Clarifire CEO Talks About Automation For Servicers

By KIMBERLEY HAAS

The CEO of a workflow automation company says she is trying to help the mortgage industry modernize by making it easy for servicers to adopt technology they can manage from the front end.

Jane Mason is the founder of Clarifire in St. Petersburg, Florida. The company uses a Software-as-a-Service model to reduce manual processes and increase efficiencies.

Mason said in a recent interview with The Mortgage Note that there has been a seismic shift in the industry over the course of the last four years to accommodate the needs of borrowers but now that the Covid pandemic is over, market conditions point to the rising potential for mortgage delinquencies and defaults, leading to an increase in volume for servicers.

Mason explained that borrowers are coming off their forbearances but some of them didn’t understand how the process would work and they’re trying to get loan modifications. They can’t afford their homes because they are stretched too thin.

“They’re spending on credit cards and they’re borrowing on home equity which is a very dangerous place to be, in my opinion,” Mason said.

Clarifire is helping servicers reach out to borrowers to see if they are strained. Borrowers who click a link to get help can answer questions and upload documents online, which are sent to their servicer.

“Clarifire has all the workouts in there and it will give them, within five minutes or less, a workout option that they can react to,” Mason said. “So that’s self-satisfaction in addition to self-service.”

Evergreen Home Loans, which has a servicing portfolio of $10 billion and operates mainly on the West Coast, recently selected Clarifire as its servicing workflow application.

“This is a challenging time for many of our borrowers, and we want to be proactive in providing solutions to help them as they work to get back on solid financial ground,” Scott Rodeman, vice president of servicing at Evergreen, said in a statement.

The company is also focused on helping servicers who have borrowers impacted by natural disasters.

“The technology provides the framework for disaster management. And that also means that because the technology is so accessible to the data, we can do queries by FEMA-approved zip codes,” Mason said.

Servicers can contact affected homeowners with targeted communications through their cell phones and put them into an automated forbearance program.

“You’re giving the power to the servicer and the bank to not only help the borrower in distress but to mitigate the risks, the losses, and to get the virtual appraisals, and to get the property preservation moving, and that stuff can all move in parallel as opposed to sequentially like it did in the olden days,” Mason said.

Mason said as technology improves, they will be working with their clients to implement artificial intelligence in a strategic manner to alleviate pain points. One thing that she sees becoming popular is the use of transcription programs in call centers because they can eliminate manual efforts and increase accuracy.