HousingWire's 2020 Women of Influence winners represent 100 of the most influential women in leadership in the housing industry, and it was no surprise to us that we had so many of our lender members and preferred partners honored this year. These are women that have risen through the challenges of this year to provide guidance and inspiration for their organizations and communities, and foster the next generation of women in leadership.

Preferred Partners:
Charlotte Catalfo, SVP of Enterprise Operations – Freddie Mac
Chao Cong, VP of Business Strategy, Data & Analytics – Black Knight
Riham El-Lakany, VP & Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Single-Family Division –
Freddie Mac
Pam Faulkner, Director of Mortgage Solutions – SimpleNexus
Amy Keyser, SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer of Global Mortgage – Arch MI
Terri Merlino, SVP & Chief Credit Officer, Single Family Business – Freddie Mac
Cecelia Raine, Senior Director, Reimagine Servicing Integrations & Adoption, Single Family –Freddie Mac
Anna Ratanawan, VP of People Operations – SimpleNexus
Leanne Spies, SVP of Multi-Family Asset Management & Operations – Freddie Mac
Crystal Sumner, Head of Legal – Blend
Jacqueline Welch, Chief Human Resources Officer & Chief Diversity Officer – Freddie Mac

Lender Members:
Patty Arvielo, President & Co-Founder – New American Funding
Annie Gotch, AVP, Wholesale Branch Manager – PRMG
Tawn Kelley, President – Taylor Morrison Home Funding
Lisa Fenske, SVP of Marketing & Communications - Waterstone Mortgage
Laura LaRaia, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel – First Guaranty Mortgage Corp.
Chrissi Rhea, CEO, Founder & President – Mortgage Investors Group
Marilyn Richardson, President & CEO – Mason-McDuffie Mortgage Corp.

America's Homeowner Alliance presents ForbearanceReport.org as a resource tool for all members of The Mortgage Collaborative. Designed to educate and empower Lenders, Realtors, Mortgage Practitioners, Housing Counselors and the 35,000 city Managers and Mayors about homeowners impacted by COVID-19.  ForbearanceReport is the only resource that provides comprehensive, rational, real-talk information with video explanation in English and Spanish. It is not intended to provide legal advice – just common sense explanation.
It is the comprehensive collection of public information and mentoring particular to forbearance and loans in distress housed in one centralized location. Highlights include:

• Video explanation of Forbearance in English and Spanish
  
• FAQ section for loans in distress in English and Spanish
  
• All top mortgage servicer forbearance related resource links to information prepared by each organization
  
• Loan Lookup Tool resource links from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac & MERS (to find the current mortgage servicer for nearly every property in the US) and so much more...

​Also, in support of protecting and promoting  sustainable homeownership for all segments of America, America's Homeowner Alliance is currently offering all TMC Member employees and customers a FREE lifetime membership to AHA when entering promo code 'aha2020' when you click to join on AHA's website. Or – simply use the BROWSER on your phone by entering -  aha.rocks.

Top Headlines...
Arvest Bank Rolls Out SimpleNexus Mobile-First Mortgage Platform
Black Knight to Acquire Optimal Blue to Expand Origination Offerings
Register Today for Sales Boomerang's Attention to Retention Challenge!
Fannie Mae Expands Green Bond Issuance, Single-Family Green MBS
ICYMI: SimpleNexus & Optimal Blue Partner to Release Fully-Integrated Mobile Rate-Locking Solution
Multi-Bank Securities Sponsors Operation HomeFront's 2020 Back-to-School Brigade
SocialSurvey Presents Top Performer Best Practices Guide
Stewart: Interest Rates, Housing Sales & Residential Lending Forecast

Thought Leadership...
Vice Capital Markets Principal, Chris Bennett: Unprecedented Growth Requires Counterintuitive Thinking
#NEXTraordinary People: Planet Home Lending COO, Suzy Lindblom Loves a Challenge

Personnel Changes...
CWDL | MortgageBanking CPA Adds Industry Vet Dustin Pfluger for Partner Mortgage Banking
Planet Home Lending Promotes Four Women to Vice President Roles
Total Expert Welcomes Kevin Dotzenrod as VP of Engineering & Laura Theodore as VP of Customer Success
Notarize Welcomes Wendy Ivanoski as VP of Enterprise Strategy

