NASHVILLE—The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Annual Convention & Expo gets fully underway this morning with a packed slate of sessions and events.

M&T Realty Capital Corp., Baltimore, placed two loans totaling $24.3 million on two Long Island office assets.

The opportunity exists for investors and lenders to “trigger” a course correction of the economic ship and spur more growth. Previously untapped areas, such as supporting underbanked prospective borrowers with the help of technology that accurately creates a complete picture of their true financial health, can become a catalyst for positive change.

In the lending industry, open banking, which typically involves the use of application programming interfaces to connect various systems in the cloud, already has a strong foothold. Now, as the federal government and other high profile financial services providers have embraced the cloud, lenders increasingly consider open banking a safe and efficient option to hosting services in their own data centers. This is a positive development for reasons that benefit borrowers and lenders alike.

Climate change may seem like a distant topic to many, but it has the potential to affect various industries in many different ways. The mortgage industry, in particular, faces unique risks due to climate change and its impacts.

In his first year as Director of the CFPB, Rohit Chopra has taken an aggressive approach to consumer protection through market monitoring inquiries, interpretive rules, circulars, advisory notices, and enforcement actions.

Kindled by rising interest rates, the U.S. mortgage market is eventually reaching a vital juncture, leaving lenders to make a string of complicated decisions about the future of their organization.

The MBA Commercial/Multifamily Finance Convention & Expo--CREF23--takes place Feb. 12-15 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego.