Cheers to the Mortgage Bankers association for delivering a great venue, high energy, and excellent value to this year’s conference attendees. Between the BBQ, live music, cocktail receptions, and scooters – there couldn’t have been a better mix of laughter, friendship, networking, and progressive business decisions.
Avoiding the temptation to hit on all the industry highlights other beat already covered – volume projections, rates, Fannie and Freddie conservatorship, etc. Instead, I’ll focus on the key business and technology trends taking place at the individual lender, mortgage banker, level.
While much of the conference sheet music (talk) remained the same, outlined below are some of the new tunes starting to play in the mortgage banking industry.
· A swarm of New POS and LOS systems are coming to market, many filling critical gaps the traditional platforms can’t. As a lending system expert, it’s fair to say that many new ones are on the rise, while others are on the slide. Don’t let the markets confuse you, BlackFin Group can simplify the evaluation and selection process.
· Intelligent middleware solutions are starting to take shape. Providing lenders of all sizes, relief. A needed, low cost, alternative, solution to, as one CIO said, “the costly horror show of a LOS change…”
· Tech innovation continues to provide great concepts and eventual solutions for lenders. Unfortunately, the challenge remains in successful execution (implementation) and refining what the vendor has said they ‘can’ do Vs. what they have ‘done.’
· More lenders are starting to embrace the freedom a ‘tech stack’ philosophy provides…
· Outsourced Application Development continues to be under-estimated as a meaningful solution to shorten time to market of enhancements, decrease project costs, and improve the quality of customer experience – BlackFin Group App Dev can help.
· Even the best of lenders request help to broker M&A discussions. While the outlook for 2020 may ensure a great year for some, others will be challenged navigating the market. I tend to believe that in every bad, there is good. Therefore M&A will be a good thing for even the best of lenders who announce accordingly…
· Training remains a priority in the industry. While the basics are well covered – there is a widening gap and demand for generational, soft skills training. Resulting in the launch of the BlackFin Group Training programs.
· The demand for ‘business innovation’ remains a smaller crowd. However, a record number of lenders and vendors have started to seek our council to help with the design, build, and delivery of innovative ‘business strategies’ in the key areas of sales, operations, and technology.
· There is a growing demand by lenders for fast-acting assessments to help optimize operations for cost savings, efficiencies, and to expose leakage revenue. BlackFin Group LOS, Operations, and Secondary Optimization Assessments can help.
· Lenders are dealing with more failed (and new) projects than ever before. Failure rates are getting expensive, and the risk of failure is driving tremendous collaboration between the lender, vendor, and BlackFin Group.
· The National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers Association (NAMMBA) is quickly becoming the leader in driving industry diversity. A message to all, become a member, and get involved! BlackFin Group is a proud member.
· Mortgage Action Alliance and MORPAC continues to align critical partnerships that help drive needed change in our industry. A message to all, become a member, and get involved! BlackFin Group is a proud member.
As I started to wrap up the conference, I reflected on a series of tremendous meetings, presentations, panels, and conversations. What stood out most for me was the closing remarks of the keynote speaker, Admiral William H. McRaven, USN (Ret.), summarizing the essence of his career in the military, “You can’t do life alone, you need a team.” BlackFin Group is ready to be a part of your team.
BlackFin Group is committed to serving the critical needs of Small and Mid-Tier Community, Regional, and independent mortgage lenders. We provide transparent, fixed rate project pricing, represented by our best-in-class mortgage banking expert resources.
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