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DS News October 2021

DSNews delivers stories, ideas, links, companies, people, events, and videos impacting the mortgage default servicing industry.

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63 FOR SERVICING SHOPS THAT ARE LOOKING TO MODERNIZE AND MAKE SIMILAR UPGRADES BEYOND THEIR LEGACY INFRASTRUCTURE, HOW DO YOU RECOMMEND THEY BEGIN? To me, it starts with risk. We want to make sure that we're risk-averse. We must comply with all the federal rules and regulations, so let's not attack things that introduce more risks that we can't mitigate right. Let's take some lower- risk things, ensure the team is trained, ready to go, and can implement those tools. Start small, think about what small victories you can accomplish, and go from there. One big thing I've put into that category is call center modernization. People don't choose who their servicers are, so we can get complacent with our user experience. One of the things that Selene is focusing on this year and next is, how do we balance that a little more? We want to make sure our customers have a world-class experience when they come to us, from a loan-boarding experience, all the way through letters and call center activity— making sure that is a heterogeneous approach is a key to that journey. If you want your statements, it's easy—you could even do it through a voice recognition IVR (interactive voice response). "Send me the September statement," that type of stuff. We're also looking at sentiment analysis. I can tell Jamie's not happy, and therefore I'm going to route him immediately to one of my specialty people. at way, you connect people with team members who are trained to handle the situation. Michael Waldron, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Community Loan Servicing, LLC WHAT ARE THE PRIMARY HEADWINDS FACING THE SERVICING INDUSTRY AS WE HEAD INTO 2022? e fact of the matter is, they're essentially the headwinds that we've been faced with before. We are hyper-focused on ensuring our customers have the best experience they can have under very challenging circumstances. For the last 18 months, we have been focused on solutions and working with both federal and state regulators and the legislature to devise scalable and manageable plans for impacted customers. Now, it's about continuing to execute—taking those on forbearance plans, or who were impacted by the pandemic, and helping them transition to post-forbearance options and hopefully return to some higher degree of normalcy. We're still doing all the other things that we were doing as servicers even before as well. We simply have more on our plates. It's about having the ability to make sure that we continue to block and tackle but also implement and execute the programs associated with the pandemic and helping those customers who are in greatest need. WHAT LESSONS HAVE YOU LEARNED OVER THE PAST 18 MONTHS, AND WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY? I think the primary lesson is how important it has been for us as an industry to come together. We were able to draw upon shared experiences and come at this one stronger as an industry. We have benefited from technological advancements, so we were able to focus on self- servicing options, which have been critical to the success of servicers through this pandemic. e last crisis humbled us, and that has caused us to understand the importance of customer experience and better understand the value of working together as an industry with our regulators and our legislators. We need to go about problem-solving, not in silos, but collectively. at's where we have executed incredibly well. It's about making sure that we continue to understand the impact of the pandemic on our employees. It's also about making sure that we collectively recognize that the voice of the servicer is the voice that we need customers to respond to. Ramie Word, SVP, Customer Care & Client Delivery, Mr. Cooper WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS FOR THE INDUSTRY TO FOCUS ON AS HOMEOWNERS EXITING FORBEARANCE AND MORATORIA MAY BE STRUGGLING FINANCIALLY TO KEEP UP? e most important thing in the industry right now is communication between borrowers and servicers through borrower education. As forbearance winds down and the foreclosure moratoriums expire, servicers have a responsibility to help homeowners navigate mortgage reinstatement or help them find solutions to successfully exit forbearance and avoid foreclosure. Servicers need to make sure they are helping set homeowners up for a successful exit out of forbearance by helping them understand all of their available options, whether it's selling their home or something else. When the pandemic started, we focused heavily on education, but it's even more critical now as homeowners have settled into this auto-extend environment. Another critical piece will be ensuring homeowners get the right solution for their unique situation and giving them avenues to self- serve, when possible. rough the adoption of digital tools and increased staff, we have focused heavily on ensuring borrowers have the tools and resources they need to know what options are available to them and make the best decision possible. If a customer gets to a point where they need to speak to someone on the phone, it's critical to have agents that are skilled in those conversations and ensure they have a solution before the call is over. If the solution is not clear- cut for a homeowner, the important piece is to ensure the customer has full understanding of the options available to them. Above all, the key to success is meeting the customer where they are, especially in times of need. HOW DO YOU BALANCE AUTOMATION AND SELF-SERVE OPTIONS AGAINST HAVING A HUMAN TOUCH? I think most customers are like me these days—especially coming out of the pandemic environment—they're not used to talking to human beings anymore, nor do they maybe want to. So we need to make it as easy as possible for [the borrower] to get the information or chat with someone without having to make the phone call and wait. However, if they do have to make the phone call, and you know they may still have a financial hardship, we need to give them the best experience possible. e time spent on the phone should be time well spent, not something that will make it more difficult or frustrating for the customer. Do as much as you can to avoid the phone call for the customers' benefit, but if they need us, at the end of the day, we need to be ready, and they need to have an excellent experience on the phone.

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