Clarifire Conversations

Are you thinking it's time to reexamine your approach to technology innovation? Stop waiting, now is the time to implement change capabilities into your mortgage servicing operation. Don’t you want it all? In today’s fast-paced mortgage environment where servicers remain under immense pressure to streamline processes, cut costs, enhance customer engagement, and move nimbly all at that same time, some servicers are still building their own software and struggling to keep up. We’ve heard this many time before, yet still revert to manual processes and added labor when under pressure, an approach that is simply no longer sustainable in this dynamic servicing ecosystem. To thrive and compete in the mortgage industry, servicers need to automate change with smart logic that leverages modern process components accessible throughout your organization and accelerates trusted, proven innovation.

Natural disasters resulting from hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and earthquakes can strike at any moment, leaving behind a trail of destruction and devastation. In the last two months alone, unsuspecting homeowners have contended with the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia and the ravages of the Maui wildfire. Access to relief becomes a real struggle under this duress, compounded this year by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s critical funding shortfall. Under such trying circumstances, homeowners don’t know where to turn and often rely on their mortgage servicer for answers to questions on financial relief to help recover and rebuild their lives. Are you prepared to respond to their needs?

In today’s technologically advanced world, artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving and emerging through the modernization and adoption of advances in business process automation. The opportunities and availability are expanding exponentially, with questions around readiness simultaneously compounding. The incorporation of AI promises to significantly reduce workload, but how and where do you manage the introduction of these capabilities into existing operational and systems infrastructure? As you can imagine, the actual adoption of AI can be quite complex and, in a worst-case scenario, can create layered risk.

Are you suffering from regulatory fatigue? Has managing the latest default triggers become arduous? Whether from post-pandemic, pre-recession, or natural disaster, unexpected default strikes erratically and vengefully. In response, the regulatory burden doesn’t stop, even in a low-to-moderate delinquency environment. A recent Wolters Kluwer study found that lender regulatory anxiety is on the rise, with close to 70 percent of their respondents expressing concern in this area. This is not likely to ease as we continue to be in the center of disruption, currently combatting increasing MSR sales, rising interest rates, the sunset of LIBOR, the spotlight on fair lending, and margin compression. This list changes but the need for a strategic defense does not, so what’s your plan to minimize regulatory anxiety?

What does the CFPB’s recent initiative to curate mortgage products and assist homeowners have to do with mortgage servicing? More than you think. Part of a broader initiative, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is specifically looking for “public input on ways to support automatic short-term and long-term loss mitigation assistance for homeowners who experience financial disruption.” The mortgage market sits at an unusual precipice, teetering between historic highs and lows in every area, from origination to loss mitigation and foreclosure. Yet, what makes this season even more nuanced, is the pandemic impact that has propelled our industry forward, finally forcing us into the digital age. So now, before taking a pause, the CFPB has made the timely decision to capture industry information that could assist us in driving this momentum in automation and accelerating it.

The industry is migrating from forbearance to foreclosure, and mortgage servicers are seeing another change in the makeup of their default servicing portfolios. Forbearance volume is plateauing as the number of loans entering forbearance more closely parallels the volume of forbearance exits. At the same time servicers are becoming anxious as foreclosure activities, from filings to auctions, increase month over month. This type of continued volatility in delinquency activity, whether it’s a change to overall volume, delinquency reasons, relief options, or regulatory requirements, creates severe risk for servicers.

Have you seen the latest foreclosure stats? The picture they paint isn’t a pretty one. The June 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report shows an increase of 219 percent for foreclosure starts over the past six months! Other foreclosure activities, including filings, default notices, auctions, and repossessions have increased by 153 percent compared to last year. We are fast approaching pre-COVID foreclosure levels. Although you may remember those numbers as industry lows, this is not the same economic or interest rate environment. Many consumers are only now beginning to recover from pandemic impact, but rising inflation is making it more and more difficult to transition to normalcy.

Servicing institutions are well aware of the need to stay out in front of agency scrutiny, examinations, and of course consent orders. But what happens as your focus is eroded under the pressures of record-level volume and a roller coaster of regulation? There has been a legitimate lack of time and resources for mortgage servicers, as well as latency in technology, and not to be overlooked…. the pandemic impact. Where does this leave your organization as you plan for 2022? As the industry prepares to close out another year filled with unimaginable obstacles and hurdles, there is a real opportunity to reinvent your approach to business by leveraging successes and tapping into automation that effectively propels your organization into the future.

Exhausted by change? Every company, mortgage-based or otherwise, is experiencing a shift in automation as an essential part of business. The timing of this shift, however, may seem untenable as the industry experiences record levels of activity on every front. New point solutions, applications, and big-box add-ons are being introduced into the market at a relentless pace. Each one promises to deliver a groundbreaking experience that is better, faster, and more efficient. The reality is that you often wind up managing too many applications, too many one-offs, too many upgrades, and still wind up with too many manual handoffs and too much risk. It’s time to change up the approach and find an answer to the chaos.

