The Mortgage Note Podcast

Hosted by Kimberley Haas

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Aug 2026

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The Mortgage Note Podcast is a product of The Mortgage Note.

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September 8, 2026Episode 1223 min

Podcast: Shared Appreciation Down Payments Could Be A Solution In This Market

The CEO of Homium says that to compete in today’s K-shaped economy, first-time buyers need either a rich uncle or a financial partner to help them come up with a down payment for a home. Marcus Martin has almost 30 years of experience in social impact and financial innovation work. He said that even though many buyers can afford the monthly payment on a home, pulling together cash for a down payment is difficult in the current housing market. “Effectively, buyers don’t have that $50 to $75 grand we’re seeing now in the markets to get to at least 10% and close to 20% down, and that is becoming just a complete wall that does not allow most working-class families to access home loans. And it’s a structural change in the country, and we’re hopefully trying to address some of those concerns through conversation, but also obviously through action with product in the market that addresses the affordability gap,” Martin said. Homium has a shared appreciation model that reserves a fixed percentage of a home’s appreciation instead of charging interest. For first-time buyers, programs active in both the city of Detroit and the state of Utah are helping people. In Detroit, the model is active through the Tobias Harris Homeownership Initiative . Editor Kimberley Haas recently sat down with Martin to learn more about Homium’s model and why it is a working solution for the buyers it serves. According to a recent LendingTree report , four in 10 homeowners received financial help with the down payment on their current home, including nearly 80% of Gen Z homeowners. More than a third of those who got help say they wouldn’t have been able to buy their home without it. Most of that help comes from family members through a gift or an inheritance, but down payment assistance programs have become popular, and states like Massachusetts are offering interest-free down payment programs. There are also models like Homium’s, which offers homebuyers a second lien mortgage that takes a share of future appreciation. “We’ve heard people say it kind of becomes the rich uncle scheme, right? But many of us don’t have that rich uncle, so the Homium program sort of operates in that co-investor position in a very fair, transparent, safe way,” Martin said. “It is purely the principal plus any appreciation on a pro rata basis, one to one.” Martin said Homium’s program is one tool that can be used to make home purchases easier for people. Another area where he sees room for improvement is with credit readiness. “It’s more complex than just general credit repair for a lot of families, and it probably requires more financially advisory-intensive solutions in the market,” Martin said. Homium also supports legislative changes to attract more capital from private investors. They support the bipartisan Shared Home Appreciation for Residential Equity Act. Introduced in March , it incentivizes investment in shared appreciation mortgages for new homebuyers, according to U.S. Rep. Blake Moore, R-UT. “We’re really hopeful that this tax bill could spur a tax exemption for capital gains for investors who could come in and participate in these really structured pools to help working-class and low- to moderate-income families access homeownership,” Martin said. Martin said action is needed now on all fronts, because many people on the bottom half of the K-shaped economy are unable to achieve homeownership without down payment help. “When we think about our hardest-working families that have very good jobs and consistently generate the income needed, they’re entry constrained. And if we can’t continue to focus on how to adjust or bring down the wall of entry, we’ll get to a place where really no American is able to afford a home, and the K-shaped economy is set in stone,” Martin said. First-time homebuyers’ monthly mortgage payments average about $2,565, and the ability to afford homeownership has declined since the beginning of the year, according to CNBC. Is the K-shaped economy really a problem? U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has declared the K-shaped economy over as some data suggests wage and spending gaps between most higher-income and lower-income households are beginning to close. But worries over housing costs have continued to haunt lower- and middle-class earners. And recent results from retailers like Home Depot and Walmart reinforce the K-shaped economy narrative, with lower-income shoppers cutting back while wealthier consumers continue big-ticket spending. A report from U.S. Bank’s Economic Research Group shows that the K-shaped economy isn’t new. The term to describe the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer may have emerged during the Covid pandemic, but widening financial inequality in the United States has been problematic for decades.

