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60 how that stands as an example for other states to follow—is almost negligent in meeting its responsibilities to its shareholders, investors, and consumers," Worrall said. "It's obvious at this point that, without some kind of federal standard, each of the states is going to pick its own regulation, and we're going to have to figure out a way to comply with it. at's really difficult for a company that does business in all 50 states." MAKING THE JOB EASIER While challenges on the technological and compliance front present a myriad of hurdles for the industry, proper communication between partners is integral to evolving on any of those fronts, and countless others. "e more that we share and the more that we communicate and prepare each other, the better we'll be situated," Sherman said. is communication must be a two-way street, however. "Law firms, by nature, are small businesses," Sherman said. "We don't have economists that are sitting there trying to determine where things are going. Any forecasting from our servicing partners that they can share with us can be incredibly beneficial. Vice versa, we are boots on the ground both as legal service providers and counselors to our clients, and we have our own indicators we watch in our regional spaces, such as increases in consumer bankruptcy that will eventually correlate to an increase in mortgage foreclosure default. We have our own indicators, and we need to make sure that we're conveying those back to our servicing partners." Effective communication means everyone needs to be on the same page, said John Vella. is means that every party involved should have a voice. "When you sit around the table, it's treated as a partnership, where you feel comfortable if something is not going right, where you can articulate that and feel like you're being heard." Vella said. "is also means having the type of relationship where, at any time, the servicer can provide the vendor with escalation, or problems, or issues, and feel comfortable that they're getting attention." Cole Patton agrees, noting the importance of uniformity and interservicer communication. "If the servicers had a mechanism to standardize and uniformly employ and implement these regulatory compliance standards, it would definitely provide more consistent results" Patton said. "Such a standardized approach would create less uncertainty, promote greater efficiency, and ultimately provide better customer service to borrowers." Eric Patrick highlighted the importance of open standards in areas including security, API documentation, data formats, and models. "ese standards reduce friction, lowering costs of integration significantly," Patrick said. Dave Worrall suggested that technologies designed to assist consumers can also assist the industry as a whole by helping to provide information quickly. "Adopting technology that allows [servicers] to do business with consumers in a mobile and/ or web environment helps everybody in the process," Worrall said. "If you can work with a customer or consumer to have them interact digitally, and get them comfortable with that digital interaction, then you not only have a better record of the interaction, but you're able to make more opportunities available faster, you're able to gather better information, than if you were dependent on some of the old channels of communication, like phone and written correspondence." LOOKING FORWARD Looking to the future requires looking to the past—specifically back to the 2007 downturn. "All of us are preparing for something like that again," Worrall said. "at's why it's so important that there's continued investment. In good times, it's always appealing to take profit, but this is the time when companies need to be investing, especially in their default platforms, so that when the next downturn comes, we're all ready to handle it, and we can, as an industry, look a little better than we did last time." "It's a challenging time for this segment of the industry," Denis Brosnan said. "I think it's a time when professionals can work together and find a way to not only survive, but thrive." "When you sit around the table, it's treated as a partnership, where you feel comfortable if something is not going right, where you can articulate that and feel like you're being heard. is also means having the type of relationship where, at any time, the servicer can provide the vendor with escalation, or problems, or issues, and feel comfortable that they're getting attention." —John Vella, Chief Revenue Officer, Altisource