
Mortgage suppliers are multiplying, and we can’t underestimate the necessity for a frictionless mortgage, one which removes hoops for our prospects and feels easy, environment friendly and efficient.
As we kick off this yr’s lending situation, I need to pause for a second to replicate on simply how a lot lending has modified. Keep in mind, not that way back, when a mortgage card was handwritten on a one-page type? You’d simply rip off the highest sheet, fill out the phrases and supply an outline of the collateral. From there, the mortgage assistant would key it in and produce mortgage paperwork. That was it. That was the method.
Quick ahead to the place we’re at present, and also you nearly can’t consider it’s the identical product line. The pendulum has swung from a easy resolution to the purpose of utmost element and complexity. Whereas it has had some advantages, like stronger threat administration for our banks, it has made the shopper course of way more daunting. Actually, the mortgage course of has grown extra difficult in lockstep with at present’s monetary panorama.
However group banks have tailored to handle that shift. Over the previous couple of years, we’ve got drawn on expertise to enrich the human contact with digital effectivity and have been utilizing behind-the-scenes automation extra consciously to streamline the method. By implementing these new methods, we’ve got centered on what issues most: our prospects.

The place I’ll be this month
I’ll be attending the 2022 Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington Bankers Associations’ Annual Conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and assembly with ICBA’s board of administrators.
Take, for instance, how the Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) affected our infrastructure. The pressured urgency behind that program lit a hearth below us to implement new options rapidly and effectively, as a result of our small enterprise prospects wanted them. Actually, for a lot of bankers, PPP compelled motion round applied sciences that they had been contemplating for years: every little thing from e-signatures to digital doc processing and past.
That have left me questioning what we could possibly be doing now to anticipate what’s going to come subsequent. As we take into consideration our capability to leverage expertise, what are the low-hanging fruit? What new options can we cease kicking down the highway?
It’s sensible enterprise technique to show inward and ask the powerful questions, significantly as we’re up in opposition to such a aggressive panorama. Mortgage suppliers are multiplying, and we can’t underestimate the necessity for a frictionless mortgage, one which removes hoops for our prospects and feels easy, environment friendly and efficient.
At this time’s lending atmosphere is markedly totally different from that of a decade in the past, however we’ve got weathered bouts of financial volatility, inflation and restrictive rules previously, and we’ve got flourished regardless of them. So, whereas this subsequent spherical of uncertainty will carry with it new challenges, the power of the group financial institution enterprise mannequin stays intact. We, as group bankers, will proceed to adapt to fulfill our prospects’ wants.
Rebeca Romero Rainey
President and CEO, ICBA
Join with Rebeca @romerorainey