Modernizing Mortgage: Bridging Origination & Servicing with ICE

HousingWire

ICE Mortgage Technology unifies origination and servicing with AI and data integration for a seamless mortgage experience.

Transcript

00:00And we are live from MBA Servicing.

00:07My guest is Tim Bohler, President of ICE Mortgage Technology.

00:11Tim, it is so great to speak to you today.

00:13Diego, it's great to be hosted.

00:15So I really appreciate the chance to connect with you and your readers, your listeners.

00:20So it's a fabulous opportunity for me.

00:22Yeah.

00:23So before we dive in, could you briefly introduce yourself and also your role at ICE?

00:29Sure.

00:30So Tim Bohler, the President of ICE Mortgage Technology, which is the business that we

00:36have at Intercontinental Exchange, or what's commonly referred to as ICE, that really provides

00:42core technology to the origination and servicing business here in the United States of America.

00:46So we're a combination of a number of legacy organizations that many of your readers or

00:50listeners will be familiar of.

00:52The Legacy Black Knight Company, the Legacy LA Made Company, the Legacy Merge, which serves

00:58as the end of the system of record for servicing, as well as the Legacy Simplifile, which does

01:03recording of security interests at the county level.

01:06So at ICE, we pulled these companies together over really the last decade to try to provide

01:12a unified technological approach to the housing finance industry.

01:16Right.

01:17Let's talk a little bit more about that unification.

01:20You've made some investments since the acquisition of Black Knight in bridging what has kind

01:25of been a historical divide between origination and servicing technology.

01:32How is that investment going, and how is it impacting your clients?

01:36So I'll answer your question very directly, well.

01:40But I think on that point, it's really important to anchor with what we're trying to help the

01:45industry accomplish, which is a fundamentally much better homeowner household experience.

01:51So historically, there's just been very much a disconnect between the underlying process

01:57of getting a mortgage relative to how that service and the technology then underpinned

02:01that.

02:02And at ICE, we have a vision that by creating a unified ecosystem where that technology

02:07is unified around that point of origination and what's necessary to complete that file,

02:13to get that mortgage funded, get that mortgage recorded and registered, and then have those

02:17key data points and documents flow seamlessly into your system of record for servicing to

02:22help that servicer interface with the household as dynamically and as appropriately as possible.

02:27It's just going to create a win-win-win for the whole housing finance system in the US.

02:33Households will have a better experience with their originator because there'll be technology

02:36first, meeting that household where they want to be met within the context of the point

02:40of origination.

02:43With the servicer, whether it's retained servicing or sold servicing, the servicer is just going

02:48to know that household better.

02:49They're going to know the background of that household from the point of origination.

02:52They're going to be able to interface with that household on a much more intuitive basis

02:56and value-add basis, and then help that household, from my perspective, much more dynamically

03:02as they go through that life of loan journey.

03:05When's the right time to refinance?

03:08Is it right to consider a home equity loan within the context of certain life circumstances

03:12or on that best day in anybody's housing journey when you've made that last payment, you own

03:16the house free and clear, helping get that lien released without any sweat by the household?

03:23Really that's our anchoring point, which is how can we use technology to help households

03:28have a better experience through our partners that provide origination and or servicing

03:36services?

03:37That ecosystem, you mentioned that as a key word in your last response, it sounds really

03:43different from, certainly my experience as a homeowner, going from the purchase to being

03:48serviced.

03:49Yes.

03:50Can you dig a little bit more on that ecosystem concept and how it's going to change things?

03:56It fundamentally gets anchored in the data, knowing that household.

04:02More often than not, historically, a loan would be originated for a household.

04:06It would be either moved to the servicing department if it was retained servicing, so

04:10the originator retained servicing, or in many instances, the servicing would be sold.

04:15To another third party, it would actually collect the mortgage payments.

04:20Through those processes, just core pieces of information would get lost.

04:25A fundamental understanding of the household that got that mortgage would break down.

04:31That would really inhibit that servicer from engaging with that household in really a much

04:36more user-friendly, dynamic, and in many often ways, value-add basis.

