Tag: Digital Mortgage

Optimal Blue Provides an Integrated Platform to Meet Secondary Marketing Needs

— The only social media compliance automation platform designed for the mortgage industry —

The mortgage industry is aggressively pursuing the digital mortgage while margins are tight and competition is at an all-time high. Additionally, vendor integration is a must and consumers are requiring transparency like never before.

Because of all of these challenges, the industry is calling for an integrated platform, as well as more granular automation and functionalities. Optimal Blue, a pioneer in secondary marketing automation, offers an innovative, integrated, end-to-end platform that lenders rely on to meet and exceed their secondary marketing needs.

With the largest resource commitment to secondary marketing technology in the industry, Optimal Blue is used more widely than any other solution and is exclusively focused on helping lenders streamline the entire secondary marketing process, from content to commitment, and everything in between.

“Our comprehensive secondary marketing automation platform sits at the center of our Digital Mortgage Marketplace, which breaks down silos between industry participants – lenders, investors, and mortgage technology providers – and brings them together for mutual success,” said Optimal Blue CEO Scott Happ.

The Optimal Blue platform includes a robust content management application, a product eligibility and pricing engine (PPE), a hedge analytics and digital loan trading system, data and analytics, and the only social media compliance automation platform designed specifically for the mortgage industry.

In addition, Optimal Blue offers a comprehensive set of APIs and automatic connections to a broad network of best-of-breed mortgage technology providers and strategic partners.

Due to Optimal Blue’s size and reach, participants benefit from the “network effect.”

Investors and originators benefit from a larger pool of both buyers and sellers, while technology providers benefit from being connected to the largest networks of originators, investors and real-time content versus a “closed network” strategy.

By bringing loan buyers and sellers together — along with best-of-breed mortgage technology providers — on a single, unified technology platform, Optimal Blue equips every player in the secondary market to compete and thrive.

EXECUTIVES PROFILED IN THIS ARTICLE

Scott Happ, CEO
Scott Happ has 30 years of experience in financial services and mortgage lending technology. He founded Mortgagebot in 1997 and built the company into a nationally recognized SaaS solutions provider, selling the company to D+H in 2011. In 2016, Happ teamed with GTCR, a leading private equity firm, to acquire Optimal Blue, where he serves as CEO.

Sue Baker, VP of Product and Client Services
Sue Baker brings over 30 years of experience in the mortgage industry, beginning as a loan officer and later assuming responsibility for sales and training for a network of over 200 loan officers. She also designed a software solution that allowed loan officers to gather applications and request online underwriting approval electronically at the point of sale. Baker serves as chief product officer at Mortgagebot.

Bob Brandt, VP of Marketing and Alliances
Bob Brandt has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to Optimal Blue, Brandt established and managed the sales and marketing organization at Mortgagebot, where over 15 years he helped the company acquire productive, multi-year relationships with more than 1,500 banks and credit unions nation-wide and was named to the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing companies.

This piece was originally featured on HousingWire.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Optimal Blue Enables the Digital Mortgage

— Leading API platform powers the industry’s largest ecosystem —

In a world fueled by technological advancements, it is no surprise that the “digital movement” has taken over the mortgage industry. Today, nearly all consumers begin the mortgage loan process online and have come to expect on-demand, transparent, consistent information at the immediate point of need.

These evolving consumer expectations paired with the industry’s highly competitive environment are causing a rush by originators to adopt digital capabilities. In the process, originators must grapple with how to integrate digital mortgage technologies, deliver information to the consumer in a real-time compliant manner, and ensure consumers have a consistent experience across channels and throughout the origination process.

To address these needs, Optimal Blue supports a wide array of third-party applications used in the digital mortgage process that enable originators to connect the product and pricing data within the Optimal Blue System with over 25 vendors. Now, for the first time, originators can rely on a single platform to power their digital pricing presentation, including CRM, mobile, point-of-sale, and marketing.

