Broker and Lender Products, Software, and Services

As AI becomes embedded across the mortgage lifecycle, lenders are rethinking how they use data to drive decisions and automate workflows. They aren’t looking for more reports. They want solutions that help them detect signals, whether it's a change in borrower status, a counterparty risk flag, or a market shift, and then act on those insights. Chris McEntee, VP of Corporate and Product Development at ICE, recently sat down to discuss how ICE approaches data accessibility, governance, and scalability to help lenders build AI-ready mortgage operations and get the timely insights they need. Watch the video to learn more.

Bananas are technically berries. Strawberries aren't. What else have we been looking at backwards? For years, mortgage market analysis has focused on understanding what already happened. The Optimal Blue Market Advantage report helped advance that effort with direct-source data covering more than a third of U.S. mortgage lock volume. But now the conversation is shifting from hindsight to foresight. Join Optimal Blue's Kevin Foley and Brennan O'Connell on Sept. 10 at 1 p.m. CT to see how Optimal Blue’s new Virtual Economist is designed to help lenders look through the windshield instead of the rear-view mirror. Powered by AI and machine learning, Virtual Economist helps organizations forecast potential rate and lock-volume scenarios, model market dynamics, stress-test economic assumptions, accelerate research, and identify emerging opportunities. Learn how AI-powered market intelligence can support more informed strategic planning and decision-making. Register now to explore what’s next and prepare for what may be ahead.

Less Chasing. Faster Closings. Only at Kind Lending. Give your W-2 borrowers an inside track. Fetch & Close streamlines employment and income validation for eligible conventional loans right inside Kind's Kwikie portal, so you spend less time chasing paystubs and more time closing. When employment and income can be validated through the Work Number® and LP AUS, eligible loans may receive streamlined pre-close validation and waived VOI/E fees, helping save borrowers up to $200 per loan. Best of all, it's built into the workflow you already use every day, with no new tools and no added steps, just fewer manual touchpoints and a cleaner path to close. Give Fetch & Close a try on your next conventional submission, and connect with your Kind AE to learn more! Not an approved broker? Join the Kind movement and discover why more brokers are choosing Kind. *Not all loans are eligible. Eligibility is based on LP AUS findings.

What if you could lower cost per loan and increase throughput without rebuilding your technology stack? JazzX AI sits above your existing LOS, CRM, document systems, pricing engines, and verification providers as a governed System of Intelligence, connecting people, policies, systems, and decisions across the mortgage lifecycle. The result is proven AI that reasons, learns, and adapts to your business while you stay in control, helping lenders save $1,500+ per loan, reduce defects by 80 percent, and increase processor output 8x. Book a demo to see JazzX in action.

“Fall conference season is upon us and U.S. Bank is a proud sponsor of the NCSHA Annual Conference & Showplace, October 3-6 in Detroit, and the MBA Annual Convention & Expo, October 11-13 in Chicago. U.S. Bank remains committed to helping lenders navigate today's evolving mortgage landscape by delivering trusted guidance, top notch service and solutions designed to support sustainable growth. Connect with our team in Detroit and Chicago to explore solutions that support your business growth and sustainable homeownership for your customers. We look forward to seeing you this fall to discovering how we can achieve more together.”

When I speak to the best loan officers, they’ve figured out how to minimize time chasing down documents, and more time growing and moving their pipeline. When a POS creates friction (incomplete applications, stalled disclosures, and missing documents) it costs you revenue. The Maxwell Point of Sale, removes that friction. Lenders on the Maxwell POS experience 90 percent application submission rates, and an average clear-to-close under 18 days. More meaningfully, LO officers on Maxwell close 20 percent more loans a month. Over 300 lenders and financial institutions have already made the switch. See what's possible at himaxwell.com

Affordability pressure doesn't disappear when the loan closes. It comes back later as repurchase risk. Your borrowers are stretched, leaving less room for errors in the file. Truework, a Checkr company, verifies income, employment, and assets before you close, replacing error-prone processes with fast, automated reports pulled directly from sources. Lenders see up to 50 percent cost savings on verifications, with faster turn times and higher accuracy. Learn more.

