Finicity CEO Steve Smith provides ways lenders can improve applications and ultimately close more mortgages by taking advantage of digital solutions the improve the mortgage process from start to finish. Read the whole article at HousingWire or in the August issue of HW Magazine.
Finicity CEO Steve Smith discusses growing digital expectations for mortgage lending and how lenders can deliver what their borrowers expect today and into the future. Read the whole article at National Mortgage News.
Finicity’s digital verification report provides a faster process and more pleasing customer experience
SALT LAKE CITY – June 20, 2019 – Finicity, a leading provider of real-time financial data access and insights, announced today an integration with LendingQB, a leading provider of SaaS loan origination technology solutions. LendingQB’s platform now uses Finicity’s digital Verification of Assets (VoA) solution to allow lenders to free up resources, increase processing speed and reduce mortgage fraud while providing borrowers with a more efficient and positive experience.
“Digitizing the loan origination process is the key to the future of lending,” said Steve Smith, Finicity CEO. “We’re proud to be one of the tech providers behind this movement and are glad to work with leading digital loan originators like LendingQB to help the industry evolve and improve the experiences for lenders and borrowers alike.”
LendingQB provides solutions that help mortgage lenders reduce costs, maintain compliance and increase profitability, while still putting their customers first. This comes from LendingQB’s unique approach to loan origination system building — layering its core platform with best-of-breed components to create the ideal solution for each lender.
“At LendingQB, we pride ourselves on our ability to seek out the best technology and partnerships to combine with our solution,” said Tim Nguyen, CEO of MeridianLink, the parent company of LendingQB. “This creates a competitive advantage for lenders that delivers a more meaningful experience to the people that really matter: borrowers.”
Both Finicity’s verification solutions are delivered under the CRA framework, which allows borrowers to directly obtain information on reports or resolve discrepancies. Finicity’s status as a registered CRA is a symbol of its commitment to consumer control and empowerment, as well as its dedication to the requirements of the lending space.
Finicity is an authorized, integrated provider of asset verification reports within Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter® (DU®). This gives lenders a validated asset report through Fannie Mae’s Day 1 Certainty™ initiative. Finicity is also part of the Single Source Validation (SSV) pilot, meaning Fannie Mae will utilize transaction data from Finicity reports to validate assets, income and employment.
Finicity is also a Freddie Mac Asset and Income Modeler (AIM) service provider for assets and income, and Freddie Mac and Finicity are working together on new methods to validate income and employment from payroll deposit data.
To stay up to date on all Finicity company and product announcements, visit the website atwww.finicity.com.
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About Finicity:
Finicity’s mission is to help individuals, families and organizations make smarter financial decisions through safe and secure access to fast, high-quality data. The company, which launched its first financial product in 2000 and has since grown to provide financial data APIs, credit decisioning tools and financial wellness solutions, partners with influential financial institutions and disruptive fintech providers alike to give consumers a leg up in a complicated financial world. Finicity was awarded API World’s Finance API of the Year and is a HousingWire Tech100 winner. To learn more or test drive its API, visit www.finicity.com.
About LendingQB:
LendingQB, a provider of an innovative web-based loan origination system (LOS) and division of MeridianLink, continues to extend market-leading integrations through its web-based LOS that provides lenders with a flexible, innovative workflow. The system’s open-architecture application program interface (API) enables lenders to select the tools that maximize efficiency by leveraging integrations from more than 250 mortgage service providers. For more information, visit www.lendingqb.com.
About MeridianLink:
MeridianLink, Inc., developer of the industry’s first multi-channel account opening and loan origination platform, is a leading provider of enterprise business solutions for financial service organizations. The company’s passion for excellence is reflected in its web-based credit reporting, lending and new account opening/deposit technologies, which all enjoy solid reputations as being cutting edge, reliable and affordable. Based in Costa Mesa, Calif., MeridianLink is committed to creating smart solutions that deliver real value. For more information, visit www.meridianlink.com.
Advanced technology reduces asset verification process from weeks to minutes
ATLANTA – April 10, 2019 – Pulte Mortgage announced today it is partnering with Finicity — a leading provider of real-time financial data access and insights, to provide its borrowers with a faster, simpler and more secure way to navigate the home financing process. Pulte Mortgage is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM) that finances new home construction for customers of Pulte Homes, Centex, Del Webb, DiVosta, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods brands.
