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39 » VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM Ray Barbone brings more than three decades of industry experience to the table, currently serving as EVP at BankUnited. He is also the recipient of the 2015 Five Star Lifetime Achievement Award. Presented each September at the Five Star Conference and Expo, the award is an annual tradition honoring the illustrious careers of professionals who have left an invaluable mark on the housing finance and mortgage servicing landscape. We spoke with him about his accomplishment and the potential challenges for the industry on the horizon. You are being recognized as the Five Star Lifetime Achievement Award winner this year. What does that mean to you? Honestly, I am still processing it. However, I can frankly say that I accept the award with an enormous amount of pride for being considered to have made a contribution and impact on our industry. For me, championing meaningful industry initiatives has always been a selfless act. As I tell our team and people we hire, "It's never about me, it's always about what is in the best interest of the organization or team." I have been blessed to have spent a career in a great industry consisting of many very talented people and have had the good fortune to work alongside many of them as we have pursued initiatives benefiting consumers, homeownership and the mortgage industry. I am incredibly thankful and honored for the association and that those efforts are being recognized. Where do you see the mortgage servicing industry now compared to where it was five years ago at the depth of the crisis? Where do you see the industry five years from now? Five years ago we found ourselves at the precipice of what would prove to be the darkest era the servicing industry has ever seen. Having made significant efforts early in the crisis to manage ever increasing default rates and record foreclosures, we then found ourselves under indictment for wrongdoing. In hindsight, I think it is fair to suggest that we as an industry and economy were not prepared for a crisis of the scale that unfolded. at includes the government, agencies, insurers, financial institutions and servicers. No one was prepared. Ultimately, it was servicers who shouldered the load for digging out and in the midst of enforcement actions, consent orders, settlement agreements and new regulations, in our ever- resilient way, we demonstrated once again we really can build a plane while flying it. If there is such a thing as normal in this business, I think we will return to a new sense of it over the next five years. I believe we will see continued deconsolidation for some time. In large part, private equity will exit. More servicing will be held by traditional mortgage bankers who see servicing as a natural hedge. We will see continued shakeout in the specialty and component servicing space leaving few long term niche players. Where values will settle is the big question as borrower's behavior patterns coming out of the crisis will be forever changed and those have not been appropriately factored into the prepayment and default speeds yet. Standardization of practices will continue and eventually we will turn the page on regulatory scrutiny and servicers will remain focused on doing what is right for the consumer while balancing the needs of the investor. What is the biggest challenge that mortgage servicers are currently facing? At the risk of sounding cliché, I think the biggest challenge servicers face today is the same we have been facing throughout my career in this business: the pace of change. Only now, we can add the magnitude of change as well. e magnitude and pace of change we have contributed to developing, implementing and managing over the past several years is nothing short of extraordinary. While there are those who play Monday morning quarterback and vilify our industry, I prefer to applaud those who have committed their lives to find innovative solutions to assist consumers in need and fix problems. Managing the pace and magnitude of change in a profitable manner will continue to be our biggest challenge for years to come. at said, the regulatory and compulsory requirements of recent years have distracted servicers from evolving technologically to keep pace with consumers' expectations for service delivery. Playing catch up in this area will prove to be a challenge for many servicers as well. What steps has BankUnited taken to become compliant in time for the October 3 TRID effective date? We have committed an incredible amount of resources and effort toward implementing the requirements of TRID, much of which began in the latter half of 2014. More specifically, we volunteered from day one to participate with our technology partner in the development of enhancements to the LOS, including testing the beta release and subsequent iterative releases to the system. We have established appropriate policies, documented procedures, trained our team and collaborated with our business partners. We have both a project team and a steering committee engaged in managing the project. It has proven to be a monumental undertaking. Notwithstanding all the focus and effort by everyone involved the delay of the effective date to October 3 was very welcomed in order to ensure a smooth transition with fewer manual work-arounds. In addition, we are in support of the Homebuyer Assistance Act to provide a formal hold-harmless period for enforcement for those making a good faith effort to comply as we realize not every player engaged in the real estate closing process is at the same level of readiness. As you look back, what are you most proud of having accomplished in your career? Who did you look up to? My father taught me not by his words but by his actions that if you are going to do something, do it right. ose that know him, know he cuts no corners. e perfectionist qualities he passed along can be a double-edged sword. While it has been suggested I can be overly meticulous at times, I am going with the glass is "half full." What I am most proud of is that people thought enough of me to extend me opportunities to contribute toward building successful organizations and making a difference in our business. In the end, I guess I did some things right and managed to make Dad proud.

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