Benefits and Threats of Mortgage Technology

FREMONT, CA: The Covid-19 pandemic raised questions about how different industries would adapt to the new reality of "work-from-home." Companies that had been slow to adopt new technologies were particularly affected, such as banks and mortgage firms. Our experience with the technological revolution in banking over the past half-decade has prepared us for companies successfully transition employees to remote work and increase automation. My company's lenders achieved their most productive year ever because of their willingness to embrace new technology.

Benefits and threats of new technology

According to the Annual Mortgage Bankers Performance Report, a rise in personnel expenses offset a sharp increase in profits per loan, from $1,470 in 2019 to $4,202 in 2020. Market conditions played a significant role in 2020's success, but technology also played a role. Cost reduction and efficiency improvements helped companies boost employee loans. Increasing automation has also enabled companies to let their employees focus on critical decisions.

Executive teams are now keen on exploring technology-based solutions, such as AI, machine learning, and blockchain. It is a healthy desire to drive innovation. We must consider how we can benefit from and threaten our gains from next-generation technology.

Changing administrations in Washington, D.C has prompted more active regulators to protect consumers who might be particularly vulnerable. The federal government wants to address the danger sooner rather than later. Cybercrime and biased algorithms are two major technological threats our consumers face. Here's a quick overview of the threats and how mortgage banks can respond.

Increasing cybercrime and fraud risks: Cyberattacks continue to challenge the banking industry and consumers alike, despite an executive order to help shore up the nation's cyber infrastructure. Recent years have seen an increase in complaints lodged by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The first million complaints were registered over seven years ago, while over a million were registered in the last 14 months alone; the full list is now six million. Monitors, storekeepers, and sensitive financial consumer data handlers should be concerned. The most concerning thing is instances of cybercrime that remain unreported due to companies' reluctance to disclose attacks. Automation and digitization have made us increasingly vulnerable to these attacks.

There is also a wave of mortgage and title/wire fraud in the mortgage industry. The share of purchase business increased in 2021, driving an increase in application risk fraud following a decrease in 2020. Fraudsters target new e-closing software and automated processes, jeopardizing consumers' down payments as they target the back end of the loan process.

In the financial services industry, this does not mean reverting to paper but rather improving processes, monitoring vendors closely, and continually testing their systems for weaknesses. Consumer-first processes and experiences are driving a new era of technology.

The Impact of Automation/AI on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: In recent years, technology and consumer experience have improved dramatically, but the industry's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion has been even greater. Almost all major banks now handle this issue. A majority of companies use automated underwriting tools to evaluate creditworthiness. Theoretically, this treats all consumers equally. Some advocates argue that the data we use for judging a borrower's creditworthiness is biased. In order to allow more families to realize their American dream of homeownership, lenders need to reevaluate the factors that are used to judge credit and expand the credit box prudently.