Executive Conversations is a HousingWire web series that profiles power people in the financial industry, highlighting the operations and the people that make this sector tick. In the inaugural installment, we sit down with Greg Botto, executive vice president of North America with Quatrro Mortgage Solutions, Inc., to get a glimpse of how its mortgage division works to simplify the mortgage process.
HousingWire: What is your role at Quatrro?
Botto: We are a multinational company and have about 4,000 employees worldwide. We operate out of 4 countries: the U.S., U.K., Canada and India. We have multiple business units among those 4,000 employees, and one of them is Mortgage Solutions. Within the mortgage space, we deliver our services through a dual shore delivery model: onshore and offshore. I manage the operations and the business development for the onshore business in the U.S. My primary function is primarily business development and client relationships.
HW: How do you go about developing the mortgage business side?
Botto: We take a two-prong approach here at Quatrro. Our business development team “farms” deals, and then I typically go out, meet the client and close the deal. Additionally, I discuss with them our return on investment, why they should engage with us and why they should outsource. A big part of my day is just educating the client on what outsourcing in the mortgage space really is.
HW: What do you see as the biggest issue they need to have outsourced?
Botto: There are times when do get resistance from clients who think we are here to take away jobs and offshore them, which is the furthest thing from the truth. Our value proposition is to make your existing staff and operation more efficient. In the mortgage space we provide two different types of services: loan fulfillment and due diligence.
HW: What sort of problems so you solve for your clients?
Botto: One, we provide loan fulfillment services for banks and lenders. For example, they will generate a loan application with the borrowers, and we take the loan from that point forward to process it to closing. We can manage the entire gambit end-to-end for the clients, or we can do it à la carte by just performing a piece of it. The other part of our business is Due Diligence either in an RMBS litigation context or a new securitization context
HW: Where are the benefits of outsourcing?
Botto: The number one benefit is variable cost: we simply charge by the loan, so now the client is on a variable cost model. They are paying as you go, if you will. Two, we make their existing staff more efficient. As previously mentioned, we are not the type of outsourcing company that advocates getting rid of your staff. We do not believe in the old paradigm “your mess for less”. We believe in keeping existing staff and offering process improvement and best practices to make your staff and operation more efficient.
HW: How do you go in there and initiate fixing employee lack of productivity?
Botto: We go in always with a dual shore offering. However, we do not advocate that we are 100% offshore, and typically explain the differences between outsourcing and offshoring. Outsourcing is synonymous to subcontracting. The client needs to understand they can get the benefit of the cheaper labor force and the 24/7 operation if they offshore some of the components, but that never is mandated. We are here to find a way to make your operation more efficient by still keeping your staff onboard, and we show them how to do that. The rules of the games are changing, and we know those rules very well. Given all the new regulations nowadays, we can help you process more compliant loans while still maintaining efficiency.
HW: Are you looking to expand?
Botto: We are getting very involved in the securitization side, which is a positive thing. As these securities are starting to get bundled and produced in the industry, these bank underwriters are looking for 100% due diligence. They want every loan in that security to be reviewed, and of course, the banks can’t do it themselves. We are getting really involved in that business as this sector begins to grow again. At the height it was a $900 billion market, this year they estimate $100 billion securities will close. It is trending itself back up, which is a positive thing, since it creates liquidity in our industry.