August 24, 2026Episode 1126 min

Podcast: How Rocket Community Fund Is Increasing Housing Stability In Detroit

The executive director of the Gilbert Family Foundation and Rocket Community Fund says everyone deserves a safe place to call home. “You really cannot see success in education, in your work life, in your community life, without first having that stable foundation of a home, and in the city of Detroit, there are so many opportunities to support housing stability,” Laura Grannemann told The Mortgage Note. At the Gilbert Family Foundation and Rocket Community Fund, they are putting money where their mouth is, and the organizations are at the midpoint of a $500 million, ten-year commitment to the city of Detroit. Five years in, about $300,000 has been deployed through more than 300 nonprofit partnerships to advance stable housing, economic development, and community investment in Detroit and Cleveland. “Behind every dollar is a family who didn’t lose their home to tax foreclosure. A renter who had legal representation when they needed it most. A young Detroiter who landed their first paid internship. A homeowner whose roof no longer leaks. A family that was able to enjoy a vibrant new park within walking distance of their home,” Grannemann posted on LinkedIn this spring. Grannemann recently sat down with Editor Kimberley Haas to talk more about the way the two organizations are showing their commitments to the city where Rocket Companies is headquartered. Grannemann explained that the Rocket Community Fund is the philanthropic arm of Rocket Companies, and its focus is on helping as many Americans as possible get access to stable housing and home ownership. The Gilbert Family Foundation is the private family foundation associated with Dan Gilbert, who is the founder and chairman of Rocket Companies. “The two organizations are actually run together. I’m the executive director of both because we overlap so significantly around our work focused in the city of Detroit. So while the Rocket Community Fund is focused on homeownership primarily, the Gilbert Family Foundation in Detroit works on other elements of housing stability, arts and culture, public space, and economic mobility,” Grannemann said. Grannemann laid out the challenges of the people living in Detroit. She said there is an aging housing stock that is difficult to finance. At the same time, property tax foreclosure is an issue for homeowners. Putting money toward property tax foreclosure relief was the first investment made with the $500 million commitment. “There actually is a property tax exemption for individuals who are below a certain income level. It’s about 130% of the federal poverty line, and we essentially said, ‘If you can apply for that exemption, which will cover your current year’s property taxes, the Gilbert Family Foundation will wipe out all of your back taxes,’ and that allowed people to have a clean slate,” Grannemann said. “And now that they know about the tax exemption, they’re able on an annual basis to get access to that tax exemption. When we first started this work, we had about 3,000 people annually applying for that tax exemption. Today, we have closer to 25,000 people annually applying for that tax exemption.” The result is a 95% decrease in property tax foreclosure in Detroit, Grannemann said. This helps not only homeowners, but renters at risk of eviction due to their landlords’ delinquencies, because Rocket Community Fund pays the back taxes and then offers those tenants the first right to purchase the home through a program called Make It Home. Close to 170 families took advantage of this program in 2025. Another way Detroit renters are supported is through the Detroit Eviction Defense Fund. Leaders at the Gilbert Family Foundation started the fund in 2022 with a $12 million three-year investment on the premise that only 4% of tenants have access to legal representation during eviction processes, compared to 83% of landlords. Grannemann said that because of a continued commitment to helping those tenants, over 10,000 families have been able to stay in their rental homes. Promoting economic mobility for the residents of Detroit is another major initiative Grannemann and her team are involved in because once people have stable housing and employment, a city can flourish. “We talked to many of the people that we serve, and about 50% of the families that we talked to had some type of side hustle, some type of business that they were operating on the side. But the vast majority of those individuals, they weren’t certified, they didn’t have licenses, they didn’t know how to scale or what resources could help them scale this sort of side hustle or business that they had, and so that’s a significant portion of the work that we do: investing in helping people build their own businesses and helping small businesses that exist be able to access resources to scale, perhaps become the next Rocket Companies,” Grannemann said. #givingback #lending #mortgagenews

