In an effort to maximize loan officer efficiency and build trust with borrowers, Blend (NYSE:BLND) launched the Loan Officer Toolkit in March 2021. With streamlined workflows across the entire mortgage loan process, the LO Toolkit “enables LOs to focus on building both consumer relationships and their business.”
The significant mortgage application volume in 2020 and 2021 revealed opportunities “for lenders to reevaluate their historically manual processes and generated fresh interest in innovating the origination process, fee management, and disclosure generation.”
As part of Blend‘s ongoing commitment to loan officer success, they’ve been “investing heavily in the Loan Officer Toolkit, and are proud to announce that the added benefit of fee management is now integrated into our end-to-end mortgage platform.”
With one dedicated space for loan teams to manage fees, enhanced application components leading to more accurate pre-approval letters and cash-to-close estimates, and the ability to offer customers an overall better experience, integrated fee management “gives LOs the superior tools required to maintain a competitive edge in a highly competitive market.”
In addition to reducing time spent on manual tasks and navigating disparate systems, LOTK Fees “gives LOs more time to do what they do best: engaging with and advising customers.”
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) began “requiring heightened scrutiny of transparent cost quoting from lenders to consumers.”
Lenders have since been “reluctant to innovate on their process for managing and disclosing fees, given the risk of misquoting borrowers.”
The current process for managing application intake and disclosing closing costs “is disjointed, leaving both consumers and loan teams to navigate two different systems.” Currently, loan teams use one system “for loan applications, and access closing costs information in another. Lenders don’t have a single portal where they can manage both aspects.”
Fees are “integral to the loan process, but traditionally they haven’t been disclosed to borrowers until later in the process.” This method can “lead to a lack of transparency for borrowers, makes LO-borrower collaboration more difficult, and hinders loan teams’ ability to build trust early on in the loan lifecycle.”
Blend Fee Management “allows borrowers to access estimated fees earlier, increasing transparency and contributing to an overall better customer experience.” And with a single portal to more efficiently manage both borrower application intake workflows and the fees disclosure process, loan teams “can drive stronger conversion and pull-through and spend more time cultivating lasting client relationships.”
Blend Fee Management “integrates fees from a variety of sources, empowering loan teams to centrally manage fees, structure full loan quotes in just seconds, and provide critical collaboration capabilities to borrowers.”
Blend’s Fee Management solution is “optimized for configurability.” To further enhance the origination process, it’s important for loan teams “to have the flexibility to configure which fees are editable or read-only.”
Having access to the tools and innovative technology that “drives loan officer success can also make all the difference when it comes to recruiting and retaining top loan officer talent.”
With both loan teams and consumers in mind, Blend “designed this new addition to foster trust and collaboration and set loan teams up for lasting success.”
The company knows that “the bedrock of a modern borrower experience is providing efficiency, ease of use, and expertise across all touch points.” New features like centralized fee management help lenders “improve both efficiency and borrower experience while saving time by putting the tools an LO needs in one place.”