In his article “How Will History View 2020? Mortgage Banking Executive Perspectives,” Stratmor Senior Partner Jim Cameron discussed how early issues involving productivity and processes have been overtaken by concerns over capacity management and recruiting. Cameron compares the results of Stratmor Group’s May and August 2020 Operations Workshops, where mortgage executives were asked to share their biggest pain points at each point in time. The findings are presented in the company’s latest monthly Insights Report. "Productivity and process-related issues were at the top of the list in May, Cameron said in the article. “Next in line were two pandemic-related issues--managing a remote workforce and overseeing the forbearance of mortgage payments,” he added.
“In early May, we were relatively fresh off the shelter-in-place rules established at the state and local level, so managing a remote workforce was of great concern at that time. Also, the CARES Act rules allowing temporary forbearance of mortgage payments and the ancillary issues created by these rules were a major concern.”
When the company asked the attendees of its August 2020 Operations Workshop what their top issues and pain points were, their top-of-mind issues had changed significantly.
“Far and away the biggest issue in August was capacity management,” Cameron wrote, noting 41 percent of lenders cited it as their top challenge. Meanwhile, 24 percent of lenders were concerned with retention and recruiting. In the May workshop, no lender cited those issues as problems.
“According to Black Knight, a record $1.1 trillion was originated in the second quarter, 70 percent of which were refinance transactions. Operations executives were consumed by the challenge of processing, underwriting and closing this massive amount of loan volume – they could think of little else, and this trend has continued unabated into September.”
Tactics lenders used to manage capacity include overtime and adjusting workflow processes. Meanwhile, the industry has managed to grow despite the pandemic’s challenges with the increased use of remote online notarization and remote communications using tools like Zoom and BombBomb, according to the report.
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