2016 will be a pivotal year for many lenders. The Mortgage Bankers Association is projecting a 10% increase in purchase volume, but a 33% decrease in refi volume, ultimately resulting in fewer originations. The growth that many firms are looking to achieve will not come as a result of market growth, but through the acquisition of productive branches and loan officers, expansion into additional origination channels and investment in organic growth of existing channels to capture additional market share.
These growth opportunities require capital, but with so many demands on limited resources, how can a CEO or CFO determine the best use of their capital?
Alight Mortgage Lending gives CEOs, CFOs, COOs and other company executives the ability to evaluate many different growth opportunities through “what if” analysis, branch pro formas, channel expansion analysis and cash flow forecasting.
“At Alight Mortgage Lending, we’re creating an entirely new class of application,” said Michele McGovern, CEO.
“Previously, planning, forecasting and budgeting were once-and-done exercises and there was no way, as the year progressed, to accurately evaluate how the company was tracking and to reevaluate certain elements of the budget or analyze new opportunities as they arose.”
Typically, mortgage-lending firms can get a clear picture of past performance using a G/L system and get a view of the present through their loan origination, secondary marketing, and other systems or market data sources.
However, there’s been no easy or reliable way to look at all the data available — past and present — and factor those into possible scenarios for the future. If mortgage firm CFOs wanted to look at the myriad ways sharply increased interest rates might affect their bottom line, they had to engage in a lot of hypothesis.
Alight Mortgage Lending transcends that and enables CEOs, CFOs and business users across the enterprise to continuously evaluate the ripple effects of potential future events on their businesses.
“It’s essentially removing a huge amount of uncertainty and guesswork from the running of a business,” McGovern said. “Now CEOs, CFOs and their teams can take all the data at their command, use it to structure an infinite number of ‘what if’ scenarios, and come up with not just a single plan, but a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C.”
Alight Mortgage Lending helps answer key questions like: What happens if mortgage rates skyrocket? Will it be better to open a new branch this quarter or next? Is there enough cash to build franchise value by retaining servicing? Using Alight, lenders can make this kind of scenario-driven analysis a critical part of day-to-day business for all teams across their enterprise.
“We really are aiming to revolutionize the mortgage lending executive’s desktop — how they work and what they’re able to do,” McGovern said.
The first version of Alight’s solution — Alight Mortgage Lending v1.0 — has been on the market for about a year and half, but the company is already developing a newer version of its product.
“We’re very excited about it and look forward to a limited commercial launch in the first quarter,” McGovern said.
Alight’s solutions for continuous financial optimization will be critical for the industry as lenders seek to make the most of the purchase market in the coming year.
“2015 turned out to be an excellent year for many lenders. Our customers and other lenders we talk with experienced strong growth during the year and are looking to continue that growth trend over the next two to three years, but this growth will not come without effort,” McGovern said.
“We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of how we can help mid-tier and larger mortgage-lending firms improve their financial performance."
