Mortgage tech news roundup: June 10

This week, digital workflow errors are shockingly high. Mortgage technology giant Black Knight issued a new report on the tight housing market. Vesta and Freddie Mac formed a partnership.  Xactus beefed up one of its key offerings. Guaranteed Rate made some key hires. EarnUp expanded its executive team.

Black Knight

May produced the least affordable housing market in 16 years, but existing mortgage holders saw massive gains in equity during the 2022 first quarter, according to a new report from mortgage technology giant Black Knight.

US home prices rose 42% since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and the average home gained nearly 9% in value since the start of 2022, the company’s Data & Analytics division found in its latest Mortgage Monitor Report.

Additionally, the report found that mortgage holders saw their collective tappable equity jump by $1.2 trillion in the first quarter of 2022. Over the last 12 months, mortgage holders gained $2.8 trillion in tappable equity – a 34% rise, according to the report.

Read more: Mortgage tech news roundup: June 3

Vesta/Freddie Mac

Vesta is integrating with Freddie Mac’s automated mortgage underwriting system to help lenders optimize their processes and automate more.

Vesta is a loan origination system and SaaS company.

Specifically, the integration will be with Freddie Mac’s Loan Product Advisor automated underwriting system. With the combination, lenders using the Vesta loan origination system platform will be able to seamlessly assess their loans against Freddie Mac guidelines.

“Loan Product Advisor is a critical piece of the puzzle in end-to-end digital lending and building automation to ultimately provide a better experience for borrowers,” Vesta co-founder and CEO Mike Yu said in prepared remarks. “Together we hope to create a simplified, clear and straightforward experience for the borrower by enabling a fully optimized and automated process for lenders.”

Xactus

Xactus, a mortgage verification technology company, has added active listing data to its offerings to help lenders attract new applications and keep existing relationships.

Active Listing Scan is designed to scan residential addresses for changes in listing status. It also alerts lenders when properties have been recently listed, relying on a combination of continuously updated listing databases including MLS listing data. Also included: public records from data aggregators.

 The product covers all 50 states with 97% MLS coverage and 99% jurisdictional coverage, and it allows for examination of current servicing customers as well as non-customer lists.

Guaranteed Rate

Fintech mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate has added three veteran executives to its leadership team.

Raman Muralidharan is the company’s new president of New Financial Products, reporting to President and CEO Victor Ciardelli. Anand Cavale was named executive vice president and head of unsecured lending products, and Arun Tripathi is the new executive vice president, and head of New Secured Lending Products. Both Cavale and Tripathi will report to Muralidharan.

Muralidharan was most recently EVP of lending at HSBC USA. Cavali has held previous leadership positions at Citi and SoFi. Tripathi has previous leadership experience at HSBC USA, Bank of America and USAA.

Digital errors

Workflow errors account for more than 70% of the bugs in digital financial experiences, preventing users from completing their jobs, according to a new report from Applause.

Applause is a global digital testing company that works with Fortune 100 companies and others across business sectors including finance and insurance.

The report – “State of Digital Quality” – identified workflow issues in areas including mortgage, loan and credit card applications, credit card activations and travel notifications, temporary account and card locks, portfolio management and integrations with other accounts or systems.

EarnUp

EarnUp, a mortgage industry start-up with a consumer-friendly payments technology platform, has expanded its executive team as it accelerates growth efforts.

Read next: Mortgage tech news roundup: May 27

Michelle Scanlon, an EarnUp employee since 2020, has been promoted to the newly created role of chief people officer and will continue to drive people strategy and enhance the company’s culture.

Aileen Casanave has been appointed as general counsel and is a veteran of many Silicon Valley companies.

Brad Woodcox, an EarnUp employee since 2017, has been promoted to the role of vice president of strategy and operations, and will continue to drive the company’s internal operations and lead company strategy.

Jonathan Flowers has been appointed as head of marketing. He brings with him more than 25 years of experience from companies such as Google, PayPal and Amazon.

The San Francisco-based company’s technology helps originators provide a digital private-label payment experience with flexible mortgage payment options for borrowers or homeowners, even as loans move between different servicers.