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Special Reports
Wholesale Showcase: Watching
a Loan Channel
Pair Discuss Technology Advances
By Jennifer Harmon
SAN FRANCISCO -- Accredited Home Lenders has made significant investments in technology,
including the implementation of a service-oriented architecture, based on a Mortgage Integration Foundation created
by WellFound Technology.
As a result of this implementation, AHL has refined and integrated its core business
processes to create an automated loan lifecycle with limited human intervention.
Michael McCoy, director of enterprise architecture at ACH, and Tom Litke, executive
vice president of WellFound Technology, discussed their views on how the MIF allows MISMO-enabled and legacy technologies
to plug-and-play in a scalable, reliable environment at the recent Subprime Lending Symposium, sponsored by Thomson
Media Conferences here.
As technology advances, both agreed that it's important to find a good system
innovator in which to form a partnership and a vendor with an investment in the industry who knows about the present
market as well as future trends.
From the vendor side, Mr. Litke advised mortgage professionals to leverage technology,
but use people to create the solutions. MISMO is helping his company's customers to define who a borrower is and
where a property is located. It enables companies to move into new areas of business such as warehouse lines of
credit, while helping them meet various compliance standards.
"MIF is causing excitement because it's helping to evolve standards as MISMO
changes servicing and secondary market supply," Mr. Litke said. "It helps lenders communicate amongst
themselves without rekeying data. It gets the solution that much better to the lender."
Mr. McCoy has seen a variety of changes in the market environment throughout his
career. He said many people prefer to buy technology and customize certain aspects of it.
"It's always better to be leveraged across multiple companies, but that requires
discipline," Mr. McCoy said.
"It depends on how well each company meets your process. A lot of businesses
want to tailor the software they purchase to meet their needs."
According to Mr. McCoy, a lender doesn't have to dramatically change everything
in its business plan when it comes to technology.
"As things change, you want to be able to pull up information and re-slap
it down. You don't have to change 100% of everything. Build a plan or roadmap that addresses the process,"
he said.
To leverage an existing system, while managing the front end of lead distribution,
Mr. Litke also suggested a standards-based backbone. "Rip when you can. Don't start from scratch," he
said.
To leverage an existing system, while managing the front end of lead distribution,
Mr. Litke also suggested a standards-based backbone. "Rip when you can. Don't start from scratch," he
said.
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