Image by jan.deheus
Until the subprime crisis, the quality control department had always been something of a Rodney Dangerfield in the world of mortgage lending. No respect. After all, who wanted to see cold water thrown on a red-hot origination market? Not the production department, surely. In fact, many lenders didn’t think twice about setting the Production foxes to guard the Quality Control hens.
Things have changed, though. As Jan Wetzel of Wetzel Trott sums it up in her recent interview in MortgageOrb:
“It used to be that lenders just did the quality control to fulfill the agency requirements so they could have the results available in case of an audit. Now, they are actually reading the reports at a senior management level and taking corrective actions in their procedures.”
Part of the reason, of course, is that the agencies are paying more attention, following up on audits, and demanding resolution of infractions. But there is also an awakening in the upper management of lenders that perhaps the quality control process, including fraud detection, could be more than just a hindrance to maximizing profit. Could it be that mortgage quality control could actually serve to enhance profitability?
As it happens, this is the very value proposition that Cogent has been offering for almost two decades. We hope this sea change is permanent.