Listen: How automation helps CDFIs and MDIs improve loan turn time

Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and minority depository institutions (MDIs) serve as major sources of consumer and commercial loans for low-income individuals and minority groups; however, a lack of automation continues to plague some of these financial institutions and hinder the delivery of loans. CDFIs deliver at least 60% of their total lending, services and other activities in low-income communities, according to the FDIC. MDIs originate a greater share of mortgages to borrowers in low- and moderate-income areas and with larger shares of minority populations than non-MDIs. In today’s episode of “The Buzz,” hear Bryan DeShasier, managing director of product and process at digital mortgage platform Promontory MortgagePath, discusses this lack of automation at these particular types of financial institutions. Promontory’s solution provides comprehensive fulfillment services and compliance support for them. When technology is used at CDFIs and MDIs, it is often older, meaning that the lending process is fraught with lengthy manual processes and extended turn times for loans. Better automation means the lenders can scale up operations quickly, although many have few loan officers in place. In this Bank Automation News podcast, DeShasier and Carrie Mumma, director, manager of client relationships at Promontory MortgagePath, address the opportunities and challenges of rolling out the fintech’s new initiative for CDFIs and MDIs and the value proposition automation offers. While automation does speed loan closures, there remain hurdles to implementation that are similar among all banks. Changing the culture and habits of the employees of any financial institution can be difficult and does take time, said Mumma. Bank Automation News would like to know what our readers think about bots. We invite readers to take part in a short BAN reader survey . Subscribe to The Buzz Podcast on iTunes , Spotify , or download the episode .

