What happens when you combine an owner, mold, insurance, a condominium, and a decent lawyer? A bankrupt HOA. And who’s going to lend on a unit in that? Homeowner’s insurance and rising HOA fees are huge contributors to a decline in affordability, but I haven’t heard many politicians talk about them. Insurance companies are definitely profit-driven, and when those profits go away, they scatter. Ukraine continued its attacks on the Russian oil industry, which began with a number of strikes on oil tankers in the Black Sea. Recently Ukraine went ahead with a drone attack on a Russian oil platform in the Caspian sea, halting production. As pressure mounts on Ukraine, the country has begun to involve the sprawling Russian oil and gas operation that fund Russia’s war, which has ramifications for the maritime insurance and oil business worldwide. At least four drone strikes hit the platform on the Filanovsky rig, cutting off extraction at 20 wells. The field produces 120,000 barrels of oil per day. It is also over 700 kilometers away from the nearest border to Ukraine.
Saturday Spotlight: KASTLE
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“The most deployed AI agent in the mortgage industry”
Kastle is an AI platform built specifically for mortgage lenders and servicers to deploy AI agents across their operations. FDIC-insured banks and large IMBs use Kastle to automate customer interactions in sales, customer service, and collections with fully compliant AI agents.
Founded in 2024, Kastle is backed by leading Silicon Valley investors including Y Combinator and Emergence Capital. Since launch, Kastle’s AI agents have handled millions of borrower calls and processed more than $100M in cash transactions for mortgage lenders. The company has also earned top industry recognition, including winning the Digital Mortgage Conference Innovation Challenge and LendingTree’s Innovation Summit.
Lenders are building their AI workforce on Kastle using natural language. Today, Kastle AI agents are used for call summarization to reduce handle time, AI QA/QC to detect compliance issues, AI loan officer assistants to qualify leads and book appointments, AI customer service agents to resolve borrower inquiries across channels, and AI collections agents to reduce delinquency rates. Kastle helps lenders modernize operations, improve borrower experience, and adopt AI in a safe, compliant, and cost-effective way.
Tell us about your employee growth
Every Friday, the company sets aside a four-hour “Research Friday” block for the entire team to experiment with new AI tools and techniques. Many of Kastle’s best internal products have come out of this time, such as integrating AI notetaking into the CRM and testing AI code-review systems. Employees also take part in prompt-engineering classes run internally and externally, with unlimited access to AI tools to accelerate their work and learning. Mentorship comes directly from product and engineering leaders who are hands-on with customer deployments.
How do you contribute to culture?
Kastle is a fully in-person company based in San Francisco. Working side by side allows the team to collaborate quickly, learn from each other, and build strong relationships. Regular team events and happy hours reinforce that close-knit culture as the company scales.
What Kastle is most proud of is the depth of its customer partnerships.
The company sees itself as an extension of its customers’ AI teams, spending time onsite, working shoulder-to-shoulder, and aligning around outcomes. In its early days, Kastle even relocated the entire company to Tempe to help a top five mortgage lender go live, and that same ethos of commitment continues today.
If you want to improve efficiency and borrower experience in your contact center, connect with Kastle to design a one-year roadmap for deploying AI across your operations.
(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.)
Vendor/third party provider news
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There are some very cool programs and software for lenders in both the primary (dealing with borrowers) and secondary (dealing with investors) markets. Let’s take a random look at who’s doing what out there, in no particular order.
Marr Labs announced its collaboration with Figure, a pioneering force in mortgage technology. “This partnership marks a significant step forward in leveraging AI voice agents to enhance borrower communications, streamline processes, and improve overall client experience.
By integrating cutting-edge voice AI technology into Figure’s mortgage operations, we are setting a new standard for what’s possible in the lending industry, making interactions more natural, efficient, and impactful for borrowers and lenders alike. Marr Labs builds better-than-human AI voice agents that respond intelligently, and are purpose-built for the strict demands of mortgage lending: from lead response and qualification to warm transfers to loan officers and ongoing borrower support. Our agents plug into lenders’ existing tech stack (CRM, LOS) to capture data, trigger workflows, and keep borrowers engaged, all while operating in a secure, closed-loop environment with compliance baked in. This means lenders can scale outreach while reducing costs, all without sacrificing the quality or consistency of borrower conversations.”
iEmergent released a new analysis validating that its U.S. mortgage origination forecasts measured using mean absolute percent error (MAPE) have consistently outperformed publicly available forecasts such as those from Fannie Mae and the Mortgage Bankers Association over the past six years. The analysis reflects the advantages of iEmergent’s Purchase Mortgage Generation Rate, which incorporates economic conditions, demographic patterns, and long-term HMDA data to anticipate emerging mortgage activity. That kind of precision matters for lenders making decisions about hiring, capacity and which markets to prioritize. For more insight into iEmergent’s forecasting approach, view the full release.
