Our Journey in Mortgage

Last year, we made a commitment to better serve the mortgage market. We did this because we believed that digitization could bring transformation both for this industry and for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on it to fulfill their dreams of homeownership.

Studies backed up that potential for impact. According to a February 2018 report from the Fed, fintech mortgage lenders reduce processing time by about 10 days while simultaneously lowering default rates by roughly 25 percent compared to traditional lenders. We now know this value firsthand, having watched our partners and customers put our products to work to improve the lives of consumers across the country.

On the one year anniversary of our first foray into the space—the Ellie Mae Experience Conference—we thought it would be worthwhile to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re headed.

Last March, we began our partnership with Ellie Mae, a leading mortgage platform provider, to provide mortgage lenders with a seamless way to verify the financial assets of borrowers almost instantly. We saw eye-to-eye with Ellie Mae on the need to empower innovators in the space to reimagine what’s possible with better data and automation. In October, we announced a partnership with Fannie Mae, the largest buyer of home loans. And last month, we rolled out a private beta of our Assets product, which delivers direct bank data feeds in a format that works seamlessly for lenders who have built up years of policy and process around bank statements.

With Assets, any Plaid customer can now more efficiently get the underlying data they need, including:

• Bank account, transaction, and bank account owner information from multiple accounts and institutions in a single, standardized JSON report delivered via API

• An auditable PDF version of the same information, also via API

• The ability to permission secondary investors like Fannie Mae to securely retrieve the same data directly from Plaid, enabling programs like Day 1 Certainty™

But Assets is one of many possible approaches for how Plaid can help our partners better serve borrowers in the mortgage industry. As we mentioned in our 2017 Request for Startups, we’re eager to see consumer-friendly improvements in the loan servicing space. That’s why we’re working with lenders across the mortgage lifecycle, from improving the application process to delivering a more consumer-centric loan servicing experience after loan origination, and why we expect to do more work on this front soon.

Ultimately, our success boils down to the success of our customers and partners. In the last few months, we have been proud of work in this space, but we’re even more excited to celebrate the successes of our partners in this industry. For example, Blend recently announced that they were in production with Day 1 Certainty™ for Assets using Plaid data.

If you’re interested in learning more about our work in mortgage, reach out to us at mortgage@plaid.com.

And if you’re attending Ellie Mae Experience 2018, come say hello to our team!