Nov. 16: The direction of Freddie & Fannie; STRATMOR on customer experience; vendor news; Saturday Spotlight: TransUnion

Sometimes, in the mortgage process, speed is critical. The same with drive-through food. Taco Bell has done it, coming in with the fastest average drive-thru service time at 194.16 seconds, according to QSR’s annual survey. The average drive-thru experience came in at 244.86 seconds, with some better (KFC, 206.41 seconds) and some worse (McDonalds, 271.81 seconds). The perennial standout is Chick-Fil-A, which has a 298.27-second average service time, and another 181.15-second average wait time on top of that, with customers waiting 479.42 seconds (about 8 minutes) in total to get from the end of the queue to food. n the flip side, no one wants anyone, or any entity, to rush through, say, releasing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, from conservatorship. On to residential lending.

Saturday Spotlight: TransUnion.com

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“Build trust and engage with your consumers more confidently.”

In 3-5 sentences, describe your company (when was it founded and why, what it does, where, recent growth and plans for near-term future growth).

Established in 1968 as a railroad leasing company based out of Chicago, decades of investments in technology, strategic growth and acquisitions, and ongoing expansions into new areas like fraud, marketing, and customer-driven analytics, have drastically broadened our capabilities and transformed us into the leading credit reporting agency you know today.

TransUnion offers thousands of B2B solutions designed to address the unique needs of businesses across multiple industries. Mortgage lenders choose TransUnion for our identity-focused, data-driven mortgage insights and solutions, enabling them to achieve more desirable lending outcomes in a volatile housing market.

Tell us about what type of volunteer work employees are encouraged to engage in, or charities your company supports, and why.

We strongly encourage our associates to volunteer their time and give back to the communities where we operate, providing paid time off to those who participate (in 2023, employees recorded 6,675 volunteer hours). In addition, TransUnion has an established corporate giving program through which we donated nearly $4M in 2023 to community organizations focused on the advancement of economic inclusion, education, racial equity and others — on top of matching $525K in associate donations to eligible non-profits.

 What does your company do to help elevate your employees’ growth? Describe any mentoring programs, outside classes or training, in-house training. How does the company help people develop?

Our ongoing aim is to build a culture where everyone feels they’re in the right place and empowered to succeed. This includes offering tuition reimbursement, enterprise inclusion programs, and promoting participation in business resource groups. Our internal learning hub connects associates with a variety of educational programs and opportunities, in addition to offering career coaching, self-service mentoring guides and development resources.

Tell us how your company maintains its culture in a work-from-home environment, or how you plan on bringing employees back into the office, if applicable.

TransUnion operates as a hybrid-first workplace, and we regularly run (and action inputs from) company-wide surveys that encourage employee feedback. In the most recent survey, 86% of respondents reported being satisfied with the flexibility TransUnion offers.

Things you are most proud of that don’t have to do with sales:

TransUnion’s commitment to expanding financial inclusion is a big reason many of us are proud to work here. Our partnerships with credit unions like VyStar and non-profits like HomeFree-USA help further our goal of expanding mortgage access and education to underserved consumers. For instance, we provide credit education tools (such as our CreditViewTM Dashboard) to HomeFree-USA which aims to help people of color on their homebuying journeys. And collaborations with organizations like FinLocker and MoCaFi support efforts to empower Black Americans building credit and wealth through homeownership.

Is there anything else you’d like to share along these lines?

We always aim to meet our customers where they are, and in a mortgage market that remains tumultuous and unpredictable, helping lenders meet financial goals is a high priority. One current area of focus is preapprovals. When mortgage lenders determine consumers’ creditworthiness earlier in the approval process, they can more easily ensure their time and resources are being invested for the right buyers. This customer-centric focus plays a large role in why lenders choose TransUnion, and we aim to continue delivering on their high expectations in the years to come.

(For more information on having your firm’s extracurricular activities, employee growth, and your charitable side featured, contact Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.) 

Your customer’s experience is everything

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Customers matter. Mike Seminari, with the STRATMOR Group, has thoughts around CX (customer experience) developments and the JD Power report as we head into 2025. “While the rate environment and home prices have certainly put strain on the overall mortgage borrower experience, STRATMOR is seeing lean companies (after several rounds of staff cuts) in many cases outperform their 2023 CX performance metrics.

“Staff count may be a good determinant of CX outcomes in robust markets, but this is less true in down markets. Lean companies have often retained their most productive and highest performing employees. These employees are efficient and highly accountable. The companies we have observed through our MortgageCX program are also laser-focused on communication around a handful of critical touchpoints in the loan process. Following 7 guidelines on each loan routinely produces an NPS of 97 and makes them appear more hands-on and highly personalized, even with limited staff.” (If you’d like to hear more of Mike’s thoughts and how they can help your company, give him a call at 614.284.4030 or book time with him.