Lender Price announced the launch of APR (Analyze, Price, and Recapture), its next-generation recapture solution powered by real-time market data and purpose-built to help mortgage lenders and servicers. Built on the same cloud-native, AI-driven foundation behind our industry-leading PPE, APR modernizes portfolio management and transforms how teams identify and re-engage borrowers at scale.
If you are trying to make sense of how AI should be used responsibly in mortgage and what it really means for lenders in 2026, this new whitepaper is worth your time. It breaks down where AI can help, where it needs guardrails, and how leaders can blend technology with human expertise in a way that strengthens trust and improves the borrower experience. It also offers a practical lens for evaluating AI tools, communicating their use to customers, and asking the right questions before rolling anything out. Download the whitepaper here for a clear, grounded look at responsible AI and how Aiva, Dark Matter Technologies’ intelligent approach to AI, automation, and machine learning, continues to shape what thoughtful and transparent innovation should look like across the industry.
“Extreme weather events are steadily increasing in frequency and intensity. For lenders, gaining a full understanding of the impact of climate-related events on loans in their pipeline can be challenging as, historically, climate data has lacked in granularity. This can leave lenders in the dark when it comes to managing and mitigating climate risk. The good news is there’s a better way. ICE offers a robust suite of climate risk solutions that leverage current, comprehensive data, and advanced analytics to deliver unmatched visibility into the potential and actual impact of climate-related events to subject properties. Further, by gaining access to climate and affordability data in near real time, users can better prepare before a disaster strikes, receive alerts and monitor loans during a disaster event, and accurately track property risk post-disaster. Read our blog to learn more.”
Credit union lenders are still talking about this webinar with Telhio Credit Union Loan Officer Allie Hager and Realtor Kelly Hamilton of Realty Forward. Moderated by LenderLogix CEO Patrick O’Brien, the session offered an inside look at how credit unions are strengthening relationships with realtors by being more accessible, more responsive, and more modern in the way they serve borrowers. Attendees came away with real examples of what after-hours lending looks like today, how technology is helping realtors trust their CU partners, and why credit unions that embrace these practices are winning more purchase business. The full replay is now available on demand and is a must-watch for credit unions looking to improve their purchase market strategy. Watch the replay here.
Asset Based Lending (ABL) offers its Broker Program where mortgage brokers can earn up to 4 percent commission on funded deals while giving their investors access to some of the fastest and most flexible financing in the industry. We deliver pre-approvals in 24 hours and can close in as little as 10 days, helping your clients move quickly from opportunity to execution. Whether they’re financing a fix and flip, new construction, bridge, or rental project, ABL provides the capital and service to make it happen – and you get paid for every deal you refer. There are no caps on your earning potential, no red tape, and no competing for clients. Join the nation’s premier private lender for real estate investors and grow your business with ABL at your side. For more information, click here.
Secondary deals drive primary prices (and rates)
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Would an individual or company manufacture something that no one wanted? That’s highly unlikely. Although originators don’t have to know the exact details, they should know that big offerings occur in the secondary markets. Who’s doing what?
Rithm Capital launched a $493.7 million non-prime RMBS offering. “Rithm Capital Corp. has announced a debt offering through the New Residential Mortgage Loan Trust 2025-NQM7 (NRMLT 2025-NQM7), a $493.7 million non-prime residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transaction. The offering consists of 10 classes of mortgage-backed notes, with the underlying pool comprising 915 residential mortgages. The majority of these loans were
originated by NewRez LLC and Champions Funding, LLC, and will be serviced by
NewRez LLC. The pool features a weighted average original credit score of 757 and a weighted average original loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 72.2%. Additional information, including ratings and relevant documents, is available at https://www.kbra.com.
