It is no longer news that COVID-19 continues to have a huge impact on the mortgage industry. With low interest rates and high consumer demand, many mortgage businesses and banks had record years in 2020 while many other industries struggled.
It also is no secret that with the issues brought on by the pandemic, financial technology (fintech) companies have had the opportunity to step up their game and assist the industry in its sudden need to join the digital age. HQ Vendor Management (HQVM), a dba of Mortgage Quality Management and Research, LLC (MQMR) is one of those companies.
“While our business faced many of the same general business challenges as everyone else – the transition to remote work, no travel, more workday interruptions, etc. – the near-total ban on vendor on-site audits meant that we had to get creative not only in conducting our reviews, but also in preparing our clients for remote regulatory exams,” MQMR President Michael Steer said.
“From the client perspective, we observed that lenders were more willing to onboard vendors that could help them address the immediate challenges facing their organizations, primarily the tremendous increase in volume as well as technologies that provided more remote or digital capabilities. Most lenders were making decisions between ‘need-to-have’ technology and services versus the ‘nice-to-have,’ even when the ‘nice-to-have’ would potentially benefit their business in the long term.
Steer said the biggest concerns among HQVM’s clients are information technology and cybersecurity for their own operations and those of their vendors.
For the rest of this story and others like it, download our “How Fintech is Changing Vendor Management,” special report.