From the Top
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RM: Even with the education NRMLA strives to pro- vide, many loan officers don’t fully understand FHA’s policies and timelines that servicers must strictly follow. What words of wisdom would you like to share with our readers to help them better understand Celink’s role and responsibilities? MM: Celink wants to work with every borrower and their heirs to deliver the best solution for their situation. However, Celink must abide by program guidelines and timelines set forth by HUD and our clients; failure to do so will result in financial penalties. We encourage loan officers to make sure borrowers and heirs know that staying in touch with the servicer, especially if there is a default or when the borrower passes away, is key. Loan officers can help reiterate that communications from the servicer—mail, phone calls and emails—contain important information regarding their loan that may be time-sensitive and should not be ignored. Responding and acting timely when the servicer reaches out will provide a smoother customer experience and may prevent the loan from going into default unnecessarily. We can’t track if borrowers read their mail, but we do know that 70 to 80 percent of them open their emails. Our goal is to get as close to a 100 percent open rate as possible. Getting borrowers to look at the communications we send is critical. RM: How can loan officers make your job easier? MM: Borrowers often contact their loan officer with servicing questions because they’re considered a trusted adviser. However, loan officers must confirm the answers to borrower questions first and avoid guessing if they’re not sure. Answering servicing questions incorrectly, even with the best of intentions, is harmful and negatively impacts the borrower’s perception of the product and process. It’s best always to refer them back to us. We are the experts. When an event happens, we will know how to guide either the borrower or the heirs through that event.
allows for self-serve options. As of the end of May, 35 percent of the borrowers who call us choose a self-serve option, and that will continue to grow. Sixty percent of LOC draw requests go through a digitization process, meaning we don’t have to talk to the borrower. It’s all done electronically. RM: Where does artificial intelligence (AI) fit into these efforts? MM: LOC draws and the documents that need to be processed are handled through an AI process. In addi- tion, every month, we have 50,000 customer calls going through an AI scoring mechanism. The customer calls in, and the machine goes through all those calls and scores them based on about ten components. The AI assesses whether the call was done well and gives it a score. Any score below the threshold we’ve set, we then manually review. We don’t have the workforce to review 50,000 calls, but the AI machine can do that. We’re looking forward to leveraging generative AI for tasks like pre-call and post-call summarization, which will further enhance efficiency and the borrower experience. RM: What policy changes would you like to see adopted by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to help further improve the servicing experience for borrowers? MM: This doesn’t directly impact borrowers, but Ginnie Mae and the industry have been working on HECM Mortgage-Backed Securities (HMBS) 2.0. If it gets adopted, I believe more lenders will enter the market, which then will make the product available to more consumers. Perhaps the most important change I’d like to see adopted—one which I think would be close to your heart because NRMLA has been advocating for it—is to lower the upfront mortgage insurance pre- mium. Volumes would increase and more consumers would embrace the product. ( Editor’s note: HMBS 2.0 refers to a new securitization option Ginnie Mae is work- ing on that would allow HECMs with balances above 98 percent of MCA to be bought out of their existing securities and re-securitized into new pools. )
Darryl Hicks is NRMLA’s vice president of communications.
12 REVERSE MORTGAGE / SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024
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