Full-service residential mortgage lender NewFed Mortgage rolled out Friday Harbor’s pre-underwriting platform. 

The platform identifies challenges or missing components in a loan application before it moves to a human underwriter, Friday Harbor Chief Executive Theo Ellis told FinAi News.  

After AI pre-underwrites the loan, “what you ultimately deliver to the human underwriter is a file that’s clean, complete and hopefully compliant,” Ellis said. 

Friday Harbor was chosen after a successful pilot of the technology at NewFed, according to Friday Harbor’s May 14 release. 

“Removing low-value, repetitive work is what allows people to focus on the decisions that actually matter,” Rob Jewett, chief operating officer at NewFed, said in the release. 

The Danvers, Mass.-based NewFed has been using the Friday Harbor platform for roughly a year, Ellis said.  

With the underwriting tool, NewFed has seen:  

• 36% more files handled by processors per month; and 

• 35% more loans reviewed by underwriters per month. 

Those results allowed the company to fund nearly $170 million more in loans in 2025 than in 2024, according to the release. 

NewFed is the latest lender to select Friday Harbor, following Waterstone Mortgage, which announced its implementation of Friday Harbor’s technology in March. 

First Colony Mortgage deploys Tidalwave

First Colony Mortgage announced its deployment of AI-powered point-of-sale platform by Tidalwave on May 15. 

The platform also includes the technology provider’s proprietary AI assistant, Solo, built for the mortgage industry, according to a First Colony release. Solo reviews documents, flags missing conditions, verifies income and more. 

“Using [the AI assistant] for our file checks has turned a manual process into real-time workflow,” Corey Shelly, chairman at First Colony Mortgage, said in the release. 

The platform is live at First Colony following a pilot.  

Tidalwave is also used by DHI Mortgage and Flat Branch Home Loans, according to the company. 

Northfield selects Blend’s mortgage , home equity solutions

Northfield Savings Bank announced April 30 that it is using digital origination platform Blend to modernize lending operations and speed up manual processes. 

Before Blend, the Berlin, Vermont-based bank’s mortgage team relied on a static application process, now that process is streamlined and automated, according to the Blend release. 

With Blend, the lender can automate borrower-facing and back-office workflows, according to the release. Automated workflows include follow-up communication and condition management.  

“We wanted a platform that would make our loan officers more effective at every stage of the lending process,” Jason Pidgeon, senior vice president of mortgage banking and consumer credit at the bank, said in the release. 

Blend clients include BMO, Landmark Credit Union, KeyBank and more, according to the company.  

Visit the FinAi News interactive Transactions Dashboard.  

Register here for the FinAi Lending Summit, set for Oct. 7-8 in Las Vegas.