MBANow: David Stevens, CMB, Talks with Caliber’s Sanjiv Das
The Mortgage Bankers Association released a new MBANow video featuring MBA President and CEO David Stevens, CMB, who discusses the current state of the real estate finance industry with Sanjiv Das, CEO of Caliber Home Loans, Irving, Texas.
The video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CPjSZUQoCU&feature=em-uploademail.
Das, an independent mortgage banker, said IMBs played an important role in the recovery of the housing and mortgage markets. He noted during the Great Recession, the banking industry “took a lot of heat” for what happened. “We had to step back and get the house back in order,” he said. “The independent mortgage bankers stepped in and helped keep the housing market going. It shouldn’t be any surprise that in the past eight years, the independent mortgage banking segment has grown to a pretty significant segment of the industry.”
That role extended to servicing as well, Das said. “If private capital had not stepped in and provided the services that we did and performed our role as responsibly as we could, the crisis in the U.S. would have been much worse.”
Das said the mortgage industry is “highly regulated.” He added IMBs face additional regulatory constraints at the state level. “The ultimate regulator is yourself,” he said. “Responsible lending starts not with how many regulators you have, but how responsibly you manage and run the organization.”
Das added that the mortgage industry has an obligation to address diverse markets. “We are very finely tuned that we address all populations and be as diverse as we can be in who we lend to,” he said. “We do things traditionally, but about 40 percent of our business comes from Millennials…we feel very proud of our lending record to people who other lenders did not extend credit to. We have to be very careful about making sure that the credit box remains responsible and that the documentation continues to remain responsible.”
Other videos in the MBANow series can be viewed at the MBA YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swk2VUJeZFI&feature=em-uploademail. The videos are also available on the MBA Insights landing page, https://www.mba.org/publications/insights/insights-publication##SubscriberID####RND##&PageID=21109.