Angel Oak’s latest RMBS deal raised $322 million. “Angel Oak Mortgage Fund EU B is sponsoring a securitization of revenue from a pool of 609 residential mortgages and will sell the $321.9 million in RMBS to investors. The pool has what Kroll Bond Rating Agency calls a meaningful concentration of non-prime loans, which include non-qualified mortgages (non-QM), which compose most of the pool, 66.1 percent, or exempt, which accounts for 33.9 percent from the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule, the rating agency said. About nine tranches of class A, M and B notes will come to market, according to KBRA and Fitch Ratings, which also assessed the notes. All the notes have a final scheduled maturity date of December 2070, the rating agencies said. BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Securities will manage the deal, which closed in late November.
“On a weighted average (WA) basis, the collateral mortgages have a slightly higher leverage level than previous transaction, with an original loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 71.9%, compared to 70.7% on the AOMT, series 2025-11, KBRA said. The mortgages have a balance of $528,681, the rating agency said. The A1 through A3 certificates will pay a fixed rate of interest and are capped at the net weighted average (WA) rate according to their distribution dates, Fitch said. Asset Securitization Report’s deal database finds that the A1A and A1B notes, rated AAA from KBRA and Fitch, are expected to pay investors a coupon of 5.15%.
“Traditional, full-documentation underwriting accounted for just 9.8% of the collateral pool, according to KBRA. Alternative documentation and debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) accounts for a large majority of the loans in the pool, 86.9%, according to KBRA.
KBRA assigns A to the class A3 notes; and BB- and B- to the B1 and B2 notes, respectively. Fitch assigns A to the A3 notes and BBB- to the class M1 notes.
Freddie Mac announced the sale of approximately $4.9 million in deeply delinquent non-performing residential first-lien loans, totaling 25 loans, from its mortgage-related investments portfolio to Revolve Capital LLC. The loans, serviced by Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc. and located in Texas, were sold through Freddie Mac’s Extended Timeline Pool Offering (EXPO) and are expected to settle in December 2025. About 42 percent of the loans had been previously modified but later became delinquent. Purchasers must honor existing loss mitigation agreements, continue borrower outreach, and complete any pending mitigation actions. The sale, marketed beginning September 25, 2025, was advised by BofA Securities, Inc. and First Financial Network, Inc.
“Vista Point Mortgage announced its participation in the closing of VSTA 2025-CES3, a $350 million securitization of Non-QM Closed-End Second Lien Mortgages (CES), including our innovative DSCR CES, an industry first. Vista Point pioneered the Non-QM CES asset class through its development in 2022 and national launch in late 2022. With over $2 billion in CES production, six securitizations, and a deep bench of investors, Vista Point continues to set the standard for innovation and execution in the Non-QM space. This milestone follows our recent achievement of surpassing $9 billion in lifetime volume since launching the platform in 2019, a testament to our team’s expertise, dedication, and unwavering commitment to excellence. To learn more, visit here or email us.”
Freddie Mac announced the pricing of its $343.2 million Seasoned Loans Structured Transaction Trust (SLST) Series 2025-2, a securitization backed by nearly 2,000 seasoned residential mortgage loans that include both modified and unmodified loans, none more than 150 days delinquent. The deal features $308.8 million in guaranteed senior certificates and $34.3 million in non-guaranteed subordinate certificates, with settlement expected on October 30, 2025. The SLST program, part of Freddie Mac’s broader effort to reduce less-liquid assets and transfer credit and market risk, complements its long-running initiatives involving sales of non-performing and re-performing loans, through which the company has sold or securitized over $92 billion since 2011.
The holidays are upon us, which for many involve a little sentimentality, so here’s a little something for animal lovers that is a divergence from the usual humor and trivia.
Visit www.ChrismanCommentary.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. You can also explore the Chrisman Marketplace, a centralized hub connecting mortgage professionals with trusted vendors and solutions. If you’re interested, check out my periodic blog on the STRATMOR Group website. This month’s piece is titled, “Artificial Intelligence in Mortgage Lending.” The Commentary’s podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple and Spotify.
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(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes, visit the Chrisman Job Board. This newsletter is intended for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For the latest mortgage news, visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.ChrismanCommentary.com. Copyright 2025 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman. The views and opinions in this newsletter are mine alone unless otherwise specifically stated herein.)
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