Why join a state organization? Vendor news; Saturday Spotlight: TransUnion
We’re in a numbers business. Others as well… like crayons. Who knew that making turkey drawings from outlining hands is exciting business? It’s Crayola’s big month with back-to-school, and all summer the crayon maker has been cranking out 13 million crayons a day from its factory in Easton, Pennsylvania, a rate 8 percent higher than the rest of the year. Half of Crayola annual sales happen in the nine weeks leading up to Labor Day, and the Easton plant produces 350,000 24-count boxes every day. The wax that goes into the crayons is stored molten in silos that hold a three-day supply at a time. Pigment arrives in sacks that weigh 3.85 pounds each, and the facility goes through 450,000 pounds of wax every five days. Speaking of numbers, occasionally I am asked about our MBA and its financial numbers and partners. Given the corporate structure, the MBA information is public, including officer and vendor information, via Form 990, just like hundreds or thousands of other organizations.
Saturday Spotlight: TransUnion
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Data-driven decisions. Better business outcomes.
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, as well as 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.)
State & regional organizations: in the trenches with members
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“The number one reason to become a member of the California MBA is to support our legislative and regulatory advocacy. We are on the front line with policy makers who make decisions that affect your ability to run your companies and provide services to your customers. This year alone we’ve worked to encourage state leaders to fix our insurance crisis by highlighting how the California insurance crisis is impacting the real estate finance industry. We’ve also worked incredibly hard to achieve amendments to a bill that would have allowed borrowers to elect to opt out of automated underwriting, thus forcing manual underwriting. As amended, the bill excludes the mortgage industry. These are small examples of the important issues we fight every year. Support the associations that support you and your business” contributed Susan Milazzo, CEO of the California Mortgage Bankers Association.
Scott Norman, CEO of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association, recommended, “Membership in the Texas MBA brings a number of tangible benefits to anyone conducting business in the 254 counties of Texas. With the legislature coming back to Austin in January, it is important to remember that we are taking up the front line of legislative and regulatory advocacy for our members. Regardless of where you fit in the mortgage process, we are communicating your needs to the decision makers in and around the Capitol. Additionally, our conferences are routinely crowded with the best and brightest mortgage minds in the country, so the educational and networking opportunities are unlimited. In short, there is always space in our tent for anyone in the residential real estate industry.
“The Illinois Mortgage Bankers Association is an organization that has been serving the real estate finance community in Illinois for 103 years. The IMBA is a network of individuals and companies with a common interest: the mortgage business. The association’s goal is to advocate for our members and provide the best programs and resources available to help them succeed, including industry-wide networking opportunities and partnerships; Industry specific training, education and professional development; Committee participation; Member participation in forums on regulation, compliance, capital markets, and affordable housing and most importantly, advocacy efforts as IMBA leaders work on behalf of its members to sustain a favorable business environment.in the State of Illinois. We provide resources tailored to the mortgage industry in our state and we are always looking out for our members. And we can’t do it without them!” Reach out to Executive Director Barbara Zajicek with questions.
Vendor tidbits
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L1 Insurance is a truly innovative homeowners insurance solution exclusively for Lenders One Members. “Make it easier for your borrowers to secure the homeowners insurance coverage they need with L1 Insurance. Ensure your borrowers can quickly get multiple competitive quotes for homeowners insurance in all 50 states, enabling your team to close loans faster and with less friction. L1 Insurance integrates seamlessly with your loan origination software to share borrower and property information with a team of licensed agents, who can quickly prepare an application for insurance.”
LERETA, a leading national provider of real estate tax and flood services for mortgage servicers, announced a strategic relationship with CMG Financial (CMG), a privately held mortgage banking firm based in San Ramon, CA, to manage real estate taxes and flood insurance for CMG’s servicing portfolio. “This decision to use LERETA was part of a broader decision to move its 400,000-loan portfolio from sub-servicing to in-house servicing. A large part of the decision to move in-house was to improve the experience CMG is able to deliver to its customers, including how it handles real estate and flood insurance issues.”
“LERETA's tax and flood servicing suite offers a comprehensive array of solutions designed to simplify and optimize the management of real estate taxes and flood insurance. Leveraging cutting-edge technology and unparalleled industry expertise, LERETA delivers accurate, timely, and compliant services that support diverse business rules and the unique nuances of lenders’ portfolios and processes.”
The Lender Price pricing engine for brokers is 100% free to access and provides one of the largest investor libraries, the most extensive broker user bases in the industry, and some of the best pricing available for every possible loan type. Get access to hundreds of loan programs including agency, non-agency, home equity, non-QM, DSCR, and alternative loan programs.
Financial institutions are under no obligation to publicly post their current mortgage interest rates and fees. But today's banks, credit unions and IMBs are increasingly experimenting with laying their cards on their table or, in this case, their websites in an effort to draw in more loan applicants and satisfy calls from the CFPB and others for greater rate and fee transparency.
A new integration between LoanPASS, a loan decisioning and pricing engine, and BankingBridge, a mortgage lead-generation platform, is making it easier than ever to share real-time loan programs, interest rates, and fees with customers on the web.
More detail can be found in the full news release.
Kriss Law/Atlantic Closing & Escrow (“KL/ACE”), a national, attorney-driven settlement services firm, has launched a support initiative for real estate and mortgage lending professionals nationwide in the wake of the pending NAR commission lawsuit settlement, which many believe will dramatically change the realty landscape. As part of this initiative, the firm is making its professionals available to answer questions about this new reality. Real estate professionals may contact the firm with questions at narlawsuit@krisslawatlantic.com at any time.
Informative Research, a leading technology platform that delivers data-driven solutions to the lending community, announced the launch of new alert types to enhance the portfolio monitoring service offered by Informative Research Data Solutions. These advanced alerts offer sophisticated monitoring capabilities, enrich lenders’ portfolio monitoring and borrower engagement strategies, and solidify Informative Research as a data solutions leader in the mortgage industry. One of the most significant additions is the PMI removal alert, which notifies the lender when their borrower’s equity position reaches the appropriate level to eliminate PMI and ultimately reduce the borrower’s monthly mortgage payment. Advanced suppression logic ensures a seamless borrower experience by preventing duplicate alerts.
Wire and title fraud risk remained at elevated levels during Q2 2024 with 47% of loans in Q2 2024 having at least one risk issue. Discover more information with FundingShield Q2 2024 Wire Fraud Analytics.
Several men are in the locker room of a golf club. A cell phone on a bench rings and a man engages the hands-free speaker function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops to listen.
MAN: "Hello."
WOMAN: "Hi Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?"
MAN: "Yes."
WOMAN: "I'm at the shop now and found this beautiful leather coat. It's only $2,000. Is it OK if I buy it?"
MAN: "Sure, go ahead if you like it that much."
WOMAN: "I also stopped by the Lexus dealership and saw the new models. I saw one I really liked."
MAN: "How much?"
WOMAN: "$90,000."
MAN: "OK, but for that price I want it with all the options."
WOMAN: "Great! Oh, and one more thing. I was just talking to Janie and found out that the house I wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $980,000 for it."
MAN: "Well, then go ahead and make an offer of $900,000. They'll probably take it. If not, we can go the extra eighty thousand if it's what you really want."
WOMAN: "OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!"
MAN: "Bye! I love you, too."
The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths wide open.
He turns and asks, "Anyone know whose phone this is?"
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 blog is titled, “Hiring: Do You Remember How to Do That?” 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.)