The average residential loan file has 367,000 documents - and each one must be verified by the underwriter. Okay, just kidding. But every Boeing 737 (like Southwest flies) has 367k parts. Boeing’s assembly line moves at 2 inches per minute, and a plane takes 9 days from start to finish to assemble. If only processing a loan was that efficient…perhaps it can be!

Upcoming Events and Training

The revised HMDA reporting rule is upon us and hopefully your company has implementation projects well underway. There is a lot of consider and plan for across your business policies, processes, system and organization while ensuring your data is complete and of the highest quality for reporting. Please join Newbold Advisors, LLC and Gooi Mortgage for a free one hour webinar on Wednesday, April 12 at Noon ET to review the rule, discuss implementation considerations and get some planning tips. You can register for "HMDA Reporting - What, Why, Who, When" at this link.

The NYMBA 2017 Convention "Great by Choice" will be held April 3-5 at the Desmond Hotel in Albany. Join NYMBA at the Opening Dinner of its Convention on April 3rd, to hear one of New York's finest and most dedicated members of the New York State Senate, Senator John J. Flanagan. The dinner and opening reception may be purchased without a convention registration or included in the Monday Daily Pass or Full Registration Packages.

MGIC's April training calendar is ready and waiting with tons of webinars to choose from.

InSellerate, the developer of the most advanced lead management system in the mortgage industry, has announced its first Digital Lending Workshop. The live, full-day event will be held Thursday, April 20 at the Center Club Orange County in Costa Mesa, California.

If you're in Michigan, or want to be, join MMLA Southeast Chapter for a speed networking event on April 27th. It sure to be a fun evening at The World of Beer.

Finovate is known for showcasing the best-of-the-best in the fintech industry, unrivaled for entrepreneurs and companies looking to demo new technology or get discovered. FinovateSpring 2017 is gearing up for its San Jose event April 26th-27th. Check out its event brochure and registration information.

Did you know that Fannie Mae provides participating servicers with free loss mitigation training? The Know Your OptionsTM Customer CARE (Connect, Assess, Resolve, and Execute) team will present two live webinars in April.

In Reston VA, June 8-9, is the MERS 2017 User Conference bringing together System members from all areas of the mortgage industry. Learn from the experts how to achieve the ultimate MERS experience. Also, new this year, prior to the conference, in the evening of June 7th, will be the celebration of women's leadership and achievement in the mortgage industry. Registration is now open.

Are you registered for MMBBA's 2017 Annual Conference on May 10th & 11th? Early Bird registration ends April 15th.

The TMBA has announced the location and dates of its 101st Annual Convention. This year's conference - "Defining Our Future" - will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa in San Antonio, Texas on May 21 - 23, 2017. Our 43rd President of the United States and Founder of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, George W. Bush will speak at conference. Other notable topics include: How Changes in Washington D.C Will Affect the Mortgage Industry; Changes to HMDA and Fair Lending Implications; and Technology and our Next 100 Years. Registration and full details are now available.


Lenders & Vendors Raising Money in a Digital World

Before I forget, every year a new buzz word or phrase appears in our industry. These days it's "Digital Mortgage". What does it mean and what are you and your peers doing to act on it? You're in luck, STRATMOR is running a new Spotlight Survey this month to answer these questions and more about Digital Mortgage. To learn more about Consumer Interaction, Automated Data Verification, and Database Marketing, click here and participate in our STRATMOR Spotlight survey: Lender Adoption of Digital Mortgage Survey. For questions, contact STRATMOR.

Online lender SoFi announced on Thursday it has elected Mike Bingle, Steven Freiberg, and Robert L. Joss to its Board of Directors. This news comes just a couple of weeks after SoFi closed a $500 million funding round led by Silver Lake. SoFi has raised $500 million to expand to Australia and Canada. In fact, SoFi has now raised $2 billion to date. It moved into mobile payments with its acquisition of online bank Zenbank earlier this year. SoFi's latest funding round was led by Silver Lake and included existing investors SoftBank and GPI Capital.

Strandview Capital, a strategic investor in financial services companies, has committed up to $1.25 million in InSellerate, a sales automation software company that empowers mortgage lenders to optimize lead opportunities by communicating with borrower prospects within seconds of starting the buying process. This is Strandview Capital's second investment to help fund InSellerate's rapid growth. "InSellerate's first-to-contact dialer technology empowers originators to respond to leads within 30 seconds of making a request. The simple-to-use yet sophisticated system delivers almost instant lead engagement, real-time sales and marketing resource management, as well as an effective prospect nurture program. InSellerate further distinguishes itself by connecting the loan officer to the borrower and real estate agent in real time, giving loan officers up-to-the-minute status reports on the loan in process, alerting them on required disclosures and timing disclosures to prevent compliance errors, and helping them to turn current borrowers into long-term customers."

cloudvirga, developer of the automated, cloud-based intelligent Mortgage Platform (iMP), announced it has raised $15 million in a series B funding round "led by a portfolio company of The Blackstone Group, the world's largest alternative investment firm. The new funding will support cloudvirga as it scales its technology and expands its product offerings. Like others, cloudvirga's flagship mortgage point-of-sale (POS) platform puts consumers at the helm of the loan application process. But cloudvirga takes automation even further. It has completely re-engineered mortgage workflow moves many traditional back-office tasks to the front of the loan application and automates the entire initial disclosures process, enabling cloudvirga to deliver unmatched transaction speed and efficiency to both borrowers and lenders."

