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.

Clarifire recently released its white paper on the current approach to customer-centric servicing and the corresponding key drivers as we head into a new decade. With ongoing fluctuation in business requirements and constrained resources expected to continue, informed and consistent communication with servicing customers is at the core of any successful servicing model.  Albeit difficult to deliver on, as technology budgets and profitability margins remain constricted, mortgage servicers need to make a sizable effort to embrace their customer base.  Whether looking to leverage cross-product penetration, increase retention, or simply endure the latest disaster obstacles, customer-centric servicing should be the focus.

Today’s customers demand far more than an automated process from their mortgage bank or servicer.  As servicers strive to improve overall efficiency through technology, many servicers may find themselves further behind the competition then they anticipated.  With targets set on process automation, data accessibility, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, efforts to innovate often fail to address the entire scope of digital, real time borrower engagement.  One of the most important areas of engagement, mobile access, is evolving at an exponential rate, especially with the developing deployment of 5G.  So, if mobile access has fallen to the bottom of your technology strategy, you may need to rethink your approach.

A lot of industry attention is currently focused on the finish line for the digitizing of the mortgage business, with mortgage lenders, servicers, and vendors in countdown mode.  In this environment, it’s important not to lose sight of the risks that lay along the route. Additionally, digitizing the mortgage lifecycle only represents a portion of the evolving automated mortgage process, which encompasses expanding data and privacy requirements, the increase of mobile applications, and much more. 

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.   

In a recent blog, we highlighted an American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) survey addressing the top issues confronting hospitals today.  It was no surprise that financial concerns topped the list based on the CEOs surveyed.  Numerous factors can have a direct impact on finances and the overall sustainability of hospital operations. One of those factors, government mandates, found itself second in the list of top issues confronting hospitals.  Keeping on top of all the changes and managing their impact on the bottom line can sometimes be easier said than done. 

The industry continues to hunger for technology to improve workflow, as well as streamline and automate operational efficiencies. While these investments promise a competitive edge in a challenging environment with tight margins, other factors, outside of a servicer’s control could also have a big impact on business profitability.  

In today’s healthcare industry, hospital CEOs face numerous challenges that can disrupt the balance between providing patients with exceptional quality of care and maintaining financial solvency for the organization.  In a recent survey by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), they presented the top challenges cited by community hospital CEOs.  For the tenth consecutive year, financial concerns was number one on the list.  While hospital operating expenses increase, reimbursements and volume of patients continue to decrease.  Managing and overcoming financial concerns while providing communities with the services they want and quality they need proves to be the most challenging for CEOs.

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.

Hospital systems, post-acute care providers and physicians are all participants in today’s world of value based healthcare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has established specific models to encourage all participants to work together to improve quality and coordination of care from the pre-surgery process through recovery.¹ In order to receive maximum bundled payment reimbursements, they must meet recognized patient outcomes.

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.