Free ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shops today? Count me in! Going back a few days, in Saturday’s commentary I mentioned a company offering blockchain HELOCs to brokers and correspondents. In other tech news, Bitcoin was used as collateral to buy a home in Amsterdam. An actor (the 90’s comedy Mighty Ducks) purchased the $1.2 million property using Bitcoin as collateral, according to a statement from lender Nexo. If you think that the mortgage biz is full of technology, you’re right. But golfers know that it is Masters’ Week. Augusta National doesn’t love technology; it loves that 21st-century advances can maintain the tournament’s pristine image. (Supposedly packing the azaleas with ice so they bloom at the right time is a myth.)

Lender Products and Services

Blockchain technology is evolving quickly in today’s FinTech segment. There are a number of purported benefits for blockchain technology specifically in the title industry, and most of them revolve around four main categories: transactional integrity, security, elimination of third-party intermediaries and speed. Read Altisource’s® new white paper and learn about what needs to be solved to help realize these sweeping benefits.

SimpleNexus has just launched its new disclosure solution, delivering a full end to end digital mortgage solution for lenders. This new disclosure toolset seamlessly presents disclosure packages and enables borrowers and loan originators to eSign in the mobile app or online and includes automatic disclosure tracking within the LOS. Watch its new Disclosure Video and get a demo for SimpleNexus Disclosures

Optimal Blue reports a rise in lenders who have transitioned from best efforts to mandatory delivery to capture significant profitability gains and efficiencies. For those still considering a switch, Optimal Blue has compiled several value-added resources. These include Weekly Market Summaries (featuring the best efforts to mandatory spread index to help lenders understand their opportunity), valuable resources to help lenders accurately calculate and manage interest rate risk, including a white paper titled “A New Metric for Hedging Mortgage Pipeline Fallout Risk”, a Enterprise Hedge Automation Platform that includes seamless integrations to Optimal Blue’s industry-leading PPE and digital loan trading platform, and unrivaled client service delivered by a team of dedicated analysts that leverage time-tested and proven strategies that have guided scores of lenders through successful delivery transitions.

Vendor News

With over 1,400 active vendors it is hard to keep track of who is doing what. Let’s take a random walk down Vendor Avenue.

Mortgage Translations offers a suite of Spanish translated documents and an industry-standard glossary of mortgage-related terms. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHFA joined forces to create this new online resource to assist the millions of mortgage-ready borrowers in the U.S. with limited English proficiency.

Arch MI announced it has updated its pricing tool, RateStar, at archmiratestar.com, which includes express quotes and options to fully customize quotes along with a streamlined customer experience for ease of use. Currently the preferred MI pricing solution for lenders, RateStar revolutionized the industry 10 years ago when it was launched as a dynamic tool that could evaluate individual loan risk more precisely than any rate sheet. RateStar is also the only MI pricing tool that currently has an MI buydown feature. RateStar Buydown allows loan officers to customize a unique MI premium payment for each borrower, leveraging all lender and seller credits.

Roostify has completed a bi-directional integration with Ellie Mae’s Encompass. With the enhanced integration, lenders who use Roostify with Encompass will find their workflows significantly streamlined. Applications created in Roostify will now automatically appear in Encompass, and uploaded documentation such as bank statements will be accessible in both systems. Consumers will also be able to review and sign Encompass-generated documents in Roostify, giving them a consistent, unified experience throughout their loan transaction.

A while back DocuSign announced Rooms for Mortgage, a secure, collaborative, compliant solution for lenders to support their residential lending process. Delivering a digital environment for the borrower, lender and settlement agent, and leverages DocuSign's broader suite of solutions for Digital Closing—including eSignature, eNotary, eNote, and eVault. The company believes that Rooms for Mortgage is the final step in taking the mortgage process fully digital. “DocuSign Rooms for Mortgage provides a single digital destination for the parties involved in buying and selling to come together, process and finalize the transaction."

Genworth Mortgage Insurance announced the launch of Home Suite Home, its latest borrower benefit program designed to help preserve borrowers’ financial stability when faced with unexpected, non-recurring homeownership costs. Home Suite Home is offered at no cost to both Genworth’s lenders and their eligible borrowers. Lenders can opt-in to the program to access the suite of benefits for their homebuyers. The three benefit coverages are underwritten or provided by third-parties and subject to terms, conditions and exclusions available on Genworth’s website. This program is not available or approved in all states. Talk to your rep or visit the Home Suite Home website for more information.

