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[ad_1] HousingWire recently spoke with Aditya Udas, managing director at Iron Mountain, about the potential for digital transformation of mortgage custodial duties and how Iron Mountain is innovating collateral management. HousingWire: How does custody transformation impact the mortgage industry? Aditya Udas: From Iron Mountain’s perspective, mortgage custody directly impacts liquidity in the housing market. Custodians are responsible for storing mortgage collateral documents on behalf of the investor for the life of the loan – 30 years, plus ~4 years after the mortgage is paid in full. There are approximately 55 million files currently held by document custodians, which is expected to grow to 61 million by 2025. Basically, all loans that are sold to the secondary market are stored by custodians. But before the long-term storage, custodians are responsible for the critical task of certifying the mortgage. Lenders send their documents to the custodians, who perform an initial certification to confirm completeness and accuracy – and to validate that the documents match the data that Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae hold on the mortgage. The GSEs require this certification be completed before they securitize and sell the mortgage to investors. If there is any delay in certification, then the mortgage is delayed in reaching the secondary market. And if certification is not done properly, there is a risk to the investor from the faulty data. These are critical challenges that not enough technology providers and fintechs are focusing on today. HW: What are the trends impacting the custodians? AU: Firstly, the issue of scalability. For all of us in mortgage, it’s been a wild 12 months on the origination and refi rollercoaster. Although it brought in record profits, the high volume brought a lot of operational pain for all players in the industry as we tried to scale. Custodians faced the same issue – file certification is a manual process required to be completed within eight business hours of receipt. In times of high volume, custodians face tremendous pressure to meet this SLA. Secondly, digital mortgages – in the next 10 years we project that the majority of mortgages will be digital. eNotes registered on the MERS eRegistry increased approximately 350% between 2019 and 2020 (127,178 files vs. 462,671 files). The continued adoption of eNotes often forces custodians to maintain parallel universes – one set of operations for physical certification and mortgage custody, and one for auto-cert and eVault storage. HW: Where is Iron Mountain innovating to address mortgage custody scalability and the rise of eNotes? AU: For scalability, Iron Mountain has developed our AI/ML tool for unstructured data called InSight. InSight uses intelligent document processing to certify physical or digital collateral: classifying, extracting relevant data, validating the data and reporting that certification to the GSEs. InSight removes the need for manual certification, drastically reducing operational expenses, improving accuracy and enabling rapid scaling. For eNotes, we are investing in general infrastructure such as auto-certification (or integration to the GSEs auto-cert tools) as well as building an eVault for storage. But more tactically, the thornier problem is addressing that “parallel universe” I described earlier. To address this, Iron Mountain is exploring a concept called “The Bridge.” We asked ourselves ­– can physical collateral be certified using the same process and infrastructure as an eNote? The answer is yes. The Bridge is a process for delivering a seamless physical collateral management solution from the origination table through paid in full that mirrors the custodial experience of a native electronic closing. It includes: Digitizing the physical collateral package, creating a quasi-eNote Running the quasi-eNote through InSight, to process and extract the unstructured data Certifying the data through the eNote certification process or auto-cert tools Storing the quasi-eNote in an eVault and providing an option to store the original physical collateral in a vault if needed Creating a leverageable data record for each physical-born collateral that includes closing document data validated against origination data and later appended with data on trailing documents, assignments, transfers, investor information, servicer information, MERS data, partial releases, foreclosure documents, and paid-in-full events.  Building an industry eBridge Platform used to track collateral certification and lifecycle updates of physical collateral that has been digitized and converted to structured data.  