Executive arrivals, new products and more
This week, PennyMac Financial Services appointed a new chief mortgage innovation officer. Real estate technology company Doma extended its technology to the home equity market. Mortgage lending fintech TRUE recently made some key product updates and hires. VeriFast, which automates financial analysis for mortgage underwriting, business lending and tenant screening, hired two new key executives. FirstClose, a provider of data and workflow technology mortgage and home equity lenders, hired a new chief marketing officer.
Doma
Real estate technology company Doma Holdings has extended its technology to the growing home equity market.
The resulting product is a home equity financing offering for lenders, using the company’s Doma Intelligence platform to accelerate the title search for home equity loans and home equity lines of credit.
Doma is able to speed up the process, in part, through its use of machine intelligence.
Read more: Mortgage tech news roundup: Sept. 30
The gains Doma is pitching through the new product include less time to close, with commitment packages delivered in hours versus the industry norm of days. Doma said that clients also gain a dedicated service team with increased customer satisfaction due to fewer missed opportunities.
True
Mortgage lending fintech TRUE recently made some key product updates and hires.
The New York-based company said it updated its data intelligence product, Trapeze, to include automated classification, extraction, analysis and versioning, without the need for humans in the process. It has also launched VerifAI, a new data verification tool that automates loan due diligence, audit, quality control and compliance by holistically verifying every document and datapoint across every loan. By doing so, the tool helps reveal anomalies that would otherwise lead to undetected risks.
TRUE’s new hires include Devin Daley as chief revenue officer, who previously held business development roles at Homebridge Financial Services, Vantage and Ellie Mae. Earlier this year, the company hired Stephen Epstein as chief marketing officer, Brian Dempster as chief technology officer. All execs are filling first-time positions at TRUE, the company said.
Other hires include Bob Noble as senior vice president of product and innovation and Matt Conrad, vice president of product solutions.
VeriFast
VeriFast, which automates financial analysis for mortgage underwriting, business lending and tenant screening, hired two new key executives.
Rob Strickland has been named chief revenue officer and Chris Pornaras is the new chief commercial officer.
Previously, Strickland was at Brimma, a mortgage technology provider focused on modern technology integration and innovation. He has also held leadership positions at Capco, Blue Sage Solutions and IBM. Pornaras is a veteran of the Canadian Financial Services and has also led Canada’s largest mortgage origination utilities. In addition, he worked with several startup companies to develop long-term success strategies.
VeriFast is a Toronto-based company centered around a Verification-as-a-Service platform that relies on AI to automate financial analysis and decision making for mortgage underwriting, tenant screening and business lending. Its single-source configurable API platform helps companies immediately validate customers’ ability to pay while eliminating fraud.
The company has customers throughout North America.
PennyMac Financial Services
PennyMac Financial Services appointed Jerry Halbrook as its chief mortgage innovation officer.
Halbrook, a fintech industry veteran, will develop and launch new technology products and services. He’ll also be tasked with prepping the company for future innovations and enhancing Pennymac’s business model.
Most recently, Halbrook was CEO of Volly, a fintech that focuses on technology products and services for the mortgage and real estate industry. He also served as a board member and CEO at Lender Price and worked a long stint as president of Black Knight Origination Technologies, Inc., according to his LinkedIn profile. Overall, he has 40 years of experience and has held senior roles working for top 10 mortgage lenders plus boutique and large fintech companies.
Halbrook “is a proven leader who will accelerate Pennymac’s growth in sectors where our industry is moving, especially in today’s competitive and volatile market,” Doug Jones, president and chief mortgage banking officer at Pennymac, said in prepared remarks.
FirstClose
FirstClose, a provider of data and workflow software and services for mortgage and home equity lenders, hired Carol Crawford as its chief marketing officer.
Read next: Former Volly CEO makes the switch to Pennymac
Crawford will lead strategy and oversee execution of brand development, integrated marketing and multi-channel communications that boost awareness and demand for the company and its offerings.
The 20-year industry veteran was senior director at ICE Mortgage Technology, where she handled business strategy and product marketing for ICE’s AIQ and TPO Connect products. Before that, she was chief marketing officer of ClosingCorp where she led the account management and marketing teams and set the company’s go-to-market strategy for nearly eight years.
Previously, she also held senior marketing positions at both CoreLogic and First American.
Crawford “is a highly accomplished and visionary leader in data and technology marketing and sales with a proven track record of creating effective campaigns that drive revenue growth,” FirstClose CEO Tedd Smith said in prepared remarks.