As anyone with a mortgage knows, securing a home loan has historically been a manual, paper-intensive process—especially when it comes to verifying borrowers’ assets. Through Finicity’s verification platform, up to 24 months of bank, brokerage and 401k data can now be accessed to confirm assets within minutes—eliminating the need for borrowers to find, copy and scan reams of paper verifications. This can reduce the mortgage origination time by more than a week, giving borrowers more control of the process, without a lot of the hassle.
Although the mortgage process has drastically improved over the past decade for borrowers and lenders alike, it hasn’t always been this way. “The mortgage lending industry has changed dramatically over the decades, but never more so than over the past 10 years,” said Debra Still, president and CEO of Pulte Mortgage. “The average loan file used to be about 300 pages, but today’s regulatory and compliance demands have pushed this figure to more than 800 pages. The need for ever-increasing volumes of supporting data puts an incredible burden on the borrower, which is why we strategically invest in integrated technology solutions, like Finicity, to reduce the time and complexity associated with securing a mortgage.”
The partnership with Finicity is just the latest in Pulte Mortgage’s commitment to advance technology solutions that make it easier and more transparent for borrowers navigating the mortgage process. In addition to their new instant asset verification feature through Finicity, Pulte Mortgage customers can upload essential documentation from their mobile device with just the snap of a picture; e-sign key regulatory disclosures with the swipe of a finger; and leverage a personalized digital dashboard to stay up-to-date on their loan’s progress when and where they want. These digital enhancements strengthen data security by leveraging advanced authentications, bank-level encryptions and secure borrower connections.
“Today’s consumers have come to expect simple and rapid experiences enabled by digitization,” said Steve Smith, CEO of Finicity. “Pulte is an innovator that is embracing digital solutions to further deliver a superior borrower experience by giving their loan consultants more time to engage with their buyers.”
“Whether it’s your first house or your last, building a new home is an exciting process,” added Still. “It is a time where you get to create a space that is uniquely personalized for your lifestyle and taste. That is why we are continuously working to simplify home financing for our customers, so they can spend more time focusing on building their dream home.”
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About Pulte Mortgage:
Pulte Mortgage is a wholly-owned financial services subsidiary of PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM) that solely focuses on the financing of new construction homes for customers of Pulte Homes, Centex, Del Webb, DiVosta, and John Wieland Homes brands. Founded in 1972, Pulte Mortgage has financed more than 700,000 homes from coast-to-coast while offering borrowers more than 200 different home loan solutions. Pulte Mortgage works hand-in-hand with the homebuilder to allow a closely-coordinated, streamlined financing experience that never misses a beat. To learn more about Pulte Mortgage and the services they offer, visit https://secure.pultemortgage.com/. (Equal Housing Lender – Company NMLS #1791)
About Finicity:
Finicity’s mission is to help individuals, families and organizations make smarter financial decisions through safe and secure access to fast, high-quality data. The company, which launched its first financial product in 2000 and has since grown to provide financial data APIs, credit decisioning tools and financial wellness solutions, partners with influential financial institutions and disruptive FinTech providers alike to give consumers a leg up in a complicated financial world. Finicity was awarded API World’s 2016 Finance API of the Year and is a 2018, 2019 HousingWire Tech100 winner. To learn more or test drive its API, visit www.finicity.com.
Top 52 innovative business leaders in the housing finance industry recognized
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – December 3, 2018 – Finicity, a leading provider of real-time financial data aggregation and insights, announced today that CEO, chairman and co-founder Steve Smith has been selected as a 2018 HousingWire Vanguard.
The HousingWire Vanguard Awards recognize the top business leaders contributing to the growth of the housing finance industry and its various sectors, including lending, servicing, investments and real estate. The majority of the winners are from the C-suite, and many are also founders or co-founders of their businesses. Winners will be recognized in HousingWire’s December/January issue.
“I’m honored to have my efforts recognized among other top leaders in the mortgage industry,” said Smith. “At Finicity, we’re fully dedicated to our mission of using tech to empower consumers through improved access to and control over their financial data. Over the last few years, we’ve seen remarkable innovation within the mortgage industry as it becomes more modern and digital, and we’re glad to play a central role.”
Smith, who founded Finicity in 2000 alongside current company president Nick Thomas, has led Finicity in its efforts to modernize the way consumers are empowered to share, use and manage their financial data. Finicity has developed and deployed a variety of products for mortgage lending, including its Verification of Assets (VoA) and Verification of Income (VoI) solutions, which add speed and accuracy to the loan application process.