04:42Our thought process was that if we can unify those technological platforms, the point of

04:48origination through that life of loan arrangement that that servicer has for that household

04:54and have those data sets be consistent, have the underlying documents be saved in a safe

04:59repository so if they ever need to be referenced within the context of a refinancing or a home

05:04equity loan, or as I mentioned earlier, a paying off a loan, you make it easier for

05:08the servicer.

05:09That would create a much better system overall and really help us deliver for our client

05:14base.

05:15Probably from an ROI perspective, retention and recapture is such an issue.

05:20This has to improve that, I would imagine.

05:22I'll give you the simplest example.

05:25Knock on some wood around here if I can find it, that we get interest rates to go down

05:29in this country and folks that have had the burden of having to take on these high mortgages

05:34over the last two and a half years and really felt the affordability crunch that we're all

05:39going through.

05:40If we can get them to refinance much more efficiently when rates do drop and be able

05:45to process that refinancing in a matter of weeks as opposed to a matter of months, then

05:50they can start to benefit from those savings of that lower interest rate a lot faster.

05:54By being able to provide tools for servicers to basically leverage that information that

05:58rests in MSP, which is our servicing system of record, get that into Encompass, which

06:05is our loan origination system, and the supporting consumer engagement software that we have,

06:11you can just help turn that refinancing around faster at a much more transparent rate for

06:15the household in which they then value that housing-finance relationship they have with

06:20you as a servicer and, as I said earlier, start saving money faster, which always makes

06:25everybody happy.

06:26Yeah, it's all about CSAT and a commodity offering, so this improves customer satisfaction.

06:32A hundred percent.

06:33It really does, right?

06:34If you're interfacing with your servicer, you've noticed rates dropped or your servicer

06:39has been proactively and positively engaging with you saying, hey, we noticed you can save

06:44$200 a month, $300 a month, and if you can just work with our portal here to load up

06:50these core documents and we can get you refinanced in under a couple of weeks and start saving

06:54that money, households are going to respond to that, and they're going to have just a

06:58much more favorable impression of their overall housing-finance journey.

07:03So let's talk about technology.

07:05I know that's a big focus for you at ICE.

07:09People are talking about artificial intelligence and how it's going to transform the mortgage

07:12process.

07:13How are you integrating new technology into your platform at ICE?

07:19That's a great question, and it's really foundational and fundamental.

07:23For us, we're looking at the generative AI tools, large language models, machine learning

07:29to really try to drive efficiency in the system to basically free up human capacity to do

07:34more value-added activities.

07:36So a couple simple examples, which is stair and compare work.

07:41There's just way too much stair and compare work in this industry, and we're using data

07:46and document recognition tools, indexing tools, file construction tools to basically reduce

07:51the amount of human involvement there is within the context of originating loan, servicing

07:56loan, or if a servicing transfer occurs, being able to basically allow that to happen much

08:00more efficiently so the borrower or the household can be engaged with by that new servicer with

08:05the least amount of friction or hiccups.

08:08On the customer service side, we've done a phenomenal amount of work that's really paid

08:14off within the context of our predictions on when a household is going to interface

08:18with us, whether that be when they're calling into the call center, whether they're thinking

08:22about how those servicers can engage with them around changes in their escrow payments.

08:27We've done a lot of large data mining, a lot of large data studies that have helped us

08:32be able to push back to our core clients, our servicer base, those predictive models

08:37around when their clients, those households are going to need their help or have questions,

08:42such that those servicers can either meet them in advance digitally, or when that household

08:47calls into the servicer, that call center professional can be like, oh, I see you're

08:53calling.

08:54My guess is you're probably calling in because of ABC issue.

08:57And then the household's like, yeah, that's great.

08:59You know why I'm calling.

09:00Right.

09:01And then the call is very positive, and they can solve the problem a lot quicker.

09:03So it's really driving to find ways to free up human capital, human talent at the originator

09:11of the servicer to do those more high value tasks of making their clients, those borrowers

09:17happier.

09:18Tim, it has been really fascinating chatting with you today.

09:22Love this bridge that you're building between origination and servicing.

09:26Thank you so much.

09:27Thank you so much.

09:28I really appreciate it.

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