Speaking of which, the 2024 U.S. Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study from J.D. Power came out, measuring, “overall customer satisfaction based on performance in six factors (in alphabetical order: communication; digital channels; level of trust; loan offering meets my needs; made it easy to do business with; and people). The latest data show how high rates and rising home prices have put a strain on mortgage customers, and how the responses by lenders have diverged. Some are pursuing a more hands-on advisory role with mortgage customers, and this has led to higher satisfaction.

“But other lenders have struggled. One big problem is that many mortgage lenders have cut staff, making it harder to offer highly personalized customer service. However, local brand reps can foster interpersonal relationships that help increase satisfaction in a big way. Also notable: overall satisfaction is higher when lenders engage with customers early in the process. Overall satisfaction is down after last year’s surge, highlighting the work mortgage lenders have cut out for them.

The election is over, what about Freddie and Fannie?

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Many will say that Freddie and Fannie have been weakened in the last 4-6 years. Ed Groshans with Compass Point Research and Trading had some thoughts on Freddie and Fannie. “Very little stands in the way of the Trump administration ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. President-elect Donald Trump will not be eligible to run for President in 2028, per the 22nd Amendment. Our analysis concludes that the GSEs have repaid Treasury in full. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring is unlikely to be affected. Treasury’s warrants can provide a meaningful revenue stream for the budget reconciliation process. Finally, Key Square Group CEO Scott Bessent’s investment experience would be positive for the GSEs, if he is nominated to be Treasury Secretary. These factors provide flexibility that can enable the Trump administration to end the 16+ year conservatorships of Fannie and Freddie.”

“Trump will have freer hand to initiate executive and administrative actions. Any political pushback to Treasury releasing the GSEs, especially if it involves writing off its $194 billion investment in the GSEs, would not be influenced by reelection concerns. In addition, releasing the GSEs would limit the ability of future administrations to use the entities as housing policy tools to enact policies that are not implemented via legislation passed by Congress.

“The GSEs fully repaid Treasury years ago through their dividends. The GSEs dividend payments to Treasury from 1Q13 to 1Q19 total $138.8 billion for Fannie and $92.2 billion for Freddie. Both exceed Treasury’s Senior Preferred Share (SPS) investment of $117.1 billion and $72.3 billion, respectively. Fannie’s dividend payments represent a raw return of 18% and Freddie’s equals 27%.

“CBO scoring would have to be triggered. According to an October 2024 report, the CBO baseline budget projections and cost estimates use ‘rules set in law.’ The report stated:

For most federal programs, those rules require the use of cash-based estimates, which record spending and revenues in the years when they occur. Outside of the warrants, there are no other GSE-related cash flows for CBO to account for. The GSEs stopped paying Treasury a dividend in 2019. Treasury does not expect the GSEs to draw funds available under the Senior Preferred Share Purchase Agreement. There are no funds for CBO to estimate as Treasury is neither disbursing funds to the GSEs nor receiving funds from them.”

Ed’s thorough note goes on to explain capital shortfalls, and the possibility of the two Agencies having to raise capital, the methods of doing so, and how raising capital would impact their business activities.

“The Trump administration does not need Congressional authorization to release the GSEs. Congress authorized FHFA to be the conservator in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. The Supreme Court ruled that HERA “grants the FHFA expansive authority in its role as a conservator and permits the Agency to act in what it determines is “in the best interests of the regulated entity or the Agency.”” Congress authorized Treasury to purchase any GSE obligations and other securities issued.

“In addition, Congress also provided that: Treasury may, at any time, exercise any rights received in connection with such purchases; and Treasury may, at any time, subject to the terms of the security or otherwise upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell any obligation or security acquired by the Secretary under this subsection. (HERA Sec. 1117).

Ed’s well-thought-out piece ended with, “These broad authorities do not require FHFA or Treasury to seek Congressional approval before initiating GSE-related actions.”

Third party provider tidbits

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Call them vendors or third-party providers, they’re doing a lot. Besides capitalize letters in the middle of their names.

Would you get on a plane with broken or outdated flight controls? Would you feel safe flying blind, hoping all systems are functioning? Managing a mortgage business without complete, real-time insights is like piloting a plane without a dashboard. Are you equipped with the key reporting and analytics to steer your business confidently? With Gallus Insights, you’ll have the data and clarity you need right at your fingertips… No guesswork, just precision. Ready to elevate your data game? Connect with Augie Del Rio, founder and CEO of Gallus Insights, to learn how Gallus can help you take control.