Additionally, Smith is leading Finicity to bring more financial services to the underbanked. Finicity’s recent UltraFICO™credit score announcement with FICO and Experian is a large part of this. This solution, which enables consumers to contribute data to be applied to their credit score, will begin rolling out in 2019.
“As the Vanguards award program continues to grow and to be more successful, the entry point gets tighter. These winners are truly the best Vanguards in the mortgage finance industry, and they all deserve the highest honor in the space,” said HousingWire Editor-in-Chief Jacob Gaffney.
Vanguard Award winners are recognized based on their accomplishments in the last 12 months in both their companies and the industry sector they represent.
Earlier this year, Finicity was also named a 2018 HousingWire Tech100 winner. To stay up-to-date on Finicity news, announcements and press, visit www.finicity.com/newsroom.
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About Finicity:
Finicity’s mission is to help individuals, families and organizations make smarter financial decisions through safe and secure access to fast, high-quality data. The company, which launched its first financial product in 2000 and has since grown to provide financial data APIs, credit decisioning tools and financial wellness solutions, partners with influential financial institutions and disruptive fintech providers alike to give consumers a leg up in a complicated financial world. The company has developed more than 15,000 bank, wealth management and credit card integrations, giving it broad market coverage and utilizes advanced analytics and data intelligence to deliver rich financial insights. Finicity received recognition from American Banker in it’s 20 Best Fintechs to Work For list, it was awarded API World’s 2016 Finance API of the Year and is a 2018 HousingWire Tech100 winner. To learn more or test drive its API, visit www.finicity.com.
About HW Media:
HW Media is the leading digital community for real estate, financial services and fintech professionals to engage, connect and gain knowledge. Founded in 2016 through the acquisition of HousingWire, HW Media is based in Dallas, TX with team members across the country. HW Media is owned by Riomar Capital.
About HousingWire:
HousingWire is the most influential source of news and information for the U.S. mortgage and housing markets. Built on a foundation of independent and original journalism, HousingWire reaches over 40,000 newsletter subscribers daily and over 4 million unique visitors each year. Our audience of mortgage, real estate, financial services and fintech professionals rely on us to Move Markets Forward. Visit www.HousingWire.com or www.solutions.housingwire.com to learn more.
Finicity also announces enhancements to its income and asset verification solutions
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – October 15, 2018 – Finicity, a leading provider of real-time financial data aggregation and insights, announced today it has been selected as a third-party service provider for the new Freddie Mac Loan Advisor℠ automated income and asset assessment capabilities, which provide a faster, easier way for lenders to verify loan application data upfront. Finicity’s digital verification reports greatly improve efficiency and accuracy, while also providing a simpler, more pleasant borrower experience.
“Finicity loves working with digital innovators. Lenders need digital services to compete and meet customer expectations, and Freddie Mac gets it,” said Steve Smith, CEO and co-founder of Finicity. “They are pushing hard to help lenders remove hassles for borrowers while reducing complexity, cost and risk in loan originations.”
Freddie Mac announced its new income and asset assessment capabilities at the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Convention & Expo earlier today. Finicity’s verification reports are integrated within Freddie Mac Loan Product Advisor®, the cornerstone of Loan Advisor Suite. When the capability goes live later this quarter, asset verification will be generally available and income verification will be available as a limited release.
Finicity was selected due to its established expertise within the mortgage lending industry and its innovative digital lending solutions.
“Finicity’s high quality data, combined with their data intelligence capabilities and Loan Product Advisor’s superior underwriting capability, will help lenders provide a better mortgage lending experience for homebuyers, giving them the Freddie EdgeSM,” said Samuel E. Oliver III, Freddie Mac Vice President, Major Project Execution for the Single-Family Business. “This industry-leading solution gives our clients that competitive advantage.”
Finicity also recently released upgrades to both its asset and income verification products. Verification of Assets (VoA) reports now have an option to receive up to 24 months of transaction data. Finicity’s Verification of Income (VoI) report now use an enhanced analytical model to rank income streams with confidence scores.
Finicity’s upgrades are a part of its larger mission to improve consumer-permissioned data access and further advance digitization in the lending industry. Consumer-permissioned data gives borrowers a path to secure mortgages with less paperwork and hassle, while shortening the time to close and reducing potential fraud. Borrowers can now provide a rich financial history through real-time access to transactions which completes verifications in minutes instead of days. Finicity will continue to innovate its asset, income and employment validations utilizing consumer-permissioned data.