July 20, 2026Episode 1032 min

Podcast: Leaders At Tavant Explain The Advantages Of AI-Driven Automation

Industry leaders specialized in helping enterprises unlock the power of AI say it will change the way mortgages are originated and serviced in America. “I see AI as a technology that is in line with computers, the internet, smartphones, and the Cloud, which has changed the way mankind has lived on this planet,” Sundeep Mathur , vice president of fintech at Tavant, said. Tavant is headquartered in Silicon Valley and operates globally, with offices and development centers in the US, Europe, India, and Japan. The company delivers intelligent automation and AI-driven business transformation to Fortune 500 enterprises in financial services and other sectors. Mathur and Sandeep Shivam , associate director of fintech, recently sat down with Editor Kimberley Haas to talk about Tavant’s automation platform and what new technologies can do for lenders. Shivam said their automation platform is primarily used by underwriters who want it for credit analysis, income verification, asset verification, and other tasks that can be done while they are away from the office. “That’s where the system helps, providing all inputs to an underwriter, which will help an underwriter make quicker decisions. Rather than spending six hours in a particular loan file, they can probably spend less than an hour to arrive at a conclusion and make a decision,” Shivam said. Mathur said in addition to the automation layer of their platform – where the heavy lifting is happening – there is an experience layer that provides one platform for consumers and loan officers to share information, as well as a connectivity layer. He said their platform can be used for origination and servicing. What does this look like for lenders? Shivam said from an AI perspective, “These tools and technologies are so powerful and getting better and stronger every day, but we want to help customers apply them in the space where we can do it safely, and still capture ROI.” He said everyone in the industry is hoping to reduce costs while staying compliant. Tavant helps them identify the areas where the implementation of technology can help them do so. Mathur said they have seen significant improvement with conversion rates and cycle times. He envisions a future where, if a person decides to buy a home, they can have it within days, not weeks. That’s not possible today. “Regulations do not allow you, but technology has to prove to regulators that we are good enough to make it happen. Like if you want to buy a car, it can be done in a day, but if you want to buy a house, regulations will not allow you to make it happen in 10 days. So if we prove as a technology that we can make it happen, then regulators will also be flexible,” Mathur said. “All I’m trying to say is AI has that potential to change the way we have done mortgage in the United States,” he added. Shivam said business leaders who wrap their heads around the impact AI will have on the mortgage industry will be the ones who get ahead. “This is going to change how our business process works, and the sooner the compliance team, the legal team, sales team, operations, servicing, everybody starts to get comfortable with the technology and hunts for the opportunities within their own business processes where they can get value, the sooner they start that process, the sooner they’ll be the organization that will capture value,” Shivam said. Earlier this year, leaders at Tavant announced the company was named to HousingWire’s 2026 Tech100 list for Mortgage and Real Estate . This was the eighth consecutive year Tavant has been named to HousingWire’s list. #artificialintelligence #technology #mortgagenews

July 9, 2026Episode 919 min

Podcast: Planning For Growth And Decreases In Demand With Technology

The general manager of mortgage at Ocrolus says lenders who are planning long-term for the cyclical nature of the industry want technology to help their teams absorb both growth and decreases in demand. “I think the lenders that are able to build the infrastructure that absorbs those changes effectively are able to give a better borrower experience. I think they’re the ones who are going to be able to take full advantage of the downturn in rates that I know is coming and have a great outcome both for them as an organization, but also for their customers,” Nadia Aziz said. Ocrolus is an AI-driven workflow and analytics platform for lenders. The company transforms financial documents and digital data into regulatory-grade decision intelligence. “Our goal is to help lenders scale more efficiently, lower costs, reduce risk, and enhance the overall borrower experience. We sit at the center of one of the most complex parts of the lending process, and that is taking borrower documents and converting them into decision-grade data that can then be used throughout the process,” Aziz said. The platform analyzes about 750,000 credit applications a month . It is trusted by over 400 customers and was named a finalist for Best AI Solution during the 2026 Banking Tech Awards. Aziz recently sat down with The Mortgage Note’s Editor Kimberley Haas to talk about how lenders can adapt to demand changes with technology. Aziz said traditionally, mortgage lenders hired staff members when there was growth, and then let them go when demand dropped. She said that has to change. “That isn’t a quick way of solving the issue. It’s not a cheap way of solving the issue. It certainly is disruptive from a morale and a culture perspective, so I think lenders are recognizing more and more that you have to find a way to solve for that through technology, and that’s kind of how I think about the tools and the platform that we are building. It’s really, to me, like a shock absorber,” Aziz said. That means when volume fluctuates, lenders aren’t suddenly scrambling to hire and train staff members, just to let them go when demand drops. At the same time, artificial intelligence is not meant to replace the human judgment that loan officers have. “It’s meant to allow them to actually be more productive and spend their time on the things that actually require that human judgment, but again, you’re using technology to surface those things for them, so that they know where they should be spending their time, and not instead having to look at stuff that was pretty straightforward, pretty plain vanilla, and can be handled by leveraging AI and automation,” Aziz said. On the consumer side, Aziz said the demand for automation and the use of artificial intelligence is there, and lenders can help consumers by making the borrowing process more like everyday life. People want to be able to upload their documents and have access to the kind of technology where the necessary application fields are prepopulated, similar to an online job application. They also look forward to a future where they are told instantaneously if the documentation they provided to secure a loan is correct. “I think any survey that you look at from borrowers and what is their biggest pain point in mortgage originations processes, it is, ‘I’m asked for the same document again and again,’ right?” Aziz said. “And so I think that is very important for us to think about.” Ocrolus was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in the Financial District in New York City. #lending #technology #mortgagenews

