While mortgage servicing has taken on a much more important consumer-facing perspective since the pandemic, it had previously served as more of a talking point and rally cry within the industry – especially among mortgage brokers. Several years of debate and argument have taken place, especially since the 2017 BRAWL (Brokers Rallying Against Wholetail Lending) movement, in terms of who a customer “belongs to” – whether it’s the mortgage broker or the lender servicing the loan. Brokers garnered a sense of resentment towards lenders that would fund their customers’ loans via their wholesale division, only to later “flip” the customer into their own retail portfolio, essentially eliminating the broker from the equation.

Since then, a greater focus has been placed on lenders and servicers that retain servicing and keep their brokers connected to the end customer. A noteworthy first-mover in the push to support brokers in their long-term customer retention efforts was Homepoint’s Customer For Life program.