It is easy to look at the steady drumbeat of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires and ask whether something fundamentally different is happening or whether we are simply more aware of risks that have always existed. When people talk about once-in-a-century floods arriving every few years, the question is not really theological or political. It is about whether the data supports what our instincts are telling us. And in at least one important way, it does. If you step

The mortgage industry has always been cyclical, but what is unfolding now feels structurally different. Consolidation is no longer just a byproduct of downturns or margin compression; it has become a defining feature of an industry grappling with scale, technology, and shifting consumer expectations. In 2025, this reality became impossible to ignore. Despite a return to modest profitability, roughly 25 basis points for the average independent mortgage bank (IMB), merger and a

By Michele Bodda, President Employer Services, Verification Solutions and Housing at Experian Credit scores feel like a simple thing because we’ve been taught to treat them that way, a three-digit number that opens doors or closes them. But credit scores don’t exist on their own. They are downstream of something far more fundamental: credit data. Without the information in a credit report, there is no score at all. That distinction matters, especially now, as the mortgage ind

I have been in mortgage long enough to watch communication shift from a nice-to-have skill into a real competitive edge. Buyers today can shop lenders as easily as they shop homes, and many do. Not because the first loan officer failed them on rates or accuracy, but because the experience felt off. It felt pushy instead of helpful, scripted instead of conversational, more like being sold than being guided. That reaction matters, especially with Millennial buyers, who are not

By Denny LeCompte, CEO of Portnox Money attracts attackers. And where money flows, personal data follows. The mortgage industry shares that risk profile in spades. Few industries combine such high-value transactions with such concentrated personally identifiable information. Examples include: an $800,000 wire transfer sent to the wrong account; a borrower's data set quietly exfiltrated over months. These are precisely the outcomes attackers design for. And unlike Hollywood-st

For the past several years, housing affordability has been discussed as if it were a force of nature. Everyone agrees it is a problem, everyone studies it, and yet it often feels beyond reach, like something that can only be changed by sweeping legislation or a dramatic shift in interest rates. What feels different right now is that some of the most immediate levers are not theoretical at all. They are administrative. They do not require Congress, but rather decisions. And th

Few phrases are circulating the mortgage industry faster right now than “AI agents.” The promise is sweeping: autonomous systems that can talk to borrowers, take action, and materially change how lenders and servicers operate. But as with every major technology wave, the gap between hype and real impact is wide. What separates signal from noise is not ambition, but execution. An AI agent is not just a chatbot or a scripted workflow. It is a non-deterministic system powered by

There is something uniquely clarifying about being on the ground at the Independent Mortgage Bankers Conference. IMB has always been a barometer for where this industry actually is, not where slide decks say it should be. This year, the signal was unmistakable. The mood is more optimistic than it has been in years, attendance is strong, and conversations have shifted from survival to execution. But that optimism is disciplined. Lenders are encouraged, not complacent, and the