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58 before exiting. "We've never experienced a shock of so many people going into forbearance at once," Gould said. CHANGES IN FORBEARANCE, FORECLOSURES e pandemic and resulting economic crisis resulted in foreclosure and eviction moratoria implemented at the federal, state, and local levels, many of which extended into 2021. In mid-February, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Agriculture announced a coordinated extension and expansion of forbearance and foreclosure relief programs through June 30, including: » Foreclosure moratoria for homeowners » e mortgage payment enrollment window for borrowers who wish to request forbearance » Up to six months of additional mortgage payment forbearance, in three-month increments, for borrowers who entered forbearance on or before June 30, 2020. THE NECESSITY OF DIGITAL SOLUTIONS Lenders and servicers who quickly embraced the shift in technology, or that had embraced digital solutions before the pandemic, tended to fare well, similar to during the 2007-2008 mortgage crisis, Zeibert said. e size of the organization didn't matter as much as the technology culture itself. Historically, staff could be added or shifted to meet changes in industry volume. But last year's surges were more than personnel alone could handle. Genworth had typically moved staff from the front end to the back end to help with forbearance surges, but the declining interest rates also meant that the volume was increasing for original and refinanced mortgages, Gould said. As such, the company had to shift people from other areas and rely more on technology to meet the demand. "I never can remember it being busy on the front end and the back end at the same time," Gould said. "We also were proactive in asking for forbearance files for people in forbearance because we wanted to know ahead of time from a loss reserving standpoint and how many people needed help." e industry had to quickly convert as many paper-based processes as possible to digital. Genworth used OCR technologies to automatically index recognized documents and extract data. "Accounting has historically been a paper- based system; we had to get more efficient," said Brian Lynch, President of Advantage Systems. Providing an auto-sign capability on checks minimized the need for people to go to an office to physically sign. It was just one of many paperless options the industry and customers finally embraced, even though they weren't new. "Until March, there were still a lot of mortgage applications being taken at the kitchen table," added Joe Camerieri, EVP, Mortgage Cadence. "en everything shifted to Zoom and phone calls. Overnight, everything went to consumer direct. You were doing everything electronically not only to transact business, but also to source business." Lenders and servicers mandated that vendors bill electronically. So rather than accepting a paper invoice, scanning it, and paying it, everything was handled electronically from end-to-end, eliminating paper. Lynch said, "With the hands-off approach, you can facilitate people working from home. at way, they are focused on their work, not on moving paper around." "If we had to do this 10 years ago, we'd have failed," said Stanley Middleman, CEO of Freedom Mortgage, who cited the internet, connectivity and various other technologies for aiding the industry in moving to remote work and handling the surge in volumes. "We were able to effectively communicate vertically, horizontally, with our peers, our subordinates, and our superiors," Middleman said. "We were able to work with our "I've been hearing about digitizing the mortgage process … and have been involved in many committees and panels over the years, but it never got a lot of traction. But this last year, for the first time, I think it did." —Rick Seehausen, President and CEO, Cherry Creek Mortgage Cover Story By: Phil Britt

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