A while back Prime Lending has selected the Blue Sage LOS as its new mortgage origination platform. The Blue Sage Digital Lending Platform is completely cloud-based, highly scalable solution capable of supporting any mortgage channel, including retail, wholesale and correspondent lines of business. “The platform handles pricing, underwriting and decision-making from the point-of-sale stage all the way to the closing and funding of the loan. Because Blue Sage can be easily integrated with third party services due to its rich set of APIs and integration options, an unlimited number of third-party vendor services, such as appraisals, title and flood insurance can also be ordered online through the Blue Sage platform. Blue Sage also includes mobile applications and CRM tools geared to helping loan officers increase sales.”

LoanScorecard has expanded its partnership with New Penn Financial, LLC by launching its AUS technology, Portfolio Underwriter®, for the Correspondent Division’s SMART series products, growing the lender’s presence in the non-QM market.

Capsilon has joined Ellie Mae’s Integrated Partner Program. Capsilon was one of the first technology providers to be fully integrated into the Ellie Mae Encompass Digital Lending Platform™. The integration between Capsilon and Ellie Mae allows mortgage lenders to more efficiently and securely share data between Capsilon’s solutions and Encompass® to drive quality and efficiency at every stage of the mortgage lifecycle. If you are interested in learning more visit Capsilon or email sales@capsilon.com. This is another indicator of technology flexibility to help lenders drive down costs to originate and improve customer satisfaction.

Capital Markets

For lenders who have questions about the transition to single securities, especially regarding DU and LP implications, the MBA’s Dan Fichtler recommends the Single Security Market Adoption Playbook. “From the lender’s perspective, DU and LP are still to be used as they are today. In general, since the Freddie PCs are being conformed to mirror the Fannie MBS in most respects, there are more changes from the perspective of a Freddie seller than from that of a Fannie seller. It is also important to note that UMBS will still be issued and guaranteed by either Fannie or Freddie, and those UMBS will then be fungible for deliveries into a single TBA market and may be commingled into the same resecuritizations.”

Looking at bonds, U.S. Treasuries & mortgage-backed securities had a relatively quiet day Monday with the 10-year closing at 2.52%. Markets stirred around factory orders showing soft business investment in February, posting the fourth monthly decline.

Things pick up today with a 3-yr note auction, followed by a 10-yr note reopening on tomorrow and a 30-yr bond reopening on Thursday. Internationally, British Prime Minister Theresa May travels to Paris and Berlin today ahead of an EU leader summit scheduled for tomorrow while the British Parliament looks to take control of the Brexit process. The EU will reportedly consider a nine-month and a 12-month Brexit extension if a withdrawal deal is not approved by Friday.

Ahead of tomorrow’s event-filled session which includes the ECB, Brexit summit, CPI, and FOMC minutes, today’s economic release calendar is relatively light and includes the NFIB Small Business Activity Index for March, weekly Redbook Chain Store Sales, and JOLTS job openings for February. After the close, Fed Governor Quarles and Fed Vice Chair Clarida will both speak. We begin today with early agency MBS prices a shade higher and the 10-year yield at 2.52%.

Jobs

Neat Capital is seeking talented loan officers to join its growing platform. “The company has developed proprietary technology to handle the lending process in one session, which allows its clients to win with cash-like offers. Our technology fully automates various loan officer functions including documentation and pricing scenarios. Neat is a prime lender with an average timeline of 13 days to CTC, which is particularly impressive given its mix of self-employed clients, unique situations and jumbo loans. The company is offering competitive compensation, including equity, for joining our client-centric, diverse team. We are currently hiring strong producers in CA, CO, CT, WA, TX and FL. Learn what makes Neat different: contact Chris Carmichael for more information.”

“At Citizens Retail Mortgage Lending, we believe there’s more to being a good company than just the bottom line, and we’re looking for experienced loan officers that share this philosophy to join our team. Our company was started with the idea that a lender should give back to the community and the people who live there. We are Citizens helping citizens to fight hunger, learn money management, and strengthen our communities. Not only do we give to charities, but we sponsor events that help our communities thrive. We give to theaters, festivals, sports teams, and more. If you share our passion for making a difference in the communities we serve, apply at Citizens Bank to get started today! For questions, please email us.

Mortgage services firm Infinity IPS has announced the addition of two industry veterans to its management team. Pam Sloger and Mike Spadacino have joined Infinity as SVP of Operations. Sloger brings to Infinity 40 years of mortgage operations and due diligence experience, most recently at American Mortgage Consultants where she spent ten years in senior level client service positions. Additionally, she spent nine years at Clayton Holdings as a project lead. Ms. Sloger is highly experienced in transaction management, compliance, credit, and fraud investigation. Spadacino comes to Infinity from a sixteen-year tenure at Clayton Holdings, where he was Director of Operations and Staffing. Prior to Clayton, Mike served as Senior Vice President at a consumer finance company and as a Tax Manager at a legacy Big 4 accounting firm. Mike will be located in Infinity’s Tampa, Florida office.