July 6, 2026Episode 813 min

Podcast: Assurance Financial Looks To Empower LOs As It Celebrates Its 25th Year In Business

Finding the right technology to support – and not replace – loan officers is the name of the game for industry professionals like Jim Clapp. Clapp is the chief lending officer at Assurance Financial . He started at the company in October of 2024, but has years of experience in the financial services and mortgage industries. Assurance Financial was founded in 2001 and is an independent, full-service residential mortgage banker that is licensed in 36 states. It is celebrating its 25th year in business in 2026. Clapp recently sat down with Editor Kimberley Haas for a podcast. He spoke about what makes Assurance Financial stand out, their integration of technology, and what excites him about the future of lending. Clapp said what sets Assurance Financial apart from other lenders is the boutique experience, which is hard to come by today because many financial institutions that offer mortgages have outgrown the ability to offer a personal touch due to their growth over the last 20 years. “There was the period of very low interest rates that produced a lot of big to upper middle mortgage banks, and that’s great. Those companies have a lot to offer, but they also have some challenges, and so those challenges ultimately present themselves in bureaucracy and red tape and layers and things like that,” Clapp said. “We have carved out a space for Assurance, which is this billion-dollar, billion-dollar-plus spot, where we think we are more nimble and we can offer the best of both worlds.” Clapp said that means offering great products and technology while still having that small-town feel where customers know the names of the people they can call if they have questions or need help. Clapp said this also means that the people who work for Assurance are loyal. Many of them have been with the company for more than 10 years, he said. A Closer Look At The Technology Assurance Is Using When it comes to harnessing technology to better serve customers and aid employees, Clapp said turnaround for approval times is getting shorter, especially if the appraisal is data-driven. They would like to eventually shorten their cycle time from 30 days to seven. “We’ve reached the tipping point with AI, machine learning, and automation, where I think as companies we have to rethink that and embrace that, because ultimately it will drive a better experience for the customer. It will lower your cost. It will ultimately allow you to compete better and provide – I’m going to call it margin preservation,” Clapp said. Clapp said in today’s world, the only way that lending companies can improve their margins is by working on the expense side, and that’s why there is so much talk about automation and AI. Assurance is currently using Ava , an automated intelligence assistant designed to support loan originators by ensuring clients are aware of when rates drop. “Ava is making an outbound call to that customer, and basically introducing them as an assistant, and saying, ‘Hey, I understand you might be looking for a house. Would you be interested in talking to your loan officer, Steve?’ At the same time, if they have a phone call that’s going on, another version of Ava is making contact with the loan officer, and hoping to do a warm transfer, and so it’s relentless, it’s fast, it’s efficient, and I’d say largely welcomed by our loan officers,” Clapp said. Looking Forward In 2026 And Beyond Clapp said after a few slow years for the mortgage industry, everyone in the business is looking forward to things picking up again. When asked what excites him for the future, he said, “In the mortgage business, I think people want to feel like they’re part of a growing company, and it’s fun when it does grow, and people are part of that, and they feel like they’re part of helping move the company to a different plateau. So that’s what excites me, growing and doing it smartly.” #lending #technology #mortgagenews

June 22, 2026Episode 724 min

Podcast: CEO Brian Holland Talks About Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group Celebrating 30 Years In Business

