Industry Spotlight: Blend Ensures Simplicity and Security in the Mortgage Process

As the mortgage industry continues its evolution to a fully digital environment, Docutech is integrating with leading technology providers to deliver end-to-end solutions that enable lenders to streamline loan origination, reduce costs and optimize the eDocument and eSignature experience for the borrower.

In our recurring Industry Spotlight blog series, we highlight key relationships that help us move the industry forward. This month, we sat down with Blend, an intuitive digital application that borrowers can complete in minutes — anytime, anywhere. Blend and Docutech have integrated to combine a simple and secure platform with smart document and eSignature technology to streamline operations while enabling a compliant, user friendly experience in the digital loan environment.

Describe how Blend serves lenders and borrowers in the digital age.

Blend came into being during the financial crisis of 2008. In dealing with the fallout from that crisis, it became clear there was not a lot of transparency in the mortgage and home buying process.

At the same time, eCommerce was building the expectation among borrowers that they should expect to be able to complete any type of transaction without friction and to expect an “always on” and “always online” experience.

At Blend, guided workflows make it easy for customers to understand the mortgage process and connect their data with their lender, producing an accurate file to help close more loans faster. Which is our whole purpose – bring transparency and simplicity to the mortgage industry, delighting both borrowers and lenders in the process.

What are the most important differentiators between Blend and other point of sale and consumer portal technologies?

It all comes down to the two things that drive everything we do at Blend – simplicity and security. Not only does Blend provide a premier borrower experience, but our POS provides lenders additional tools to automate more of the loan process and suggest follow up steps for lenders.

For example, we leverage Blend Intelligence, which uses data and machine learning to suggest ways lenders can continually speed up the process. We can also support lender workflows for loans originated outside of Blend with simple connections with the LOS to ensure a consistent experience for every loan.

Ultimately, we’re looking at the entire experience and seeking ways to improve it for both borrowers and lenders.

How does your integration with Docutech help deliver an outstanding experience to the Lenders you work with?

Partnering with Docutech allows us to streamline the loan origination process while improving compliance, quality and security. Lenders like the reduction of cost that comes with not having to print and mail physical disclosures, and we can support more lenders who are already rolling out eDoc and eSignature processes. Lenders tell us the cost savings from shifting to eDisclosures are significant – as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As important as cost savings are, the integration also helps keep people more efficient in their daily activities. Anything digital is easier to track, report and move. Especially when it comes to the secondary market, electronic disclosure tracking makes it simple to validate and verify all investor requirements with a solid digital paper trail for all loan docs. The ability to work internally drives better efficiency and positively impacts the bottom line.

What are the most exciting developments you see happening over the next few years?

At Blend we’re laser focused on making the mortgage transaction painless and transparent. Taking just the document side of loan process, why should lenders have to print and verify docs side by side? Why do these manual processes exist when technology can do these repeatable tasks very easily and with fewer errors? If tech can do these mundane manual processes, lenders can focus on the things humans do better – service, consultative sales, etc.

And that goes back to our vision. We’re building tools to bring more efficiency into lender workflows. We’re also looking to reduce the back and forth between borrowers and lenders. By helping borrowers work much more seamlessly we can take the friction out of the process while improving customer satisfaction at the same time.

How will you and Docutech be able to help lenders reach their goals?

Rolling out Docutech’s eDisclosures is just that first step for a world where more processes are seamlessly automated and frictionless on the borrower side. By integrating with Docutech we not only emphasize our commitment to that experience and simplicity, but we’re also providing additional security. Digital docs ensure that we can track that the disclosures are sent to the right person and that they’ve been opened, read and signed. It’s a very secure process. This helps provide a more secure experience and makes complying with regulations much easier.