Alight announced that Nations Lending Corporation has selected Alight Mortgage Lending for continuous reforecasting. "With Alight, we'll be able to explore limitless numbers of strategies for addressing marketplace volatility, see results across our financials and record decisions made as a basis for future planning," said David Critzer, CFO at Nations Lending.

LBA Ware, a leading provider of automated compensation software and systems integration solutions for mortgage lending and retail banking, announced it has hired Matthew Marshall as a solutions consultant to support the firm's sales efforts. Marshall will be responsible for articulating the value proposition of LBA Ware's solutions through preparing and delivering technical presentations to clients and prospects, while also collaborating with the sales team to understand customer requirements and provide support where needed.

Despite more technological and quantitative solutions now available for banks as they make syndicated loans to companies, the human factor represented by loan officers remains important can't be ignored In fact, a study by Columbia Law School researchers yields strong evidence that highly valuable human judgment cannot be automated easily to take into account the soft information that experienced and successful loan officers routinely apply. 


Capital Markets

Optimal Blue has launched a new business intelligence product and unveiled its new API initiative. "The first deliverables available through Optimal Blue's new API platform allow secure access to pricing for eligible products for both consumer direct and loan officer implementations. The APIs may be used by customers who wish to integrate product and pricing data with proprietary website, mobile, or point-of-sale solutions, and by vendor partners whose solutions are enhanced through the integration of originator-specific price data for eligible products. Through this API initiative, the company will enable an ecosystem of third party developers serving Optimal Blue customers.

Bonds have been up some, down some, and Tuesday was down some, causing rates to rise somewhat. Blame it on the strong Consumer Confidence report, or the thinking that the market just wanted to sell off a little. Consumer confidence jumped to a 16-year high during March and various metrics of consumers' confidence in the job market and future income also showed a lot of strength. Or blame it on the mediocre five-year Treasury auction. Or the fact that the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index was up 5.7% y/y in January, beating December's growth of 5.5%. The yield on the 10-year went out at 2.41%.

For news, today we've already had the weekly MBA Mortgage Index showing apps for last week (a non-event at -.8%). Coming up are February Pending Home Sales, several Fed speakers (again), and a $28 billion 7-year Treasury auction. With those items influencing the market we find the 10-year yielding 2.41% and agency MBS prices nearly unchanged versus last night's levels.


Jobs and Announcements

In job news, CMG Financial Wholesale Lending continues to grow and is looking for experienced Wholesale & Non-Delegated Correspondent Account Executives nationwide, with a focus in the following markets: California (So & No), Washington, Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida and New York. If you are looking for a rewarding career opportunity, look no further. CMG offers a very competitive compensation and benefits package and makes it easy for serious professionals to transition. As an AE, you will be assigned to your own operations team to provide a consistently higher level of service to your clients. In addition to FNMA, FHLMC, GNMA and Jumbo products, CMG offers our own proprietary 'All in One Loan,' which substantially reduces the borrower's interest payments over the term of the loan. If you are interested in joining our employee-centric organization, please contact Raj Batra. Click here for more information about the All-In-One Loan. 

As the first quarter of 2017 ends, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions continues their aggressive growth, adding a total of 12 new Account Executives this year. Coming on board in February were Eric Prange in Connecticut and Tracy Colin in Georgia. Recognized as the leaders in the non-Agency space, Angel Oak added 7 additional AEs in March, with the addition of Cynthia Buckman in Tennessee, Bill Parnell in Ohio, Brian Head and Christopher Pion in California, Frank Nolin and Scott Friedberg in Texas and Mike Fehrenbacher in Illinois. And they're not done, as they continue to hire additional Wholesale Account Executives across the country as well as underwriters and other operations positions in their Atlanta headquarters. Come build your career with the nation's top Non-QM lender by emailing careers@angeloakms.com to start the conversation or watch this clip from their Mortgage News Network's Top Mortgage Employer's interview for more information.

Provident Bank Mortgage welcomes Tim Fazio and his team to our Provident Bank Mortgage Family. Tim brings with him an amazing team of professional Loan Officers and Operations staff, most recently working with Heritage Oaks Bank. The team will be focusing on production along the Central Coast of California. Tim Fazio, Retail Area Manager, commented, "Our transition to Provident Bank was seamless. Our customers continue to experience the same service they were accustomed to receiving throughout the entire transition process." With over $1 billion in total assets, Provident Bank is the largest independent community bank headquartered in Riverside County, CA, and has been serving the financial needs of its customers for over 60 years. Provident Bank is currently looking to expand our Sales and Operations Teams to complement our growth strategies. For further information, please contact Mike McIlrath. 

This week, SocialSurvey welcomes 5 new partners: MSI, FM Home Loans, Eustis Mortgage, The Core Training and Legacy Home Loans. SocialSurvey is experience tremendous growth and is still looking to fill 4 Regional Business Development positions. SocialSurvey provides a platform for mortgage lenders to collect customer feedback, share it on social media, boost SEO, retention, recruiting, and social proof. They are offering a base salary + commission and equity to the right candidates. If you have a solid Rolodex and selling experience in mortgage software, title, MI, or other loan products, this could be an opportunity of a lifetime. If this is a fit for you, or you know somebody, send confidential resume and contact info to ayesha@SocialSurvey.com