The following is a transcript generated by AI technology that has been lightly edited but still contains errors. Myra Thomas Good day. My name is Myra Thomas and I'm the editor of Bank Automation News. Recently I spoke with Brian DeShasier, chief administrative officer, and Carrie Mumma, director manager client relations, at Promontory MortgagePath. Promontory MortgagePath is a provider of comprehensive digital mortgage and tech driven fulfillment solutions. The organization recently announced that Industrial Bank and Optus Bank are the first participants in its initiative to support community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions. The initiative is focused on expanding mortgage credit access in underserved communities. Washington, DC-based Industrial Bank, a US Treasury certified CDFI and the oldest black-owned commercial bank in the Mid-Atlantic region is fully on boarded, and it began offering mortgages via Promontory MortgagePath's platform in April. South Carolina-based Optus Bank, a federally designated MDI and US Treasury certified CDFI is in the implementation phase. As part of their offering, the company is working with a variety of community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions to implement their product. Brian DeShasier has deep mortgage industry experience with lending experience spanning nearly 30 years. He was previously head of compliance and risk for Clara Lending, mortgage enterprise risk officer for Zions Bancorp and chief risk officer for Guardian Mortgage. In his current role at Promontory MortgagePath, Brian leverages his extensive industry knowledge to inform product roadmaps and feature prioritization and to guide the development of software enriching the lending experience. Carrie Mumma has over 20 years mortgage and banking experience having worked for Specialized Loan Servicing, First Bank of Colorado, DigitalRisk and Aurora Loan Services. In her current role, Carrie is responsible for leading Promontory MortgagePath's client relationship team, building bridges to assist clients with understanding and leveraging the company's digital mortgage technology, while creating partnerships with its fulfillment partners, Brian, Carrie, thanks for so much for joining us. Myra Thomas Could you give me a sense, Brian, and the audience, a better sense of the automation underpinning your various products? Bryan DeShasier Sure. It's great to be here. Myra. Thank you. Yeah, the primary underpinnings really kind of driving our services are rooted in a strong link between technology, process and information, which we rely heavily on. In short, the right technology can drive a more efficient, effective, and compliant loan journey, which is paramount to any success in today's environment, while offering the loan officer the opportunity to reach deeper into their communities to expand access to credit, ultimately increasing the homeownership, as well as building generational wealth. Myra Thomas So tell me a little bit I guess more about how your organization interfaces with some of the governmental organizations that might be facilitating or giving the loans. Bryan DeShasier Sure how our technology interfaces, as well as our process, our technology, the Borrower Wallet, interfaces with the agencies through pulling, pull credit, we pull information back and forth with our document providers, allowing e-sign for the consumers if they so choose, as well as from an agency perspective, they can leverage the Borrower Wallet to access both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the or LP or DO as well set another way to get those results necessary to drive that loan forward and underwriting. Myra Thomas Sure. Carrie, why do you think this new initiative is needed for community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions? What role do you think automation can play for that? Carrie Mumma I think the biggest thing is making sure we have the right platform to be able to share that people actually have access to credit in the industry. You know, historically, most people with low to moderate income really struggle with even believing that they can own a home and really understanding what that dream looks like for them and their family. So creating a platform that they can access on their cell phone, they can access on their tablet--it's simple and easy to use from a consumer perspective. giving our bank partners the opportunity to truly be consultants from a financial standpoint is critical in the mission of creating wealth and moderate to low income families. And this technology really allows them the right level of access, yet at the same time offering the right level of efficiency, so the loan officers can do what is best and that's talked to the public. And then the technology supports them and being able to partner well with a fulfillment partner that moves things along so they can stay focused on that borrower experience. Myra Thomas So I'll address this to both of you, you know, I mean, you've had this deployment, I guess, with Industrial Bank and Optus Bank, you know, what stage of the automation process? I think one you, you know, deploy it. Tell us a little bit more about that process, you know, and what challenges did you face in dealing with these two institutions? And, you know, have these banks started to feel any sort of benefit? Carrie Mumma Yeah, well, I'll take the first part of that. We have one of our banks, Industrial Bank, that is live. The feedback that we're getting from their loan officers as they adapt to this technology, which is not an LOS, this is focused on creating efficiency within their job and streamlining the application process for the loan officer is that they love it. It's a big change, though, Myra, a really different platform, from the perspective of the loan officers really just focused on gathering the information and putting them into the right product, not the minutiae of moving the loan forward, which allows them to really educate their borrowers. So the feedback from Industrial Bank thus far is that their loan officers are really enjoying reconnecting and refocusing and their borrowers are able to successfully upload documents easily. They understand the application process, because mortgages are scary for consumers and it takes all the mystery out of it. Shortly before Optus, who is currently in flight right now, we're in the process of making sure that the technology has all the right branding, has the feel, because that's how we're successful in the community banking space, ensuring that this technology does not represent a third party, that it truly is accurately representing the bank because that's where the trust lies. These borrowers and consumers trust their local banker that they can walk in and they can speak to so being able to ensure and partner well on that, so it has that same feeling presentation is really important to the emotional aspect of the trust in this transaction. Myra Thomas Sure, sure. Brian, I don't know if you want to address some of that. Bryan DeShasier No, I think, you know, Carrie, you really got into the details. I think, you know, Myra, if our clients were to do this on their own, to stand up a mortgage group, a department, whatever that looks like for them, this can be sizable, and it's not easy to do. So our technology, our processes allow for a reduced barrier to entry, and short accelerating their entry into the market, particularly if they're not in that place today. If they are in that place today, then we help accelerate the ability to really, in many cases, step forward a great number of years out of the past into the present, and giving them the ability to do all those great things that Carrie just indicated. So and it's and it's difficult, in some instances, to find folks in their local communities that have that mortgage expertise, that mortgage knowledge that they can leverage, as opposed to relying on our technology, our processes, to get them into the market and get those loan officers, as Carrie indicated, back into the communities instead of being head down in the minutiae of some thing. Myra Thomas I would imagine that the ability to white label the product makes it especially special for the institutions that you're dealing with. It seems to bring them into the 21st century in a matter of days. What do you what do you guys think is the biggest challenge and you know, in automation, and automating and integrating, you know, and deploying this technology for any community development financial institution and minority depository institution? Bryan DeShasier I think what Carrie indicated in talking about Industrial Bank is, and we kind of see this across the board is adoption. So in many cases, if we've got banks that do sit