​Blog...
meridianlink Blog: 15 Tips to Optimize Digital Lending & Account Opening for Financial Institutions'
Maxwell Free eBook: Lend From Home - Practical Tips for Remote Mortgage Teams
ACS Accounting: HEROES Act Can Combat Economic Downturn
Capacity: Improve Your Time Management While Working From Home
Freddie Mac: Disaster Preparedness - Know Your Risk
ICYMI: iEmergent: COVID Impact on Housing & Mortgage Markets - Homebuyer Pool, Part 2
LoanVision: Expediting the Mortgage Bankers' Financial Reporting Form
Total Expert: Top Strategies for Technology-Driven Member Retention & Engagement
LoanLogic B-Logics: A Virtual 2020 Fall Conference Season
Timios: How to Build A Stronger Bridge of Trust to Your Clients

​These are robust times for mortgage lenders. Anecdotally all month we've been hearing from our members how busy things continue to be, with no sign of let up. And the strain it is putting on their entirely remote and completely worn down operations staffs. The June TMC Benchmark numbers certainly back that up. We've talked in this space these past few months about our members having record months in nearly every measurable area. And once again in June, our members achieved new record highs for new apps, closed loan units, and operational productivity. 

Let's start with the bread and butter - closed loans. After a very slight dip in May off April's record closing month, TMC's members saw closed loan units increase by 7.2% in June over May. The mix of closed loan business stayed nearly identical - 74% conventional, 22% government, 4% other (jumbo, portfolio, etc.). Closings continue to become more purchase-heavy. Purchases were 41% of closings in April, 44% of closings in May, and came in at 51% here in June.

Supporting our members "no let up" comments, the new application train is not stopping. Overall new applications (units) were up 12.4% in June, an astonishing figure given May's record new app numbers. The mix of that new business is right in line with what we've been seeing post-pandemic - 76% conventional, 20% government, 4% other. We'll see many of our members continue to set new company records for closings in July and August while trying to figure out how to keep their ops staff sane through it all.

After seeing a slight dip in operational productivity in May off April's record figures, our members set new productivity records in June. Here's the closed loan unit totals per FTE (full-time employee) for the last three months (April/May/June):

Processor - 16.0/15.2/17.5
Underwriter - 51.8/49.1/54.9
Closer - 63.8/61.0/64.8
Loan Originator - 7.3/7.0/8.1

The average LO comp on May closings came in at 97.1 bps in June, down from May's 99.4 total. We've seen this number vacillate between 95-105 bps these last six months. We saw a drop in the average non-third party lender fees per loan our members charge their customers, with conventional loans coming in at $1,115 and government at $1,042.

Not surprisingly, underwriter annual comp continues to rise, climbing to an average of $94,767, up almost $10,000 from before the pandemic. Average annual salaries paid to processors ($55,409) and closers ($54,001) also continue to increase. We saw increases in the average cost per closed loan our members paid for their LOS ($115, up $10) and POS ($76, up $14). After a huge April/May spike in the average cost per closed loan for CRM related to add on campaigns targeted at refinance opportunities, that number fell in June, dropping from $202 to $134.

53% of companies that submitted June data to TMC Benchmark were IMB's and 47% were depositories. 36% originate $500M or less annually, 25% originate between $500M-$1B, and 39% originate $1 billion per year or more in total volume.

Scotsman Guide's Top Mortgage Lenders is one of the industry's most comprehensive rankings of the nation's top producing mortgage companies, and nearly twenty of our TMC Members were featured in 2019's Top Mortgage Lenders Rankings. Congratulations to everyone who was recognized this year!

American Pacific Mortgage
Atlantic Coast Mortgage
CrossCountry Mortgage
FBC Mortgage
FirstBank Mortgage
George Mason Mortgage
LeaderOne Financial Corp
Michigan Mutual Mortgage
Mountain West Financial
Nations Lending
New American Funding
Northpointe Bank
NOVA Home Loans
Paramount Residential Mortgage Group
PrimeLending
Trident Mortgage
V.I.P. Mortgage
Waterstone Mortgage

For the second year in a row, Forbes has partnered with Statista, a market research firm, to produce their list of World's Best Banks. It may not surprise anyone that COVID changed the game on how many customers had to turn to online banking practices, forcing banks around the world to raise the bar on the quality of their service. Equally unsurprising: several of our TMC Members made the cut! These banks are rated by key attributes such as trust, fees, digital services, and financial advice, and we couldn't be prouder of our TMC Family once again representing the Power of the Network on an internationally respected listing.

Glacier Bank
Fulton Bank
First National Bank of Omaha
United Community Banks
Centennial Bank
First Commonwealth
WesBanco
Arvest Bank