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17 simultaneously. It's like salad. e lettuce and the tomatoes and the cucumbers are in the bowl simultaneously, but they're not together. e challenges that one firm faces may be similar, but they're not going to be the same as another firm. e tremendous challenge we have where my firm is located is staffing, and in talking with other attorneys, they're also seeing that. Even all over the country, they can't get staff. e terms that people are asking for just don't make sense in an industry like ours, where the fees are very, very tightly controlled. Still, it was incredibly good to be here, and I was very flattered to have been invited to speak, because from my perspective, this is the best of the best of the best, and to be included in this crowd is tremendously flattering, especially at this point in my career. MICHAEL MERRITT, SVP Mortgage Default Servicing, BOK Financial Halfway through 2022, what are your main priorities and the problems you're trying to solve? We are really focusing on the Homeowner Assistance Fund implementation. Operationally, it's a challenging process. People talk about it as if it's one homogenous program, but it's not. It's 50 different programs, and some of the states have multiple programs. We are focusing on getting that in place and hoping that's another piece to help borrowers get current. Also, we are focusing on outreach strategies. ere are still customers that need to know we have opportunities and options to help them. We just want to make sure we don't leave any stone unturned. We want to talk to every customer we can. We want to offer every option we have to get them back on track. Have you seen any changes in borrower responsiveness over the course of the pandemic? Initially, yes, customers were quicker to reach out to us. I think the publicity about how quickly the mortgage industry pivoted to helping customers was such a great story. e customers who said, "I need help," we were able to quickly help them into a forbearance plan. e news and the attention surrounding COVID-19 helped, because it was a consistent message. ere is a small group of customers that have never raised their hand, but now that some default activity has started up, we're seeing those engage with us as well. e handful of people that we haven't been able to contact so far, have now started reaching out to us and are having those conversations and figuring out what the path to work toward is. What are the key lessons you have learned from navigating the past few years? I just think it's training and the importance of your people. Everyone always talks about their people being their strength, but COVID-19 showed that we have great employees that care about their jobs and care about helping customers. To me, it's shown that if you want to be effective, you've got to have a good team. You've got to set them up for success, whether it's the right technology or the right work arrangement. And when you do those things, you're going to be successful. And when you take care of your employees, they want to take care of your customers. ey have better conversations, better outcomes with the customers, and you help preserve homeownership, which is what we want to do. What have been your top takeaways from the conference? When you look at mortgage servicing, the partnership that we have with our firms is critical to our success. e more transparent and partnering we can be, the better the outcomes for all of us are going to be. Hearing the challenges from the firms about where servicers can do better, we can then work on those things. Hearing challenges that the servicers are facing can help the firms be more effective. I think it just shows the commitment we have to each other. Both groups want to help customers and want to help each other. We all want to avoid foreclosures. AMY NEUMANN, FVP, Director of Late-Stage Delinquency, Default Servicing Operations, Flagstar Bank Halfway through 2022, what are your main priorities and the problems you're trying to solve? One of the biggest challenges is getting non-responsive borrowers out of foreclosure. Our clients, investors, regulators—they all want to avoid foreclosure. So, it's different, as a foreclosure manager, to spend more time focused on loss mitigation initiatives. You have to wear a different hat. We are continually evolving to find creative ways to engage non- responsive borrowers. We are under tremendous pressure, as a servicer, to get as many people as possible to reset their delinquency. ere has always been a healthy tension between loss mitigation and foreclosure. But that dynamic has shifted post-pandemic, where success is measured by foreclosure avoidance. But timelines still exist. Although referral has been delayed in many cases to accommodate additional outreach efforts, it can be an effective tool to motivate borrowers to act. e majority of those in default engaged with us early, leaving a lesser volume of those unable or unwilling to act. We have further reduced this population by as much as half with just in-person outreach, prior to referral. Where we have exhausted our pre-referral outreach, we know that starting the foreclosure will get some borrowers to make contact. We will be looking at those numbers too, to see what kind of response we're getting, whether it be a bankruptcy filing or direct communication for assistance, we continue to monitor to find out what's working and what's not. We have also implemented post-referral outreach, for that minority of borrowers that remain unengaged. We started with pre-sale loans and contested matters and are now partnering with our attorneys to expand this to more loans earlier in the foreclosure. Exposure Voices of The 2022 Legal League 100 "We are under tremendous pressure, as a servicer, to get as many people as possible to reset their delinquency." —Amy Neumann, FVP, Director of Late- Stage Delinquency, Default Servicing Operations, Flagstar Bank

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