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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 59 to fit the neighborhood's standards. is includes completing additional services like repairing gutters and power washing the siding and driveway – issues that may have been potential code violations in the past. It is our responsibility to ensure these properties are reflecting that community standard to continue to eliminate blight across the country. Embracing city and investor guidelines and utilizing new technologies will have positive impacts on the industry in 2016. COVER FEATURE VENDOR MANAGEMENT BRIAN CULLEN CEO, SingleSource Property Solutions e competitive landscape for all vendor management companies has changed significantly in the last year and the industry should expect that to continue in 2016. Industry compliance standards that have been common in areas like Appraisal Management and Title are now being introduced in additional product areas such as Broker Price Opinions and Field Services. e increase in standards has led to a greater importance on initiatives like Best Practices, training, SSAE Compliance, and independent rating agency certifications. e increase in standards has significantly raised the bar for anyone wanting to participate. Only firms that can offer a wide range of services while meeting those standards will benefit. is factor, along with an exceptionally strong private equity market has introduced a wave of vendor consolidation. In addition to consolidation, there have also been vendor management firms exiting the business shrinking the pool of players. One of the common practices of the players that remain is a belief that what is in the best interest of our clients and the industry is in the best interest of everyone. More and more, we find ourselves in situations working together for the common good of a mutual client. Technology enhancements and shared platforms have given loan servicers greater control and tracking of metrics, which has brought transparency to performance standards. is increase in transparency is in the best interest of the servicers and they will continue to reap the rewards in the form of improvement from the vendors that support them. Audits and compliance have brought with them an increase in the cost of doing business. Vendor management companies need to remind themselves that while some of these costs may have increased, so has the level of partnership with servicers and our other clients, such as hedge funds and mortgage originators. I would rather compete in the current state of the industry – which includes standards, better client communication, technology requirements, and transparency than an environment of favoritism and "us versus them" vendor management. COVER FEATURE COMPLIANCE TERRI CRAVENS President & CEO, Springboard e new year will bring ongoing challenges for our industry. Loan servicing organizations have been challenged with increasing documentation requirements in support of consumer facing activities. We are now over five years into the increased focus and scrutiny of third party service providers for the mortgage servicing industry. During this time, vendor oversight as required by the GSE's, OCC, CFPB and other regulatory bodies has been implemented and with significant improvement made across most areas. We anticipate that the increased scrutiny is going to continue in mortgage servicing, and expand across other areas such as loan origination – an example of this includes the OCC testing for TRID compliance. e regulators have affirmatively established a position expecting servicing organizations to proactively identify potential risks with their third party providers, verify their compliance with requirements and monitor remediation and corrective actions. Our observations, with regards to the mortgage servicing oversight of third party vendors is, though improvement has been noted (74% reduction in high risk findings and 13% overall improvement in risk scoring), additional concentration is still required. Remediation of moderate and high risk findings has been slow. Frequently, it has been found that vendor processes and procedures are updated to reflect corrective actions, but execution is not immediate, resulting in repeated risk findings year over year. If mortgage servicers do not ensure that required corrective measures are actually implemented by their third party providers, they may take a hit to their reputation as well as incurring significant fines and penalties. Further, while significant improvement has been noted in the operational controls of the third party providers, there has been a marked deterioration (over 5% decline) in the performance of the service provided. is must quickly be rectified by the vendor community. Mortgage companies will be called on to review their oversight programs and prove out how they are confirming regulatory compliance of all third party service providers. is will pertain, in many situations, not only to the direct third party provider but also to their sub- vendor. In short, the mortgage company will be required to thoroughly know their vendors – and their vendor's vendor. COVER FEATURE TECHNOLOGY JASON NADEAU Group President, Mortgage and Title Services, Stewart e talk of the town today is TRID (TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure), or "Know Before You Owe". We are in the throes of implementation and all the challenges that entails. At Stewart we believe that setting aside the technical and process upheaval from TRID, this is just a beginning of a change to our industry. e process of getting qualified for a mortgage, moving through the underwriting and closing preparation and finally the closing process is still very antiquated. e borrower of the future is increasingly less and less tolerant of slow, paper-intensive processes. e borrower of the future is used to service like Amazon Prime and similar models where the process involves self-service and delivered to your door in two days. Before the recent regulatory and industry changes, our industry was beginning to move in this direction. e industry created Automated COVER STORY SUCCESS FORMUL A INDUSTRY INSIGHT COVER FEATURE

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