“Utilizing data and automation are critical to the success of lenders as we transform the digital mortgage process,” said Parvesh Sahi, senior vice president, business development, Ellie Mae. “By shortening the lending process and leveraging data to improve decision-making, we’re providing value to all members of the industry including lenders and borrowers.”
Finicity’s verification reports will be available through Ellie Mae, Black Knight, Mortgage Cadence, BeSmartee, MortgageHippo, SimpleNexus, Capsilon, Blue Sage, Lender Price, DataVerify, Advanced Data, and other to-be-announced integrations.
To stay up to date on all Finicity company and product announcements, visit the website at www.finicity.com.
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About Finicity:
Finicity’s mission is to help individuals, families and organizations make smarter financial decisions through safe and secure access to fast, high-quality data. The company, which launched its first financial product in 2000 and has since grown to provide financial data APIs, credit decisioning tools and financial wellness solutions, partners with influential financial institutions and disruptive fintech providers alike to give consumers a leg up in a complicated financial world. Finicity was awarded API World’s 2016 Finance API of the Year and is a 2018 HousingWire Tech100 winner. To learn more or test drive its API, visit www.finicity.com.
About Freddie Mac:
Freddie Mac makes home possible for millions of families and individuals by providing mortgage capital to lenders. Since our creation by Congress in 1970, we’ve made housing more accessible and affordable for homebuyers and renters in communities nationwide. We are building a better housing finance system for homebuyers, renters, lenders, investors and taxpayers. Learn more at FreddieMac.com, Twitter @FreddieMac and Freddie Mac’s blog FreddieMac.com/blog.
Outdated manual asset verification process to be replaced by Finicity’s automated digital report
SALT LAKE CITY and SAN FRANCISCO – September 18, 2018 – Finicity, a leading provider of real-time financial data aggregation and insights, announced today an integration agreement with Capsilon, a leading provider of intelligent process automation software for the mortgage industry. Under the agreement, Finicity’s Verification of Assets (VoA) solution has been integrated into the Capsilon platform to improve the speed, user experience and economics of the mortgage process.
Finicity’s VoA solution provides bank-validated insights into borrower assets, enabling reports to be generated in only minutes. The solution reduces fraud, frees up resources, shortens time to close and is now integrated with Capsilon borrower and loan officer workspaces to automate asset verification. This further streamlines the loan application process — borrowers no longer need to search for bank statements, and loan officers have more time to focus on higher value activities, such as getting more loans.
“We’re excited to work alongside Capsilon with the shared goal of transforming the difficult manual mortgage origination processes of today into a modern and digital experience of the future,” said Steve Smith, Finicity CEO. “Finicity’s VoA reports are a key part of the next-generation mortgage process.”
Capsilon builds intelligent tools that transform the way mortgage companies work. The end-to-end platform uses data and AI to automate manual tasks and enable better, faster decision-making.
“The mortgage industry is undergoing radical transformation driven by technology. Those who invest in the right technology now will gain a competitive advantage to help them minimize risk and accelerate growth as the market changes,” said Jim Obsitnik, Chief Operating Officer of Capsilon. “We’re thrilled to partner with Finicity to help mortgage companies speed up the application process and deliver better borrower and loan officer experiences.”
Both Finicity’s asset and income solutions are delivered under the CRA framework, which allows borrowers to directly obtain information on reports or submit disputes. Finicity’s status as a registered CRA is a symbol of its commitment to safeguarding consumer privacy and dedication to the mortgage lending space.
Finicity is an authorized, integrated provider of asset verification reports within Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter® (DU®). This gives lenders a validated asset report through Fannie Mae’s Day 1 Certainty™ initiative. Finicity is also part of the Single Source Validation (SSV) pilot, meaning Fannie Mae will utilize transaction data from Finicity reports to validate assets, income and employment. A broader rollout of SSV is planned later this year and will build on Fannie Mae’s Day 1 Certainty initiative.
Finicity is also an authorized Freddie Mac asset validation report provider, and Freddie Mac and Finicity are working together on new methods to validate income from payroll deposit data from bank statements.
To stay up to date on all Finicity company and product announcements, visit the website at
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About Finicity:
Finicity’s mission is to help individuals, families and organizations make smarter financial decisions through safe and secure access to fast, high-quality data. The company, which launched its first financial product in 2000 and has since grown to provide financial data APIs, credit decisioning tools and financial wellness solutions, partners with influential financial institutions and disruptive fintech providers alike to give consumers a leg up in a complicated financial world. Finicity was awarded API World’s 2016 Finance API of the Year and is a 2018 HousingWire Tech100 winner. To learn more or test drive its API, visit www.finicity.com.