in the mortgage space today, they're oftentimes, using old technology or in some instances, no technology, resulting in manual processes, lengthy turn times for loans that moves through the journey. And so as Carrie indicated. adoption into this new technology, into this new way of doing things, takes time, it takes trust. And you know, I think that's that's one of the most difficult things that we see is getting folks to let go the past, to step into the future and trust the technology that's been implemented for them. Myra Thomas Sure, sure. You know, how can banks assess their return on investment? I mean, I know, in speaking to banking leaders and folks on the tech side within banks, you know, the biggest issue with any sort of deployment of automation, when they're reaching out to fintech vendors, is just trying to get a sense of that return on investment, you know, and oftentimes, that's, you know, you look at staffing numbers to see, you know, what would this product, you know, mean to us, if we had to ramp up activity on this particular side? I mean, lots of institutions thought about that, particularly with PPP loans. But, you know, if you're using one of your products, you know, I think you have a Transform product, what staff numbers would be needed, if you know that, you know, in place of that product, if that product, wasn't there as part of the loan process? Carrie Mumma Yeah, absolutely. I think that rate of return is a constant conversation, because if it's not returning the right level, back to the bank, what's the point? I think when you think about staffing specifically, when you talk more about Transform, our Transform product, it's a great opportunity for community banks reemerging who don't have loan officers actively within their office. We have the licensing set up to support them, so they can focus on the marketing campaign. And oftentimes, their existing marketing department can handle that, they do need to have their credit administrator, again, this is often a role in a community bank on the commercial side, that can be blended because of consultation that can occur to help them be successful. That's truly the biggest two components, the secondary component really falls into line with other lending products and making sure that they have somebody that can board these loans, as well as actually funding these loans, depending on how they're set up with their investors and the different product mix that they have that's right for their community. So truly, it becomes a very small scale operation with just a small handful, less than five individuals to run a very successful mortgage department. Now, if it's a scenario where they have loan officers, of course, they have their loan officers that they maintain. And oftentimes those loan officers are doing more than just taking mortgage applications. So the automation is critical in allowing them to focus on doing the best job for their consumers across the board. Regardless, again, you have a similar scenario, where you have just a very small handful, probably less than five individuals, depending on the side, sometimes even up to two, two to three, depending on the scale of their business plus their sales side. It really is customizable, based off of their expected loan volumes. And as we go through implementation and looking at the automation and the technology, all the way through our automation that they can build, where they can pull these documents that are critical onto their imaging platforms, and maintain them, all of that eliminates FTD. And we want to ensure that they've got the right steps in place. So as banks are thinking about the right resources internally, that's part of that ongoing conversation about what their intent is for how they plan on using the technology. So it can be very small. Myra Thomas Yeah. Yeah, I guess, if I were, you know, working, given the size of, you know, staffing that you're talking about, you know, one of these community banks, it sounds as if you know, they've got a big decision to make when they're looking at FinTech vendors, you know, so if I was coming to, you know, vendor, yeah. And you're looking at it from the banking side, say you work for the bank, you know, what would you be looking for? How do you know, how do you select from one vendor to another? Carrie Mumma I think from what I hear with our clients is the ability to scale is, of course, number one, the mortgage industry rates go up and down. Compliance changes, how can you effectively scale and how can your vendor scale with you? And how are they going to ensure that you're compliant? I think the second thing that I would really focus in on is what's the collaboration process? Are they really going to partner with me or are they giving me an out of the box solution and just going to set me loose to my own detriment or success depending on the level of people engaged? If I was in a client's that's what I would want to do, and of course, the pricing aspect, are they giving me the right pricing for my growth, and for my future projected plans, I mean, there are a lot of out of the box vendors that you get one product with one price. Whereas if you are a community bank and you are looking for flexibility, being able to price off a milestone, one of the features within some of the technology that we have is pre qualifications and pre approvals. A true pre approval process that is looked at by an underwriter is sometimes extremely expensive in some models, but because of different pricing on milestones, sometimes you can skip things. So how flexible is your vendor going to be to help you be competitive? Or are you paying a large consulting fee every single time you send something through? All of that goes back to the rate of return you were asking about earlier? Myra Thomas Sure, sure. So Brian, tell me a little bit about this. I you know, I'm looking at community development banks, and I see that, you know, 60% of their lending services and other activities growing to low income communities. This is according to the FDIC, you know, do you get a sense that this is presenting specific automation challenges, technology challenges for those community development bank's given the community that they deal with? Bryan DeShasier You know, as, as Carrie, indicated earlier, I think, I don't think that it calls out any specific challenges by right, I think, really it, it really lends itself to the adoption. Because the the technology that we have in place is flexible, and meets the needs of our community banks, and the communities in which they serve. So, you know, in some instances, you may find folks that have, they may not have a computer at home, they may have just a smartphone or a tablet, and our technology is easily accessible from there. So there's, there's ways to do that. And then, you know, on the other hand, if you have some of those borrowers that are very unique in our market today is that they don't have technology, they don't have a smartphone, they don't have a tablet. There's always the process that we fail over to paper, as we say, where folks can do more face to face, inside the bank, if they if they so choose, but they have options. Myra Thomas Sure, sure. Anything else we need to know about Promontory MortgagePath coming down the road? Or, you know, when can we look towards implementation with I guess it was Optus bank or was Industrial Bank that still was in the process of deploying the technology or figuring it out? Carrie Mumma Optus is currently in flight. We were very excited to see their adoption of the technology and how they're able to really embrace it, as well as how their community embraces it. They go live, end of September. And that's really dependent on making sure we've got all of the things set up correctly for them. So please watch more for that down the road. We're truly looking forward to partnering with them, and ensuring their success throughout the thing. Myra Thomas So I'm assuming that there'll be additional banks announced further down the road? Carrie Mumma Yes, there sure will be. Myra Thomas Well, hopefully, we'll be the first people to know about it. It's been a pleasure speaking to you both. That wraps up this episode of "The Buzz". Thanks for listening, and please let us know how we're doing at info@bankautomationnews.com and, of course, on Twitter and LinkedIn. Thanks everyone, and thanks for listening.

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Listen: How automation helps CDFIs and MDIs improve loan turn time

Promontory MortgagePath's execs on expanding credit access

Core provider Jack Henry plans to add digital currency support

Understanding DeFi’s attempt to disaggregate financial services

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