doors Foundation.
The MBA Opens Doors Foundation, founded by the Mortgage Bankers Association in 2011, provides relief to families during a time of personal crisis.
VantageScore released today the results of a market study conducted by Oliver Wyman, a global leader in management consulting.
Oliver Wyman studied usage of VantageScore credit scores over a 12-month period and found that nearly 10.5 billion credit scores were used by over 2,800 unique users. This represents a 20% increase in the number of scores used versus last year’s study.
Peter Carroll, partner at Oliver Wyman said, “We found that lenders are getting more comfortable with using VantageScore credit scores for underwriting decisions.”
So where’s the biggest increase?
Among financial institutions, credit card issuers were the largest users of VantageScore credit scores and they accounted for approximately 4.4 billion scores used overall, of which at least 68 million VantageScore credit scores were used for new card originations.
The results are particularly interesting for attendees of the MBA, as mortgage lenders are lagging behind the other sectors when it comes to adopting the system.
“The study showed deep penetration in all markets except the mortgage sector where lenders are required to use outdated, conventional scoring models,” the company said in a statement.
Brian Montgomery, the commissioner of the FHA, said that updating tech at HUD was also a big priority in an exclusive podcast with HousingWire last week.
Tavant, a leading digital mortgage products and platforms company, announced an integration to digitize the loan origination process and create a streamlined experience for consumers and lenders.
Now, consumer-verified data from Experian will be integrated into Tavant’s VELOX platform, enabling a more streamlined environment to help consumers satisfy mortgage originators’ information needs quickly and securely.
According to findings published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, 18% of home loan applicants were forced to redo their paperwork in 2016, and nearly 24% ultimately had their closing dates postponed. The new integration with Tavant eliminates the need for consumers to enter and re-enter information manually, saving time and reducing the potential for error.
“As more tech-savvy Millennials and younger generations pursue a mortgage, we believe lenders will find themselves falling behind if they’re not creating a user-friendly and digital experience for borrowers,” said Hassan Rashid, chief revenue officer at Tavant. “Through this collaboration with Experian, we are creating a simple, touchless and transparent experience for future homeowners and mortgage lenders.”
And let’s face it, mortgage lending needs some serious help. ACES Risk Management, the leading provider of enterprise financial risk management solutions, announced the release of the quarterly ARMCO Mortgage QC Trends Report. The latest report provides loan quality findings for mortgages reviewed by ACES Audit Technology during the first quarter (Q1) of 2018.
Here’s some of the bad news they found:
- In Q1 2018, the critical defect rate increased from the previous quarter’s 1.68% to 1.72%.
- As with the previous quarter, in Q1 2018, the majority of critical defects were attributed to the Income/Employment category.
- Q1 2018 saw a 25% increase in the number of defects attributed to the Loan Package Documentation category — these defects are often associated with downsizing and understaffing.
- In Q1 2018, the number of defects attributed to the Borrower and Mortgage Eligibility category dropped to 6.57%, roughly 50% of the previous quarter’s rate of 12.24%.
- In Q1 2018, critical defects related to core underwriting and eligibility issues continued to be the most frequently occurring — which is typical in purchase-driven markets.
In other news, Land Gorilla, the No. 1 technology provider of construction loan management software, announced today its Construction Loan Manager solution is now integrated with zlien, the world’s first and only collaborative construction payment ecosystem. This industry-first integration digitizes the lien waiver process for draw management, condensing turn time for construction loans from days to just minutes.
Statutory state-specific lien waivers can be quickly generated for draw requests managed within the CLM. The simplified process allows lenders to create, distribute, execute and collect lien waivers, including requesting e-signatures. The integration provides an efficient and accurate method to manage lien waivers and avoid liens that complicate and delay projects.
“Our integration with zlien is a game-changer for lenders,” says Land Gorilla CEO Sean Faries. “Lenders can confidently manage the payment process while protecting their lien priority and increasing project completion. zlien has been a leader in empowering a fair payment process for the construction industry and we welcome them as a valued technology partner. We are excited to offer our customers this innovative solution who will no doubt benefit from its use.”
That’s it for now, have a great MBA everyone!