The founder and CEO of Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group says the company is celebrating its 30th year in business because of its talented team. “We have an amazing team that has allowed us to exist for 30 years as the same brand, which is pretty difficult to do in any business. But especially in this crazy mortgage business that we're in," Brian Holland said. Holland said one of their keys to success is being accessible to the people that they serve. That means trading off a national footprint to have in-person services located primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. "Our goal is that we don't want to be in a market unless we feel like we can be a top five purchase lender. We really focus on the purchase market," Holland said. Holland recently sat down with The Mortgage Note's Scott Kimbler to talk about the company's journey as well as today's affordability issues. Holland said he grew up in a rural area in a double-wide trailer with a railroad track across the street and a cornfield in the backyard. He had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up, but he liked the board game Monopoly and money. While in college at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, Holland waited tables. He was working at Red Lobster after graduating with a finance degree when his manager recruited him to get out of the restaurant business and go into the mortgage business. "I said, 'Well, why do you think I'd be great at the mortgage business? I know nothing about it.' He said, 'Well, you've got a degree in finance, and you sell the most strawberry daiquiris of any of my servers. So, I think you can sell numbers,'” Holland said. After about three and a half years at that brokerage, Holland went on to start Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group. "I was really young, and I just wanted to do it on my own. I felt like I could do it better. I could have the kind of culture and team that we wanted to have. So, we got started with a few great people and kept adding people over and over again," Holland said. Retaining those people has been key. Holland said they don't want to have the same level of turnover a lot of companies in the industry have. “We have just under 700 people on our team, and we've helped a few hundred thousand people over the thirty years that we've been in business. It's incredible how many lives we've been able to touch over the years. And that's really the great part about this business - is that you have the opportunity to help people live out the American dream," Holland said. Holland says he has seen many shifting trends of the past three decades and would like first-time and even second-time homebuyers to understand the borrowing process is not overly difficult, and it is very much possible to buy a home and to achieve their own version of the American Dream. “I think that there's a misconception that getting a loan is very difficult now. Just because it's not as easy as it was at one time, there's a misconception," Holland said. "I don't think it's difficult to get a loan, but there's a huge affordability problem. That's something that is concerning, especially for the young people." Holland said getting approved for a mortgage can help first-time and step-up buyers show they are serious in areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast where the market is hot for appropriately priced homes. "I would highly encourage a younger person or anyone who's looking for a home to get a fully approved mortgage. It's pretty easy. It's not going to take you very long to get that," Holland said. "And then when you go out to buy, you've got a lot stronger case for that potential seller who may be getting multiple offers." After more than three decades in this type of business, Holland explained what keeps it personal to him and what keeps him excited about his work. “I've told our team for years, I said, 'We're going to keep growing as long as we can continue to maintain our culture. If our culture starts to slip, we're going to stop. We're going to stop growing,'" Holland said. He admitted that mortgage lending is stressful, "But it's a great business." "Our three core values are one, we genuinely care. Two, we inspire growth. And three, we have fun. And all of those things have allowed us to kind of keep this going for years and years. We genuinely care, and we're taking care of our people. They're taking care of the communities we live in," Holland said. You can learn more about Brian Holland and Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group at AtlanticBay.com . #lending #homebuying #mortgagenews

June 17, 2026Episode 630 min

Podcast: How Servicers Can Compete Against The Big Dogs In Today's Market

The founder of Clarifire in St. Petersburg, Florida, says midsize mortgage servicers can compete with larger companies if they put the customer experience first. Jane Mason is the founder and CEO of the privately held, women-owned corporation that uses a Software-as-a-Service model to reduce manual processes and increase efficiencies. “The middle tier doesn't find us as daunting, because we do have customer service at the forefront of our company, and we know what we're talking about because we have a lot of servicing expertise, so we can not only provide expertise, but we can provide the technology to make it happen,” Mason said. Mason recently sat down with The Mortgage Note’s Editor Kimberley Haas to talk about how Clarifire works with servicers to automate their loss mitigation processes. She said their clients want to use artificial intelligence where applicable, but they rely on advanced automation and human interaction. “They don't want just a virtual AI assistant; they want to be able to have a virtual AI assistant, but click a button that says, ‘I want to speak to a human,’ and have that human right there. Now, that human has everything in one view, a unified view of that particular customer. That means, did they ever file bankruptcy? Did they ever file foreclosure? Have they been in loss mitigation before? Were they in a disaster area? All of that stuff is in one view, which is extremely powerful,” Mason said. Mason said servicing is one of the most complex parts of the mortgage life cycle. Clarifire has helped servicers navigate market disruptions and regulatory complexities for nearly two decades. “It has all the ups and downs of regulatory change; it has all of the ups and downs of volume, and volume is very impactful to servicing operations,” Mason said. “So, if you can have technology that is smart, that's going to automate all of that complexity, from the customer touch point all the way to day-to-day, that’s where you’re going to lower your costs.” Clarifire’s clients are looking for one platform they can manage, and they want to have one trusted partner to work with, according to Mason. “We’re going to stick with them, and we’re going to make it happen,” she said. Looking forward, Mason said they are further automating and modernizing. She is watching closely as foreclosures continue to rise, particularly in Florida and Texas, emphasizing the need for default servicers to orchestrate operations this year and into 2027. #automation #servicing #mortgagenews

June 10, 2026Episode 521 min

Podcast: One-On-One With Lisa Binkley, Chief Operations Officer At National Credit-Reporting System Inc.

