WebMax, a digital mortgage solution provider, and FinLocker, a financial data and analytics platform, announced today that they finalized a partnership as a result of successful execution on their five joint customers. The partnership aims to build on 17 months of collaborative efforts to further propel lenders into the digital mortgage revolution.
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, between 2010 and 2017, mortgages took 70 percent longer to close and origination costs skyrocketed 80 percent as the burden of regulatory compliance grew.
“The best ideas, especially in technology, are born out of the need to solve a problem. Home buyers need a faster, easier way to get a mortgage. Lenders need a more efficient, less costly way to originate loans. The combined solution of WebMax and FinLocker makes that happen,” said Curt Tegeler, president and CEO of WebMax.
WebMax streamlines the mortgage application process with a range of products, including enterprise-level mortgage websites, graphic pre-qualification forms, and point-of-sale (POS) applications. FinLocker automates previously manual loan processes by collecting, verifying, and analyzing crucial borrower information like assets, employment, income, taxes, credit and more. Essentially, WebMax provides a portal for borrowers and loan officers, while FinLocker integrates with the portal to automate slow and costly back end loan processes.
“Based on marketplace feedback – what our customers told us – this partnership provides the leading solution to improve the home buyer’s experience while significantly reducing costs for the lender at the most cost-effective price,” said Peter Esparrago, CEO of FinLocker.
"We created a task force team last year that was made up of business leaders from originations, compliance, operations and executive management with the goal of finding a best in class provider to provide a digital customer experience and improve loan efficiency.
We looked at over 20 different providers in the space and determined that the combination of WebMax/FinLocker was the best in class provider that allowed us to achieve the digital customer experience and reduce loan manufacturing costs," said Mike Goldman, COO of AmCap, a mortgage lender with 900 employees across 120 branches and 30 states.
WebMax’s POS application, START, makes borrowing easier with smart data entry, auto-fill fields, and a user-friendly interface that walks applicants through each step of the loan application. START is reactive, meaning that it intuitively adapts to each borrower and condenses the application into the shortest possible version.
Unlike other data providers, FinLocker does far more than collect and supply financial information. FinLocker verifies and analyzes the borrower financial data. It utilizes its advanced rules engine and intelligent algorithms to sift through the data, identify irregularities and red flags, and determine vital loan processing and underwriting factors such as qualifiable income. This advanced data analysis automates manual and time consuming processes to significantly reduce lenders’ costs while allowing for faster loan approvals for the home buyer.
“When FinLocker identifies red flags, loan processors can go right into START and communicate with the borrower to solve the issue. It’s a one-two punch,” said Tegeler.