The eBridge Platform will provide rules based access to multiple concurrent users, with governed and monitored update privileges. This provides a transparent view into the loan level chain of title through both data and supporting images. HW: What would these innovations mean for the industry? AU: This would impact everyone in the life cycle: investors, the GSEs, custodians, lenders and ultimately the borrowers. Focusing on the custodians themselves, the legacy manual processes serve as a root cause for lost or damaged documents that, in the worst-case scenario, can make the loan unsaleable. Using InSight, the custodian expands client value by electronically classifying documents and extracting structured data sets that are compared across documents and loan level servicing data using AIML based technology. This enhances efficiencies and accuracy, ensures SLAs are met, and expands metadata per file that custodians can analyze for future growth, enhanced reporting and risk management. By using “The Bridge,” custodians can operationally support the hybrid environment of rising eNotes and physical notes – keeping costs down as we steadily move to 100% digital. Again, the ability of custodians to address these challenges will ultimately drive liquidity in the market and reduce risk for investors. The post How transforming mortgage custody could drive liquidity appeared first on HousingWire. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] First off, before we get into the groceries I bought the past two weeks, I have to share this picture a follower sent m of the milk markdowns she found at her Kroger. Yes, that say $0.05 per gallon/half gallon!!!! [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] California rail yard gunman amassed weapons cache at home he torched [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The transaction valued at about $1.2 billion is estimated to give BigBasket a post-money valuation of close to $2 billion. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Imagine wanting to build software in the mortgage industry. You spend your time visualizing the problem your technology plans to solve, but after researching the industry, you realize that when it comes to building mortgage technology, you’re not just building an application. You actually have to take the proper steps to make sure it gets built correctly, and from a compliance standpoint. If you don’t come from a software or a mortgage background, it will be a long journey. The good news is that there are some key measures that you can follow for how to best navigate building digital mortgage software with compliance in mind. Digital compliance in the ever-evolving mortgage industry The mortgage industry continues to evolve with new technology coming in to better serve mortgage lenders, real estate agents, service providers, appraisal management companies and others, so taking compliance into consideration is key. Whether you’re new to the industry or a seasoned individual coming in to disrupt the mortgage industry with your new technology innovation, you have to consider whether you understand how to address regulatory requirements in the mortgage industry. For example, a marketing platform needs to track marketing campaigns because compliance officers need to review those campaigns to make sure they don’t violate RESPA (8). If you’re not sure what this means, it’s best to do your research on this topic to ensure your software is compliant. This content is exclusively for HW+ members. Start an HW+ Membership now for less than $1 per day. Your HW+ Membership includes: Unlimited access to HW+ articles and analysis Exclusive access to the HW+ Slack community and virtual events HousingWire Magazine delivered to your home or office BECOME A MEMBER TODAY Already a member? log in The post The role of compliance in digital mortgages appeared first on HousingWire. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The post 3 “Backdoor” Crypto Investments You Won’t Want to Miss appeared first on Millennial Money. A month is a lifetime in crypto. In April, The New York Times boldly proclaimed “we’re all crypto people now” as the price of bitcoin surged past the $60,000 mark.  They weren’t wrong: 2021 is the year crypto went from a mere curiosity in the minds of mom-and-pop investors to a serious asset class worthy of inclusion in the business section of the most storied financial news outlets. (Fun fact: a recent study from New York Digital Investment Group found that 46 million Americans now own some amount of bitcoin!)  Well, it hasn’t all been upside since that NYT story. In fact, most cryptocurrency investors have endured a harsh sell-off since that article was printed. As of the time of this writing, serious cryptocurrency tokens bitcoin and Ethereum are down 24% and 21% respectively in the last month while “meme token” dogecoin has fallen 28%.  Although cryptocurrencies lack the financial metrics associated with stocks, there are quite a few fundamental reasons for crypto’s harsh sell-off. In the last month, most of the news concerning crypto’s adoption has been decidedly negative. Here are just a few high-level events in the crypto space in the last few weeks alone:  Aggressive cryptocurrency leverage—as high as 100-to-1 ratios—has been reported by CNBC and other outlets. Self-appointed crypto meme guru Elon Musk quickly reversed Tesla’s stance of accepting bitcoin due to concerns about environmental impacts.  