Chrisman Demo Day is a free perk for all Chrisman Marketplace members. If you're a technology or service provider and haven't joined the Marketplace yet, reach out to Jake Perkins at info@chrismancommentary.com to learn more.

The Chrisman Marketplace is a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the industry to be viewed by lenders in a very cost-effective manner. We’re adding new providers daily, so check back often to see what’s new. To reserve your place or learn more, contact us at info@chrismancommentary.com.

Upcoming Webcasts

Today at noon PT, The Big Picture has Ryan Grant, President of NEO Home Loans, and a conversation on leadership, growth, the evolving mortgage market, how lenders are adapting to changing market conditions, building resilient organizations, and positioning themselves for the opportunities ahead.

Last Word is tomorrow at 10AM PT: Brian Vieaux, Kevin Peranio, Christy Soukhamneut, and Coby Hakalir break down the week's biggest market signals, agency developments, and industry storylines. The discussion focuses on what the industry got right, what it missed, and what lenders should be watching next.

Monday is a federal holiday, so there is no Now Next Later with Jeremy Potter.

RESPA and Rocket Mortgage

“Rocket Mortgage is stepping up its effort to win brokers from rival United Wholesale Mortgage, announcing a program designed to help brokers move their businesses to Rocket while offering existing Rocket partners a $10,000 bonus for referring UWM brokers. Austin Niemiec, chief revenue officer of Rocket, unveiled the program, called the ‘Moving Squad,’ during a Rocket Pro Experience event Tuesday attended by mortgage brokers in at the Fillmore in Detroit and online… Rocket is offering McKinsey-style consulting on how to leave a competitor & tying it to a fat financial incentive. The broker must terminate w/ UWM, get approved, & be actively originating.”

Rocket’s “Moving Squad” announcement also caught the attention of attorney and Mortgage Musings author Brian Levy for its RESPA implications. As Levy noted, “Compliance savvy mortgage folks might be wondering if Rocket’s proposed $10,000 referral fee for getting a mortgage broker to switch from UWM to Rocket could be a RESPA violation. I don’t know the details about how exactly the program will operate, but clearly $10,000 is a thing of value.

“So, the question will likely boil down to whether that payment is seen as made for referral of settlement services or something else, like a recruiting bonus. Meanwhile, HUD’s old definition of ‘referral’ as ‘affirmatively influence’ could also factor in the analysis depending on the program’s RESPA narrative. That is, if what is really happening is that Rocket is asking its brokers to negatively influence other brokers from working with UWM, that might not be a ‘referral’ as defined by RESPA’s regulators. Ironically, the concept of whether you could pay someone to influence a borrower not to work with a particular provider was discussed by the panel in July’s RESPA focused Mortgage Law Today web show (start at min. 46).” Thank you, Brian.

Mergers and Acquisitions

NEXA Lending today announced that Mortgage Nerds, led by longtime mortgage professionals Mike Cox and Brian Hofmann, is joining the NEXA platform following an approximately 18-month search for the right home for the company’s next stage of growth.

“For Cox and Hofmann, the decision ultimately came down to more than rates, resources, or infrastructure. It was about finding a platform that would allow them to keep building Mortgage Nerds, gain access to new opportunities around servicing and borrower retention, and dramatically expand a mission that has become central to their business: changing the narrative surrounding the VA home loan.

“Mortgage Nerds has built its brand around a simple philosophy: educate and empower. Over the last several years, Cox and Hofmann have taken that philosophy directly into the veteran community, traveling the country to educate veterans about their VA home loan benefit and combat the misinformation that too often prevents them from using it.

“Cox and Hofmann evaluated multiple organizations during their search, but NEXA CEO Mike Kortas’ commitment to the veteran community, NEXA’s relationship with Vetted VA, and the larger vision being built around VA education gave Mortgage Nerds confidence that the mission could extend well beyond what they could accomplish independently.”

Its affiliated third-party processing company, Processing Nerds, will also continue serving mortgage brokers and originators across the country, including NEXA producers.

MISMO Conference

Brian Vieaux, the President of MISMO, addressed the progress that the residential lending industry is making in adopting important standards in a piece he titled, “The Work Only Matters When It Leaves the Room.”

