PERSON OF THE WEEK: Technology continues to revolutionize the mortgage industry, from origination through servicing through secondary marketing, but along with this revolution has come plenty of challenges. One thing appears certain: technological change is going to continue in the industry for many years to come.
To learn more about the challenges lenders and servicers face on the technology front, MortgageOrb recently interviewed Dori Daganhardt, who in January joined mortgage technology firm ClosingCorp as senior vice president of data strategy.
Daganhardt has more than 20 years of industry experience in leading the development and delivery of strategic market solutions. Prior to joining ClosingCorp, she was a consultant focused on helping companies develop data driven cultures and executing practical product marketing strategies. Earlier, she was the vice president of product and market strategy for the data and analytics division of Black Knight Inc.
Q: You joined ClosingCorp earlier this year in a newly-created position. What will you be doing in this role and how has your past experience prepared you?
Daganhardt: In this role, I will lead the expansion of ClosingCorp’s data and analytics solutions, manage its data governance policies, and implement best practices in the identification, collection, procurement and delivery of underlying data assets used in the company’s solutions.
My past experience as a consultant focused on helping fintech and mortgage companies develop data-driven cultures, as well as working for some of the industry’s largest data and analytics providers, has given me a unique skill set. Through the years, I’ve learned not only how to lead high-performing teams to achieve business objectives, but also how to leverage data to drive down costs and improve customer experience.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges the mortgage industry currently faces from a technology perspective?
Daganhardt: How often does an initial CRM pipeline report not fully reconcile with a report developed from POS or LOS data? How often has a mortgage servicing transfer resulted in a poor customer experience because the new servicer appears to have incomplete or inaccurate account information? Despite clarity provided in TRID 2.0, why do lenders still face tolerance cures?
These are all examples of data fatigue, which, from a strategy perspective, is one of the biggest challenges. Mortgage companies recognize they have rich data sources, but, too often, these sources are siloed – requiring them to perform multiple searches against multiple systems to address a single business question.
In addition, there are challenges with data consistency, integrity and quality. Many lenders receive different answers to the same question due to different source data.
Q: Are lenders still relying heavily on the stare-and-compare approach or have the majority adopted technology to ensure data integrity? Why?
Daganhardt: Progress has been made. Some lenders have adopted technology to ensure data integrity. However, siloed data and suboptimal data governance practices have created challenges that prevent lenders from trusting the data completely. So, lenders continue to “stare and compare”- either more than they realize or more than they want to admit – despite the fact that it’s time consuming and error prone.
Q: How are other mortgage industry stakeholders leveraging technology to ensure data integrity?
Daganhardt: Service providers are partnering with technology providers to deliver their fee information in real time and seamlessly through point-of-sale and loan origination platforms. Industry associations, like the American Land Title Association (ALTA), are leveraging technology to ensure title-agent-related data is accurate.
A couple of years ago, they created the ALTA Registry, a national database of title insurance agents and settlement companies, to help lenders work with reliable vendors and reduce the risk of fraud and tolerance violations.