Regulatory bodies from both China and the United States have begun to look more forcefully into regulation, including bans on mining, limitations on acceptance, and/or more disclosure on transactions. Fallout from the Colonial Pipeline’s cyberattack, including the fact the ransom was paid in bitcoin. This was a harsh reminder that the current use case for cryptocurrencies is often for illegal and nefarious transactions.  As a result of these bearish headlines, many recent cryptocurrency investors are concerned about the asset class going forward. While sell-offs can be hard to stomach, that is a natural part of investing in a speculative asset class like cryptocurrency.  In the short run, investors should expect continued volatility as the ranks of new investors move into crypto. Like all investments, it’s important to take a long-term focus: despite the 1-month pullback, bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin are up 320%, 1180%, and 14,540% over the last year.  Here at Millennial Money, we’re long-term bullish on cryptocurrencies with well-developed blockchain technologies like bitcoin and Ethereum but understand many investors are looking for lower-volatility ways to take advantage of crypto’s adoption and growth.  Below we’re highlighting three stocks that have significant exposure to the growth of cryptocurrencies without needing to buy the underlying assets. This could be a particularly compelling way to invest in the asset class if you’re a more risk-averse investor.  Pick Like A Pro Where to invest $500 right now Are you ready for “maximum upside?” Motley Fool Rule Breakers is led by legendary investor David Gardner and pinpointed Tesla at $6.29, Salesforce at $6.89, and Shopify at $21.02. (It trades for more than $1,000 per share today!) Here’s why you’ll want to get the full details on Rule Breakers today. The service just announced its top 10 “best buys now” across the entire stock market. Whether you’re starting with $100, $500, or more, you’ll want to get the full details! Click here to learn more Square Square (NYSE: SQ)  Market Cap: $101 billionRevenue Growth: 44%, ex-bitcoin   If you could choose between: A leading cryptocurrency company whose revenue in the space grew elevenfold over the past year.  A “digital bank” with a leading app growing profits at 171% per year.  OR a strong “reopening play” on 330 million Americans getting back to normal life this summer… … which would you pick?  Well, our stock of the week means you don’t have to choose, because Square is all three of those things all wrapped in one!  Why is Square in such a great position in so many markets? For one, it’s ahead of traditional banks on crypto. Banks dragged their feet on crypto, afraid of its decentralized nature. Square, on the other hand, was one of the early crypto adopters and introduced the ability to buy and sell bitcoin in 2018 through its peer-to-peer financial network, Cash App.  Square is a true believer in crypto, even buying $200 million in bitcoin for its own balance sheet. In April, Square created the Crypto Council for Innovation with Coinbase and Fidelity with the aim of lobbying regulators on crypto-related matters. Square stock had an amazing run in 2020, with the stock advancing 250% higher on bullish crypto developments. But here’s the thing: crypto might not be the biggest catalyst for Square in 2021.  Instead, Square’s stock could be led by another 2021 theme: the post-pandemic reopening. Last year was tough for the company, with full-year revenue rising 17% (excluding bitcoin-related purchases), a rate that while fine, is significantly below Square’s long-term potential.  The reason for last year’s “slump?” 2020 was particularly difficult for Square’s seller ecosystem (think the merchants that use its trademark white card readers). Many of Square’s merchants are small businesses with on-premise operations—exactly the kind of businesses that were disproportionately affected by COVID-19. For example, during that period Square’s “card present” transactions fell 4%. However, the company worked with many of these vendors to set up an online presence, increasing “card not present” transactions by 26%.  As a result, last year the company generated $1.51 billion in gross profits from its seller ecosystem, an 8% increase over the prior year. While impressive, it was certainly lower than it would have been without the pandemic.  Add it up, and last year was an odd scenario in which revenue was negatively affected by the pandemic but positively affected by bitcoin. This year it’s likely to see a reversal: Square’s seller ecosystem should return in a major way during the reopening, while bitcoin will be less of a boost to the top line. Square

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[ad_1] Wheat procurement last year started a fortnight late from its normal schedule of April 1 due to the lockdown and the pace was slow because of the social-distancing norms. [ad_2] Source link