More than half of the industry leaders surveyed by the Williston Financial Group (WFG) identified transaction turnaround times as the top operational challenge facing the industry. That’s a marked increase from WFG’s first survey in the fall of 2020, when only a quarter of those surveyed picked turnaround times as a major challenge.
WFG conducted the survey in June and July of 2021, asking mortgage lending executives from community banks, credit unions, bank, and non-bank lenders, as well as members of the WFG Executive Roundtable, to identify the biggest operational challenges facing the industry.
Turnaround times topped the list, with 56 percent of respondents citing it as the industry’s biggest operational challenge. Operational capacity, volume and staffing tied with technology implementation and integration for the second spot (34 percent), followed by communication (31 percent), training and time management (both at 19 percent), process improvement/QC/errors and delays (16 percent), data and document collection (13 percent), signing and closing issues, vendor capacity and instability and customer service (9 percent each), compliance issues and recording delays (6 percent each), and vendor costs, data accuracy and quality, and remote work (3 percent each.)
Turnaround times also topped the list of title insurance/settlement provider challenges identified by the survey respondents (41 percent.) Second was communication (34 percent,) followed by data and accuracy (25 percent), process improvement/QC/errors and delays and customer service (both at 22 percent), vendor capacity and instability (19 percent), vendor costs (16 percent) and recording delays (6 percent.)
“This feedback from the industry is leveraged to help us develop products and services that align with, and help solve, these challenges for WFG’s mortgage-lending partners,” Dan Bailey, senior vice president of WFG’s enterprise solutions and lender services divisions, said in a release.
Lender-centric products developed by WFG’s technology subsidiary WEST based on such feedback include DecisionPoint instant title decision engine, WFG’s MyHome consumer collaboration portal, and the Valutrust platform.
“Since our founding in 2010, WFG’s mission has been to take time and cost out of the real estate transaction for all participants," WFG founder and Executive Chairman Patrick Stone said. “In keeping with this purpose, we strive to proactively communicate and collaborate with our clients to develop solutions that address their most pressing operational concerns, enhance operational efficiencies and elevate the customer experience.”