About Capsilon:
Capsilon builds products that transform the way mortgage companies work, making mortgages easier and less expensive for everyone. Capsilon uses data and AI to automate manual tasks and enable better, faster decision-making, delivering an average customer ROI of 400%. More than 160 of the mortgage industry’s most innovative companies use Capsilon’s enterprise SaaS solutions, including 3 of the 10 largest U.S. residential mortgage companies. Capsilon touches fifteen percent of all U.S. mortgages and, in 2017, $400 billion in mortgage loans went through Capsilon’s platform. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and has more than 450 employees worldwide. For more information, visit www.capsilon.com.
Deal enables Capital One customers to more securely share their data with popular third-party apps and services
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – August 8, 2018 – Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) and Finicity, a leading provider of real-time financial data aggregation and insights, have signed a data sharing agreement that enhances access and security through Capital One’s Customer Transactions application programming interface (API). As a result, Capital One customers can more securely share financial data with the third-party apps and services that Finicity supports in a way that is safe, secure and within the customer’s control.
“Finicity is hyper-focused on delivering the data insights our partners need to drive their services and enable their customers to make better financial decisions. This starts with superior data access, quality and intelligence,” said Finicity CEO Steve Smith. “Capital One has proven to be an excellent partner in pursuing these common goals of empowering consumers to have more access to their financial data and better manage their financial health.”
Establishing a formalized API integration with the bank allows the broader FinTech and financial services community to more securely automate needed financial account data while delivering a variety of apps and services for financial management. The result is significant time savings, added stability and greater accuracy. Capital One customers will also have increased control over how and when their data is used. This secure access to data provides the ability to have an on-demand and accurate view of their finances.
“Technology is enabling us to bring waves of new financial tools into the marketplace,” said Becky Heironimus, Managing Vice President of Enterprise Digital Products and Data Connections at Capital One. “We know many of our customers actively use and rely on third-party services to help them manage and track their finances, and we appreciate the value these services provide. Our agreement with Finicity helps our mutual customers take full advantage of their platform. Through the API, our mutual customers can securely connect with thousands of leading fintech applications and enable access to accurate account information that gives them control and transparency over how and when they choose to share their Capital One financial data.”
The API used in this direct-access relationship leverages Open Authorization (oAuth) technology to eliminate the need for the user to share their banking credentials with third-party apps. Instead, it is replaced with secure, tokenized access providing direct authorization through Capital One.
Finicity has established relationships with a wide variety of service and application providers that allow individuals and organizations to manage financial processes and payment initiation. This includes providing data aggregation for several of the most popular PFM (personal financial management) tools available on the market today, generating Finicity verification reports for many of the largest lenders and supporting ACH verification for innovative payment providers, among other services. Once the API-based method of data sharing is in place – customer migrations are expected to start in Q1 of 2019 – Capital One customers can directly and securely connect with financial tools and services that use the Finicity financial data API.
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About Finicity:
Finicity enables a financial data-sharing ecosystem that is secure, inclusive and innovative. Through its real-time financial data aggregation and insights platform, Finicity provides solutions for financial management, payments and credit decisioning, while also leading the development and promotion of industry standards. The company has developed more than 16,000 bank integrations, with the vast majority through connections that provide access to formatted bank data, improving information access and accuracy. Finicity was awarded API World’s 2016 Finance API of the Year and is a 2018 HousingWire Tech100 winner. To learn more or test drive its API, visit www.finicity.com.
About Capital One:
Capital One Financial Corporation (www.capitalone.com) is a financial holding company whose subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., had $248.2 billion in deposits and $364.0 billion in total assets as of June 30, 2018. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One, N.A. has branches located primarily in New York, Louisiana, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. A Fortune 500 company, Capital One trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “COF” and is included in the S&P 100 index.
Capital One launched its Customer Transactions API in 2017, providing its customers with the ability to more safely and securely share their transaction data with participating third-party organizations that they trust. As of August 2018, Capital One has executed contracts for its Customer Transactions API with Finicity, Abacus, Clarity Money, eMoney Advisors, Expensify, Intuit, and Xero.
Visit the Capital One newsroom for more Capital One news.