The chief operations officer at National Credit-Reporting System Inc. says it is important for the mortgage industry to understand the latest technology being used by fraudsters. Then, industry leaders need to develop protocols and plans to eliminate their use. “You know, we really need to protect ourselves in mortgage originations to verify the consumer identity,” Lisa Binkley said. This is especially true when it comes to checking incomes in a modern economy. “I think one of the things that stymies the industry, regardless of the type of income, is the thought that all of this just creates friction instead of the thought that this is underpinning your decision for safety and soundness in our financial markets,” she said. Binkley recently sat down with The Mortgage Note’s Scott Kimbler to talk about how NCS combats fraud and what keeps her in the industry after nearly 40 years. Binkley told Kimbler she started originating mortgages in the late 1980s. “I started originating mortgages in 1987, and I came out of the securities and insurance licensed world, and I was a part-time worker. I was a stay-at-home mom prior to that. And went from part-time loan officer to fraud investigator to risk manager to COO. It’s just been a fantastic journey, and it’s all been in the mortgage industry. It has been a super industry for me,” Binkley said. Binkley said the team at NCS works hard to combat fraud, which is widespread with today’s fast-growing technology innovations. As companies get smarter, so do criminals attempting to beat the system. “Fraud prevention has escalated to a whole new realm on both sides,” Binkley said. “The other day I was reading an article where a realtor did an online interview with basically what was a fraudster who then scanned her image and voice. And was going to use that as part of a loan package to purchase a property.” When it comes to the mortgage industry, Binkley said in the past it was relatively easy to verify incomes. Over the past decade, the economy has shifted, and more people are doing gig work or have side hustles. “Instead of your 40 or 50-year-olds at IBM or something, you have, ‘I’m an Uber driver part time, I’m a Lyft driver second time, and I work in a family restaurant the rest of the time and here’s my pile of tax returns or tax receipts.’ And so really being able to qualify that consumer based on the money that they earn and the taxes that they pay is really important,” Binkley said. At the same time, this is another area that could be targeted by fraudsters. “It would not be outside the parameters of a fraud organization to go out and create several bank accounts that have 12-months’ worth of assets and deposits and ongoing deposits, and recycle those through many schemes,” Binkley said. “They would reuse these documents. They would, throughout the entire cycle, if you will, of the scheme, they would go into an area and target, say condos, townhomes, and go out and buy them.” Binkley went on to say that systems are becoming far more integrated to include credit, income, employment, and identity verifications, though some in the industry still lag behind available technology. When it comes to what drives her to stay in the industry, Binkley said she is energized by all of the automation that can be created with artificial intelligence. “I’m really excited about that. That’s a big mantra for me this year. And just because I’m coming from the operations world, well, there’s still a lot of manual activity in the operations world. So that’s an excitement today,” Binkley said. “The risk with that will be keeping it smart and keeping it controlled and documented within the organization. I think that new technology provides new ways for processes and procedures to get overlooked and not documented… And I think that we have to make sure that they stay documented.” You can learn more about Nation Credit-Reporting System at NCSTRV.com.