Workflow is defined as a systemic distribution of tasks, information, and documents to users or groups for action based on a predefined set of business rules. Exponentially adding to the power of this definition, Clarifire has been in the business of delivering high-tech automated workflow for over a decade. Starting with a sophisticated application that standardizes and simplifies complex business processes, CLARIFIRE® leverages data that is sourced through strategic industry partnerships. This relationship approach to workflow improves interoperability, accessibility, and seamless system dynamic displays powering servicer capabilities reducing timeframes, errors, exceptions, and cost. The results are compelling and represented in opportunities like one-click loan modification approvals.

The mortgage industry’s latest buzz word is “digital mortgage”, a novel term for the ongoing pursuit to remove paper from the process.  However, this endeavor encompasses mobile apps, eClosings, data integration, blockchain, and other areas that are all aligned with mortgage origination.  Once a mortgage loan is closed, the data is passed onto the servicer, where it is far from digitized.   

From loan origination to loan payoff, there are multiple paths that a loan can take throughout its lifecycle.  The best performing loans will follow a clear, straight path with no hiccups along the way.  All payments are made on time.  This path is the easy street for loans, and the servicers servicing them.

Your organization is in the midst of a digital transformation and new technology is on the horizon. You have survived through the research, vendor evaluations, requirements gathering, and development. Now it’s time to embark on the implementation phase of your organization’s journey to improve operational efficiency.

A carpenter’s workshop is their toolbox.  Within it, there are power drills which make it easier than a screwdriver to drill a screw into hardwood.   There is a nail gun which drives a nail into a piece of wood in one shot versus swinging a hammer multiple times.  They may even have a bandsaw which helps them make more precise cuts than a hand saw.  The tools within a carpenter’s toolbox enable them to build things quickly, precisely, and more efficiently.

Summer is here! For many, this indicates the start of family vacations, time at the beach or pool, and barbeques with friends. For those that live along the Atlantic and Gulf coast, summer also marks the beginning of hurricane season.

Superman could leap tall buildings in a single bound.  Spiderman was alerted to danger approaching with his spidey-sense.  Bad guy on the run?  Better hope Wonder Woman wasn’t part of the chase because she would catch you with her super speed.

Buyer’s remorse. It’s never a fun feeling to experience after you make a large purchase. Are you looking to improve operational efficiencies within your organization but you aren’t sure that automated workflow will live up to your expectations?

When you hear the word automation, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it a vehicle assembly plant or maybe an order fulfillment warehouse? When most people hear the word it invokes thoughts of robots or machines doing the work once done by humans.

Have you been shopping for a new car lately? The technology in cars has come a long way. Today, there are all kinds of cool gadgets and gizmos available that make it hard to determine what options to choose without breaking the bank.

Workflow automation is like new car technology. When you start to automate the manual aspects of your business, the opportunities are endless. There’s so many bells and whistles that you begin to question where to start. Here are 5 areas to look at when you set off down the road of automation.

New technology is fun and exciting! Making the transition from manual to automated processes can be an energizing endeavor for any organization.  The opportunities available are endless, which can also make the move a bit intimidating. It doesn’t have to be! It’s all in the planning.

Adopting process automation technology is more than just plug and play. It eliminates costly, time consuming tasks so careful thought and planning needs to go into your approach and implementation to achieve the best results. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your automation be. Here are 4 phases of planning to help ease your transition from manual to automated processes.

We love automated workflow! Although, we may be a little biased. It’s been our business for over a decade. We are firm believers that technology is meant to work for you. If it isn’t, then what good is it really? If you are still looking for a few good reasons why you should embrace automation, here are 10 we hope will win you over.

Have you been guaranteed a solution for your workflow needs only to find broken promises, experiencing prolonged releases of features that you thought were there and now have the inability to accomplish your organizational goals?

According to the Harvard Business Review, delegating work throughout your organization sounds like it would be a straightforward task, but it’s actually pretty complicated^[1]—and we agree. Managers spend so much time manually distributing work assignments based on a multitude of factors, while trying to stay fair and ensure optimal productivity. 

Do you know the average number of decisions a person makes a day?  35,000! That’s the number reported by various internet sources. It’s a bit overwhelming, but when you think about the number of decisions you made before you left for work this morning it’s definitely possible. It certainly makes it easier to understand why we are all so tired at the end of the day. Our brains are working overtime!

It’s no secret that digital technologies are shaping the future of the healthcare space. It’s happening now. But what does that mean? It means we should all embrace it and educate ourselves.