MISMO Fall Summit Takeaways
Earlier this month, our team attended the MISMO Fall Summit in D.C. Since it was held in D.C., government and agency attendance was high and the overall attendance was strong.
The event kicked off with Ginnie Mae’s President Alanna McCargo’s opening address that discussed the agency’s modernization, ESG and housing affordability efforts. And she shared the early progress of Ginnie’s Digital Collateral Program effort that our firm has been consulting on (see Ginnie Mae’s Total eNote Usage Tops $11 Billion story).
Ginnie Mae’s focus, she said, has been on delivering new tools and services to its customers. “We are moving to a cloud-based environment for all of our operations—all the innovation we want to do in the future is based on this,” McCargo said. “Over the past year we have been involved in an eMorgage pilot program. This is an important step in our strategic plan in which we are committed to digitization. We want our partners to cut costs through digital technology so they can pass those savings to our customers.”
As for housing affordability, the current economic environment poses unique challenges. “Housing supply and housing affordability are top of mind right now, and they remain difficult for the typical government borrower. It’s very difficult for first-time home buyers—and we serve 80 percent of the first-time buyer market. We used to be able to say that this was a ‘California thing,’ but the problem is everywhere.”
In addition to the sessions, numerous workgroups also met at the summit, including the MISMO eVault Standards Development workgroup, which is chaired by Tim Renner from our team and Camelia Martin of Snapdocs. That workgroup reviewed proposed requirements for eVault audit trails and eVault validations of eNotes and other electronic records. Falcon team members participated in several other workgroups as well, such as the ones on RON, Commercial eNotes and eVault/eNote Interoperability.
All in all, it was a good conference, focused on critically important issues to our industry and our country.
-Armando
New Study Spotlights Opportunities for Lenders to Optimize Borrower Experience
A new study — The State of the Borrower Experience — conducted by Stratmor and Snapdocs took a closer look at common pain points during the mortgage process and offered recommendations for lenders to improve the overall borrower experience.
The study surveyed 7,000+ U.S. borrowers who had recently completed a mortgage transaction. Some of the key findings included:
- Investing in technology and process improvements downstream in the mortgage process can improve borrower experience.
- Borrowers are generally happy with the application process.
- Document collection and processing issues damage the borrower experience.
- Borrowers experience more frequent and significant issues during closing.
Network Transaction Solutions Launches RON Service in Texas
Network Transaction Solutions (NTS), a provider of title support services has recently introduced RON service in Texas. NTS has completed nearly 1,000 RON closings in Texas since entering the market earlier this year.
Commenting on the announcement, NTS Operations Manager Andrea Somers said: “Customers want more streamlined, digital solutions, and we have significantly increased the number of RON transactions conducted by NTS in Texas in just a few months to meet those demands. The feedback is strong and demand is growing. “We’re confident this is just the beginning, as the usage of online notarizations and eClosings by lenders and title agencies alike is only accelerating.”
Somers further noted that RON activity is not only spiking in Texas, but Florida as well, where NTS has delivered RON services since March 2020. She observed that, in those two states combined, NTS has now facilitated nearly 10,000 RON closings.
Ginnie Mae’s Total eNote Usage Tops $11 Billion
Since reopening in June, the latest phase of the Ginnie Mae Digital Collateral Program has seen tremendous progress.
To date, Ginnie Mae has closed 42,000 eNotes with a value of $11 billion and is seeing big growth in the digital collateral space moving forward. The total volume issued since the program began in July of 2020, was just over $8 billion.
Amrock Rolls Out eClosing Technology
Amrock, the title and settlement services arm of Rocket has just introduced a new technology that will allow borrowers to close a mortgage directly through their mobile device. Through this “first-of-its-kind” technology, the company said, clients can go close on a mortgage by connecting with the closing agent or notary from their smartphone.
Let’s Connect at MBA Annual
Heading to Nashville next month for MBA Annual? Looking to start or enhance your organization’s digital transformation? Let’s Connect! Contact Jim Voth to schedule a meeting.
Have an eMortgage related news item you want to share? Want to make sure you and your team are on our distribution list? Have a question about Falcon’s digital mortgage advisory services? Send us a note at [email protected]