Indecomm has launched IDXGenius, its latest innovation designed to eliminate common and prevalent pain points in mortgage document processing such as indexing, versioning, and document-to-data extraction. Powered by award-winning ML/ AI, IDXGenius is a zero-touch, turnkey automation solution that streamlines these processes, allowing businesses to reduce manual intervention and focus on what matters most. By adopting IDXGenius, mortgage organizations transform their document processing and prioritize strategic initiatives over routine tasks. View fir information in the Press Release.

NotaryCam®, a Stewart-owned company and a pioneering provider of remote online notarization technology for real estate and legal transactions, announced the launch of its “Done For You” eClosing program. This innovative offering provides lenders with the fastest path to eClosings while requiring minimal effort, effectively addressing common hurdles that have traditionally impeded eClosing implementation. Simplifying the implementation process by minimizing changes to lenders’ existing workflows and partnering with title companies to deliver the tools they need to close transactions electronically for any lender customer.

Guild Mortgage and eHome America launched a down payment and closing cost assistance program called MyPath2Own. The program will help first-time homebuyers become “mortgage ready” by providing an education-based path to homeownership, plus qualifying customers will receive up to $4,000 in down payment or closing cost assistance. MyPath2Own is specifically designed to assist those who are looking to purchase a home but do not currently qualify for a mortgage. MyPath2Own helps prepare them for mortgage qualification through homeownership education, counseling, and financial guidance.

Halcyon leveraged its team's 25 plus years of extensive experience in tax preparation and financial services to develop a cutting-edge solution: a comprehensive array of 64 tax transcripts, both personal and business, in PDF and JSON formats. This efficiency is achieved at a markedly lower cost and at a faster speed than current industry standards, with effectively no rejections. Partnering with DataVerify empowers mortgage lenders with robust solutions for fraud prevention and workflow automation. With a deeply configurable and cutting-edge fraud detection platform, lenders can gain insight and efficiency throughout the loan manufacturing process. This collaboration between Halcyon and DataVerify is taking the antiquated transcript process into the modern world, leveraging historical practices to set new industry standards. Together, they are redefining the landscape of mortgage processing, making the dream of a truly digital underwriting tool a reality.

Capacity is expanding with exciting new capabilities; Envision, Linc and Lucy are now part of Capacity. Each recent addition brings tech and talent to help Capacity become a leading provider of AI-powered solutions for customer and employee experience. Together, Capacity now offers the following capabilities: Envision is at the forefront of customer and agent experience enhancement, using AI and automation to analyze 100% of Contact Center interactions and deliver advanced coaching for Contact Center agents. Linc combines best-in-class AI with vertically specialized ontology, workflows, and integrations to help retail and e-commerce brands take CX automation to the next level. Linc-powered CX boosts support efficiency, improves sales conversations, and drives brand loyalty. Lucy® is an AI-powered Answer Engine® that addresses the persistent challenge of navigating vast amounts of information within an organization’s data ecosystem.

Unison Mortgage Corporation, a Unison company, announced the launch of its Equity Sharing Home Loan in Florida and Oregon, which enables homeowners to receive cash today at below-market rates. Unison, the pioneer of equity sharing agreements, also recently announced that global investment firm Carlyle has agreed to purchase up to $300 million of equity sharing home loans from Unison. The innovative Unison Equity Sharing Home Loan combines the benefits of home loans and home equity sharing agreements into a unique mortgage solution that allows homeowners to convert part of their home equity into cash with low monthly payments.

CV3 announced the launch of its Ground Up Construction financing, a new product designed to provide real estate investors with comprehensive support from acquisition to project completion. This financing solution meets the increasing demand from investors focusing on non-owner-occupied residential construction, empowering them to bring their projects to life with confidence and efficiency. With the real estate investing sector thriving amid economic challenges, CV3 remains laser-focused on providing tools that empower investors to succeed. Ground Up Construction financing meets the growing demand for comprehensive project support, especially from investors who are tackling 1–4-unit residential developments and need streamlined, investor-friendly financing.

A guy goes to the supermarket and notices a very attractive woman waving at him.

She says, “Hello.”

He's rather taken aback because he can't place where he knows her from, so he asks, “Do you know me?”

To which she replies, “I think you're the father of one of my kids.”

Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife.

So, he asks, “Are you the stripper from the bachelor party that I made love to on the pool table, with all my buddies watching?”

She looks into his eyes and calmly replies, “No, I'm your son's teacher.”

Visit www.robchrisman.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or to subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. If you're interested, visit my periodic blog at the STRATMOR Group web site. The current STRATMOR blog is titled, “Help Borrowers Tap Into $36 trillion Available in Home Equity.” The Commentary’s podcast is live and at any place you obtain your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify).

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(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes visit LenderNews. This newsletter is for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For up-to-date mortgage news visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2024 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasional 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.)