April 21, 2026Episode 425 min

Podcast: One-On-One With Adrian Murray, CEO Of Fisent Technologies

The founder and CEO of Fisent Technologies says modern artificial intelligence is laying the groundwork for a technology revolution just as big as the internet. “You can’t really picture what that will be, but it’s pretty exciting. I think of what it could be,” Adrian Murray said. “I’ve always been incredibly passionate about new technology, always wanting to try out the latest version of whatever it was – a new phone, a new operating system. AI just keeps you going every day because every six weeks, we get something new, or sometimes it’s every other week. Every day, our team is on our internal chat going, ‘Oh my gosh, did you see this release? There’s this new capability, there’s this new parameter. What if we tried that here? What would that do?'” Fisent Technologies is a software company that is working on the development of Applied GenAI solutions. Located in Toronto, Canada, the company was recently named to the KMWorld 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management 2026 list. Murray founded Fisent in 2021. Before that, he spent over 10 years focused on financial services technology and operations, both as an executive and subject matter expert on core and digital banking technology as well as compliance, regtech, and payment systems. Murray recently sat down with The Mortgage Note’s Scott Kimbler to talk about how Fisent Technologies and AI have evolved over the past five years. “Fisent is what we call a company focused around the discipline of applied GenAI process automation. That discipline is relatively new. It’s really the concept of taking generative AI technology and applying it to process automation. So, in the context of most of our customers in financial services, what that means is being able to apply AI to understand and process unstructured content, typically documents, spreadsheets, emails, and images that are coming in as part of a business process, maybe adjudicating a dispute or complaint, onboarding a customer, or reviewing a claim,” Murray said. “We can step into those workflows using our technology and make sense of the content and context of the process and then structure all of that unstructured data to make it usable for the existing workflow, the onboarding process, or the claims process to drive automation where previously typically a human operator was required to step in.” Murray said speed is one of the most important value drivers they bring to these processes. What takes humans minutes or even hours can be completed with the same degree of standardization and consistency with AI in seconds. Murray spoke a bit about his background in finance and how developing the Fisent business model was not his initial intent. With his background in banking technology and operations, Murray originally thought his business model would revolve around something he was a subject matter expert in, but instead, he turned his focus to creating what today is known as Fisent’s BizAI solution, which enables the automation of repetitive business tasks through the application of proprietary and publicly available large language models. “It became pretty obvious to us pretty quickly. The real product is actually this thing we call BizAI. This AI content processing service. And that’s what we’re in the market with today and have deployed in the mortgage industry pretty widely throughout the U.S.,” Murray said. Murray said they work with companies across the spectrum, including Fortune 500 companies. To learn more about Adrian Murray and Fisent, visit Fisent.com.

March 25, 2026Episode 322 min

Podcast: One-On-One With Talia Ramirez, President Of Spectrum Solutions

The president of Spectrum Solutions says timely property preservation protects servicers, improves the safety of neighborhoods, and helps maintain land values. “The minute that you get a property, you want eyes on it. Meaning you want the guy in the field at the property to assess the condition. You want to know, ‘Is the property secure? Does it need to be secured?'” Talia Ramirez said. In addition to assessing the property’s condition, servicers need to know whether it has been vandalized, if there are squatters, and if it is overgrown, she said. Ramirez recently sat down with The Mortgage Note’s Scott Kimbler to talk about how Spectrum Solutions fits into the servicing landscape. Ramirez explained that when a property goes into default, the servicer needs a field service preservation provider to step in. Spectrum Solutions is a national provider that specializes in property renovations and preservation. “What do we do? We secure the property. We go out to maintain the lawns. If there’s any emergent issues, let’s say the property is flooding, we immediately cure that. Let’s say it has a roof leak. We’ll tarp the roof. We’ll repair the roof. Anything that needs to be done to help maintain the property so that it does not fall further into disrepair. And ensure that the lawn is not a blight in the neighborhood,” Ramirez said. As the nation is seeing an increase in the number of foreclosure starts — January saw 42,000 foreclosure starts , the highest monthly total since early 2020 — there is the potential that Spectrum Solutions could see an increase in demand. Ramirez said the most important thing they focus on is educating their clients. With the majority of her career spent in mortgage servicing, Ramirez said her background in the industry helps. “My servicing background definitely helps a ton because I know what it’s like to be on that side. I knew what I wanted from my field service providers. I knew the turn times I needed from them, the communication I needed from them, and the transparency that is so critical when it comes to doing this business,” Ramirez said. “It has also helped me to understand just how important honesty, integrity, and transparency are in being a vendor. My clients truly appreciate that. I may not always have good news for them, but the fact that I am honest about it and that I remediate the issue, they truly appreciate it. And that’s what they value most.” Kimbler and Ramirez wrapped up by talking about what keeps her passionate about her job. “Honestly, it’s the feeling that I get from it. It just makes me feel accomplished, makes me feel good. I love delivering for my clients. I love delivering for our neighborhoods. And it’s that finished product. It’s that property you get that is just falling apart. You know, the yard is just seven feet tall, and you look at this property and go, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know that we’re ever going to get this done.’ And then you just sit down, and you figure it out,” Ramierz said. “Then, when you see the beautiful finished product, and you know what you’ve done for your client, and you know what you’ve done for the neighborhood and for the community, it’s that for me.” The corporate office for Spectrum Solutions is located in Sheridan, WY. They work with mortgage servicers, mortgage investors, and real estate investors. #servicers #propertypreservation #mortgagenews