Stewart in the Studio

E17: ICE ’25 Hot Topics Straight Talk for Lenders Looking To Automate

Marvin: Hi Rich, and thanks for coming back to Steward in the Studio. Today we’re talking about ICE mortgage technology and their Experience 25 conference coming to Las Vegas. You have team members from the Stewart family of companies coming in from all over the country to talk strategy and
tech with lenders.

So tell us a little bit about what you’re hearing from lenders in this pretty challenging first quarter of 2025.

Rich: Marvin, thanks. I think at the start of the year, everyone had projected that 2025 was going to be much stronger than 24. That still may be the case with some growth in the second half of the year, but the first quarter of 25 is a little bit of a challenge. And what we’re hearing from our lender customers is that they are concerned about the current market conditions. Most notably the uncertainty that there is in
the market due to potential changes in regulatory policy, the continued impact of a low housing inventory. And most importantly, the impact of poor affordability and the challenge of home affordability. Overall, this has impacted application volumes and has really put a premium on a lender’s ability to convert those applications into loans. We are looking
forward to ICE Experience in a few weeks; to meet with many clients and prospective business partners who are really looking for ways and trying to understand how to better use their Encompass LOS, and the related tech stacks
to drive efficiency in the loan process. The new EPC integrations – Stewart has a number of these integrations, and
we’ve seen some benefits with improved communication and better data flow. This all leads to quicker application cycle time, and also a better way of decisioning those loans and making those better decisions more quickly. Another area of real importance is the consumer experience. We’re seeing a lot of interest in our borrower portal, which is a secure interface that allows for borrowers to upload documents and help speed the process up in a secure environment. Other area of customer experience that that we really touch is in
the closing process and the settlement.

Process can be supported by Stewart in a number of different ways. You’ve got your traditional office closing, you’ve got mobile notary, you’ve got hybrid, and even the adoption of a full e-closing or remote online notarization. All these things are of importance as we move forward.

Marvin: Okay, so that leads us right into my next question. ICE Mortgage
technology is working hard to move lenders to more modern technology. For instance, ICE is trying to spur adoption of the web client away from the smart client, and for partners to use the vastly improved Encompass Partner Connect functionality over the longstanding PSTK. How are lenders feeling about the demands of moving to this?

Rich: Well, Marvin, let me start by saying I don’t know that anyone is ever excited to move to new tech due to the project management demands and other priorities that interrupt their day jobs. I’m obviously kidding because there is much promise in the improved platform like EPC, but there is definitely trepidation because of that. Again, expense, time and competing priorities. But this is really leading to a really interesting opportunity for us here at Stewart. We’re already having meaningful conversations leading up to the conference about technology, about
process roadmaps, especially with long-term partners. Stewart is in a very unique position in the industry given the different lines of business that we support and in this user community, for Encompass users in particular, because of the multiple integrations that we have and the forward-leaning nature of our
tech stack and integrations.
In the workflow, so as lenders are looking to consolidate their tech stacks and trying to partner with fewer providers, again, trying to make things more simple. And more consistent. This continues to bode well for Stewart and our family of companies Overall. We have a great partnership with our credit
verifications company, Informative Research, our valuation and appraisal company, Stewart Valuation Intelligence, and obviously the traditional expertise in title and escrow that Stewart brings.

Marvin: Okay, and with the conference just a couple of weeks away, who from your team is going to be there to talk about everything we’re doing here across the Stewart Lender Services family of companies?

Rich: Marvin, as I mentioned, we are a longstanding partner of ICE technology and a long-term integrated partner with the Encompass loan origination system. And the Stewart family of companies now is represented everywhere from lead generation and point of sale through the application into loan processing and underwriting, and ultimately into the long closing and delivery process as well. We’ll be really well represented by a number of our leadership team, as well as
product specific subject matter experts from Cloudvirga, which is our point of sale platform and borrower portal; from Informative Research, which is our credit technology platform, and also the verification waterfall for verification of
income, employment and assets.
We will have a number of folks talking about appraisal modernization from Stewart Valuation Intelligence, which is our best in class AMC. And then obviously our title and escrow expertise will be well represented from members of our centralized title services team and also a number of our technology team who are hands-on with the EPC connections and hands-on with our project development and project management teams to support our lender clients. We’re really looking forward to it. And can’t wait to see you all in Vegas.