How reverse lending and AI power Onity’s customer-for-life vision 

With demographic shifts and rising consumer interest in tapping home equity, Andy Peach EVP and Chief Lending Officer at Onity Group sits down with Diego Sanchez and how the company is positioning itself toward a larger growth strategy. 

“I’ve been doing this probably longer than I care to admit,” Peach said jokingly. “But it’s allowed me to see the industry from a wide array of perspectives — working at bank-owned mortgage companies, a Wall Street-driven firm, a privately owned IMB, and now a publicly held IMB. That background helps inform how I approach the business today.”

Peach joined Onity in 2021 to help build out its origination platform. “We were a meaningful servicer with no originations capability,” he said. “Since then, we’ve built a top 10 correspondent lender, a very influential co-issue buyer, a top five reverse lender, and a successful Consumer Direct platform that complements our servicing business. We’ve attracted a team with broad experience and applied the best of what we’ve seen across the industry.”

Asked about Onity’s role in the broader mortgage ecosystem, Peach pointed to the company’s mission. “Our CEO, Glen Messina, talks about creating positive outcomes — for consumers, clients, and investors,” he said. “We want to be a provider of power, the way an electric company powers homes. That’s how we see our role in U.S. housing finance.”

This approach is reflected in a product suite Peach calls “unmatched in breadth.” “We offer correspondent lending, co-issue, reverse, bulk MSR, subservicing — all of it,” he said. “We’re relevant in every cycle because we can meet our clients where they are and offer solutions that fit. When you pair that with our highly awarded servicing platform, we think it’s a very strong value proposition.”

Peach sees reverse mortgages as a key opportunity. “We want to offer solutions across every stage of the homeownership lifecycle, and reverse fits into that,” he said. “There’s $14 trillion in senior home equity, 27 million eligible borrowers, and a million new seniors becoming eligible each year. There’s also a growing desire to age in place. We see reverse as an underserved and growing market.”

 “We’re here to partner with originators entering the market or expanding their offering,” he said. “It’s not just about refinancing with a reverse — it’s also a great product for purchase.”

The company is also preparing to expand into non-QM. “With mortgage rates higher for longer, we believe we’re heading back into a more product-driven market,” Peach said. “We haven’t really been there since the early 2000s. Non-QM increases the size of our addressable market, and we’re excited to provide another solution for our clients.”

Technology plays a central role in enabling that strategy, including investments in artificial intelligence. “We’re definitely increasing our emphasis on AI,” Peach said. “I heard someone say, ‘AI isn’t going to take your job, but someone who knows how to use it might.’ We’re focused on pairing AI with our people as a power tool — automating low-value tasks so they can focus on the highest and best use of their talents.”

Peach also highlighted the company’s use of analytics to improve customer relationships. “We have 1.3 million customers. We’re investing heavily in analytics so we can engage in a way that’s timely, relevant, and personal,” he said.

One example is Onity’s AI-powered tool, LASI. “It allows clients to search documents and ask unstructured questions about their portfolios,” Peach explained. “It makes it easier for them to oversee the loans we service.”

Looking ahead, Peach said the company is focusing on the following, “We’re investing in servicing portfolio recapture. That’s become table stakes. MSR buyers are starting to assume value for recapture in their bids,” he said. “We’re also working on how we ingest information from correspondent clients — making that process faster and smoother.”

Speaking on Onity’s culture Peach said, “We have something we call the Onity Way,” Peach said. “It’s built around three things: customer first, better together, and we say what we do. We bring that mindset to everything — from our B2B channels to our consumer experience — and wrap it around what we believe is an unmatched value proposition.”