Because these applications are all connected using Optimal Blue’s common API framework, product eligibility and pricing is handled consistently by each application and APR calculations, payment disclosures, and mortgage insurance quotes are always correct. To ensure third-party applications comply with data and connectivity standards, Optimal Blue maintains a rigorous vendor certification process.

“By creating a platform supporting third-party applications, Optimal Blue has crushed the barrier to the digital mortgage,” said Scott Happ, CEO of Optimal Blue. “By connecting virtually every vendor in the digital mortgage space to the Optimal Blue platform, we have paved the way for originators to join the digital mortgage movement.”

Optimal Blue supports a wide variety of transactions for vendor partners through its API platform, including product eligibility, complete price results, and locking. Since the API platform was announced nine months ago, more than 70 clients have subscribed.

To further support the use of Optimal Blue as a single source for product eligibility and pricing data, the company has also invested heavily in integrating with LOS and lead generation sites, and now has a Quick Quote solution allowing originators to easily embed live price quotes on their website or mobile application.

With Quick Quote, an originator can provide live, personalized, and compliant pricing to borrowers visiting a lender’s website or to loan officers through a mobile-enabled link.

“The ability to quote accurate pricing with a mobile device empowers the loan officer to develop and maintain relationships outside of the office,” said Sue Baker, vice president of product at Optimal Blue. “Not only do they remain competitive, but they build a solid foundation to transition the consumer through the application process – electronically and compliantly.”

Originators can control what products and pricing are returned in the Quick Quote solution through configuration settings.

The digital mortgage wave has caught the imagination of our industry and has spawned innovative technology providers. At the same time, rapidly changing consumer preferences are pressing originators to become more transparent, responsive, and consistent throughout the mortgage origination process.

To help originators grapple with the growing array of technology choices and address consumer needs, Optimal Blue now supports the largest ecosystem of digital mortgage providers in the industry with an advanced API platform connecting third-party applications to Optimal Blue’s network. Clients are using these third-party applications along with native solutions like Quick Quote to jumpstart their entry into the digital mortgage arena, and are realizing operational and compliance benefits from using Optimal Blue as a single source for loan pricing.

This piece was originally featured on HousingWire.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Blend Labs Integrates with the Optimal Blue Digital Marketplace

— Optimal Blue and Blend integrate to reduce friction for borrowers and benders —

Optimal Blue, architect and operator of the mortgage industry’s digital marketplace, announced today that the company has a partnered with Blend, a Silicon Valley technology company bringing mortgages into the modern age.

As a result of the partnership, lenders that utilize Blend and Optimal Blue technology will be able to seamlessly integrate pricing workflows into Blend, resulting in an end-to-end digital mortgage platform with a sleek user interface that significantly improves lender efficiency. The combination of these two industry-leading solutions will provide more transparent and streamlined mortgage application experiences built on robust data connectivity, empowering lenders to provide a more complete decision-ready application – faster than ever before.

“Optimal Blue is focused on developing technology that empowers lenders to make smart, accurate decisions while producing the best loan options for their borrowers,” said Optimal Blue CEO Scott Happ. “This partnership with Blend moves our mission forward by introducing our pricing workflow into an emerging platform with a modern interface.”

“At its core, Blend was built to propel the mortgage process into the digital age,” said Nima Ghamsari, CEO & co-founder of Blend. “We’re committed to providing the best customer experience and the most efficient path toward homeownership. Partnering with industry technology leaders like Optimal Blue makes that experience even better.”

ABOUT BLEND
Blend is a Silicon Valley technology company transforming the multi-trillion dollar home mortgage industry. Blend’s technology delivers speed and efficiency to lenders, so they can serve the modern borrower and safely navigate the industry’s changing rules and regulations. Founded in May 2012, Blend is backed by Peter Thiel, Andreessen Horowitz, Formation 8, Lightspeed, Max Levchin, Hans Morris, and other leading venture investors. To learn more, visit www.blend.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com