“More than 430 people attended the MISMO Fall Summit in Reston, with well over 300 joining us in person. I saw clear evidence that our conversations are moving from awareness toward adoption. FRAME may be the best example. Nearly a year ago, a question surfaced during an MBA RESBOG Committee meeting: What could MISMO and this community do to help the mortgage industry govern artificial intelligence responsibly?

“At the Summit, well over 100 people spent several hours learning how to put FRAME into practice during the AI Governance workshop. More than a dozen industry volunteers led sessions focused on implementation. We also introduced two new certifications designed to provide qualified implementation support and greater transparency into the governance behind AI-enabled mortgage technology. The message was clear. Responsible AI cannot remain a policy document sitting on a shared drive.

There is more work to be done. Read Brian’s full note here!

Capital Markets

Vice Capital Markets President Troy Baars will be on-site at The Mortgage Collaborative’s Uniquely TMC conference, Sept. 20-22 in Austin, ready to talk hedge advisory and secondary marketing strategy to help you maximize your execution. A conversation at a TMC event is how Vice met Local Bank. The fellow TMC member has since moved to mandatory execution with Vice’s advisory support, adding $500,000 in secondary gains on $200 million in production, and this case study outlines how. If you’re headed to Austin, contact Troy to set up a time. Not headed to Austin? You can still get Vice’s read on the market every week through the free Par Note Rate newsletter, which breaks down what’s moving the daily benchmark Vice built from 15 years of market data.

With 30-year rates hovering near 6.66 percent and a fresh wave of GSE MBS buying heading into Q4, capital markets teams are weighing where rates go next and how fast execution can adapt when the market moves. Those questions set the stage for MCT Exchange 2027, and its theme, "Intelligent Liquidity." MCT will host its annual client conference from March 1-3, 2027, at the InterContinental Hotel in San Diego. Lenders, investors, and industry experts will gather to discuss technology advancements, forward market expectations, candid peer roundtables, and specialized learning tracks on execution, hedging, and AI-driven development. With 500-plus attendees, nearly half at the VP/Director level and roughly 10 percent C-suite, it's also where sponsors put their brand in front of the institutions that power the secondary market. MCT clients can reserve a seat today, and partners can explore a 2027 sponsorship.

Treasuries ended yesterday flat, which was impressive given fresh 2026 highs in all Japanese Government Bond yields, and 10-year yields in Germany, France, and the U.K. Domestically, the 30-year yield is now back at levels seen before Treasury Secretary Bessent’s attempt to contain borrowing costs. The move higher in bond yields has also driven markets to price roughly a 70 percent chance of a September U.S. rate hike from the Fed. Isn’t this what Chair Warsh wanted by giving little forward guidance and instead letting markets figure things out on their own?

Warsh’s argument that financial conditions remain insufficiently restrictive (due to resilient credit markets and relatively easy lending standards) reveals the Fed’s current dilemma: despite pockets of weakness, accommodative overall financial conditions continue to support demand, giving policymakers room to maintain a hawkish stance and keep pressure on rates. Warsh can impress investors with his anti-inflation zeal, or he can give President Trump the monetary policy he demands, but not both. The Fed’s Beige Book found that economic activity increased modestly over the past two months, with strong data-center demand helping drive growth and manufacturing benefiting from defense and data-center orders. While the overall report remains positive and high-end spending is holding up, businesses reported mixed sentiment and greater consumer price sensitivity amid uncertainty over energy costs and geopolitics. Today’s economic calendar is already underway. U.S.-based employers announced 52,881 job cuts in August, up 58 percent from the 33,429 cuts announced in July but down 38 percent from the 85,979 layoff plans announced in the same month last year, per global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

We’ve also had the July Trade Balance, revised Q2 Productivity and Unit Labor Costs, weekly Initial Claims (206k), and Continuing Claims… none of which moved rates. Later today brings Final August S&P Global U.S. Services PMI and the August ISM Non-Manufacturing Index. After the slew of numbers Agency MBS prices are versus better by .125-.250 from Wednesday’s close, the 2-year yielding 4.33, and the 10-year yielding 4.75 after closing yesterday at 4.80 percent.