DS News

54 CHARTING A COURSE As we approach the dawn of 2022, DS News speaks with industry experts about the challenges and opportunities mortgage servicing faces in a post-pandemic environment. 2021 was, in many ways, a year of transition, and in some ways a year of waiting for that transition to truly take hold. e mortgage servicing industry rose to the challenge of adapting to remote or hybrid work models while also assisting millions of struggling homeowners weather the unexpected storms of 2020. is year, much of the focus was on preparing to continue assisting those borrowers as their forbearance exits approached and many would need guidance through a process many of them didn't even know existed a few years ago, much less how to navigate. With 2022 now on the horizon, DS News took the time to speak with a cross-section of industry subject-matter experts to get their thoughts about the year that has been and learn what they're anticipating for the year ahead of us. STEMMING THE TIDE e highlight of 2021, according to Rick Sharga, EVP at RealtyTrac, "was the unbelievably stellar job that the mortgage servicing industry has done working with the government to prevent literally millions of unnecessary foreclosures from happening— foreclosures that would not have been at risk of happening, had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic." Steve Schachter, EVP, Market Leader and Head of Mortgage for Sourcepoint, echoed Sharga's praise for how the industry had adapted and assisted in 2021. "ey accomplished their goal, which was to keep people in their homes during one of the most unprecedented times in the country's history. ey allowed smart policy to prevail so that servicers could use their partners and their people to adequately communicate with borrowers." e CARES Act provided mortgage holders with several tools to help assist struggling homeowners and minimize that potential "wave of foreclosures," including forbearance programs and moratoria on both foreclosures and evictions. But Tim Rood, Head of Government and Industry Relations for SitusAMC, also noted that the servicing side of the industry benefitted enormously from the fact that the originations sector continued booming despite the health and economic crises the world was pushing through over the past 18 months. "It was the cash flow from the record origination volume and margins that largely underwrote the federal policies that allowed independent mortgage bankers to make the billions of dollars in servicing advances that they were required to make in support of the mortgage forbearance provisions and policies," Rood said. Sharga continued, noting that "What we've had over the past 18 months is just an Cover Story By: Phil Britt

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