36
Journal
BORROWERS
TAKING
ADVANTAGE
OF MORE
LENDER TECH
ICE Mortgage Technology's latest
Borrower and Lender Insights Survey found
that more borrowers and homebuyers are
taking advantage of tech tools to simplify the
homebuying and search process.
e survey found that an overwhelming
majority (90%) of lenders believe that
technology can help improve the mortgage
application process, citing benefits that
include simplifying the entire process (74%),
reducing time to close (70%), and minimizing
data entry (67%).
"Last year brought our industry a perfect
storm," said Joe Tyrrell, President, ICE
Mortgage Technology. "You not only had
COVID-19, which required lenders to shift to
virtual workforces, but you also had to conduct
business in a safe and socially distanced
way with borrowers; at the same time, we
were experiencing a historical increase in
loan volume. is caused many lenders to
reevaluate their technology partners, how they
were leveraging technology, the systems that
they employed, and the tools that they relied
on. We heard many stories from our lenders
across the country that had to completely
and permanently shift the way they served
borrowers."
According to the survey, the importance
of lenders offering digital solutions to
borrowers increased in 2020, with 58% saying
the availability of an online application
would likely impact their lender decision (up
from 50% in 2018). e offering of a mobile
app was found to less likely to influence a
borrowers' lender selection, with 47% saying
the availability of one would factor into their
decision in 2020, compared to 40% in 2018.
Social distancing and virtual meetings
became the new practice in 2020, as
pandemic-related fears pushed more
homebuyers to a more digital and less hand-
on process.
