Servicing Smarter Starts with Scalable QC (sponsored by ACES Quality Management)
Brock Miller, CMQ/OE is Director of Business Development at ACES Quality Management
Mortgage servicing leaders are operating under competing and often conflicting pressures. Borrowers expect faster answers, clearer communication and smoother interactions, particularly during moments of financial stress. Regulators and investors, meanwhile, continue to demand timely, consistent documentation supported by auditable evidence.
Loan complexity is not going away. New programs, evolving requirements and portfolio transfers introduce variation that increases operational risk. If refinance activity returns as rates moderate, many servicing teams will be expected to scale rapidly while budgets remain constrained.
In this environment, even small inconsistencies can become big problems. Missed defects, delayed remediation, uneven documentation and gaps in follow-through escalate quickly when volume rises. Adding headcount alone is not a sustainable solution. The strongest servicers will be those that can scale quality as conditions change, not simply expand staff.
Selene Finance experienced significant scaling. John Freda, Vice President of Compliance and Quality Control, notes, “We increased exam volume approximately 230% year over year with no headcount growth.”
The efficiency gains were not just about throughput. Freda noted that Selene achieved “a reduction in total QC costs” and “vendor spend stabilized despite three times the volume,” helping lower the cost per file through volume leverage. These outcomes were not the result of working harder. They were driven by operating differently.
Moving QC from a Checkpoint to a Continuous Discipline
A scalable QC strategy starts with a fundamental shift in mindset. Quality control cannot function as a back-end checkpoint that reacts after issues surface. It must operate as a continuous discipline that supports day-to-day servicing operations.
This shift begins with standardized workflows that produce consistent outcomes across teams, vendors and portfolios. Automation plays a critical role by removing repetitive, manual steps that slow reviewers down and introduce variation. The objective is not to eliminate human judgment, but to reduce avoidable friction so QC professionals can focus on analysis, root-cause identification and prevention.
Equally important is the transition from reactive compliance to proactive risk management. Instead of waiting for issues to surface through complaints, escalations or exams, servicers should detect patterns early, address root causes and document actions in a way that is defensible. As regulators increasingly expect continuous evidence rather than post-hoc explanations, QC becomes a control tower: surfacing trends, reinforcing operational discipline and helping organizations stay ahead of emerging risk.
Using Data to Surface Risk Sooner
Servicing generates an enormous volume of transactions and borrower interactions. That volume creates opportunity, but it also creates blind spots if QC relies solely on lagging indicators. The primary risk is not that defects occur. It is that they go undetected long enough to become costly.
Change detection is one example. When critical data elements change, such as flood zone determinations or escrow requirements, those changes should automatically trigger a higher audit priority. Automated checks can also help identify issues related to payment application accuracy, escrow disbursements, loss mitigation steps and borrower communication timelines.
One point bears stating plainly: if QC audits consistently return no findings or exceptions, the program may not be looking deep enough. Effective QC is designed to uncover issues early, not confirm that everything appears fine.
As volume rises, speed and scale depend on visibility. That visibility comes from reliable analytics, risk-based sampling and the ability to connect quality outcomes to operational and borrower-centric KPIs so insights translate into action without delay.
Increasing Consistency Without Sacrificing Defensibility
When volume shifts, QC teams face two competing pressures: completing more reviews while maintaining consistent criteria, documentation, and decisioning. Automation helps relieve this tension by standardizing repeatable steps and allowing sampling strategies to flex with risk.
ACES Quality Management & Control® software supports scalable sampling, repeatable reviews, auditable workflows and executive-level reporting. Many servicers also integrate QC workflows with call monitoring tools to reinforce consistency in borrower interactions and documentation.
AI can further enhance speed and consistency when used with clear guardrails. ACES Intelligence, an AI-powered enhancement within the ACES platform, is designed to address bottlenecks such as drafting exceptions, summarizing audit results and applying consistent language across findings.
When volume is high, inconsistent narratives and uneven documentation can slow remediation and undermine clarity. AI helps standardize outputs while preserving the QC professional’s judgment. Human expertise remains essential for validating conclusions, applying context and ensuring actions align with regulatory and investor expectations.
Quality still has to hold at scale. Freda reported “98.77% overall QC team accuracy,” with “99.2% peak net accuracy” in Q2, and an 8% accuracy improvement year to date, alongside 8% fewer operational errors.
Beyond documentation, AI-powered call analytics can convert borrower conversations into structured insight by transcribing and scoring interactions, flagging potential hardship or compliance indicators and enabling earlier intervention.
Aligning Quality with Outcomes That Matter
As servicers prepare for 2026, QC success should be measured by outcomes rather than activity. More reviews alone do not reduce risk. A resilient quality program delivers fewer issues reaching borrowers, faster resolution when issues do arise and more consistent experiences across touchpoints.
This requires a closed-loop feedback process that links findings to corrective actions and verifies that remediation reduces the recurrence of issues. When quality is consistent and defensible, borrower experience and compliance become aligned rather than competing priorities.
For Selene, the bigger shift is how QC is positioned inside the enterprise. As Freda put it, “Quality control must continue to transform from a traditional cost center into a scalable, profit-protecting enterprise asset,” delivering faster cycle times, cost reductions and high accuracy while supporting sustained profitability.
Preparing for the Next Volume Shift
The mortgage industry has experienced enough cycles to know that volume does not remain stable for long. The question is not whether another shift is coming, but whether servicing organizations will be prepared to absorb it without introducing new risk. Thus, servicing smarter means building QC programs that can withstand volatility through standardized workflows, proactive risk management, strong data visibility and thoughtful use of automation and governed AI.
Preparing for 2026 is less about predicting the next market move and more about investing in quality systems that hold up under pressure. Servicers that commit to continuous QC supported by these initiatives will be better positioned to manage volume swings, reduce risk exposure and deliver a smoother borrower experience when it matters most.
To get practical strategies for scaling QC, strengthening compliance and elevating the borrower experience, register for ACES’ upcoming QC NOW session, “Servicing Smarter in 2026: Scaling Quality Control, Compliance, and Customer Experience for Volume Surges and Market Shifts,” and lookout for the most recent MBA Now with ACES CEO Trevor Gauthier.
Brock Miller is director of business development at ACES Quality Management. A Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), Brock partners with banks, lenders, credit unions and mortgage servicers to modernize audit and QC programs, strengthen compliance and turn quality insights into measurable performance improvements. Reach him at brock.miller@acesquality.com.
(Sponsored content includes material submitted independently of the Mortgage Bankers Association and MBA NewsLink and does not connote an MBA endorsement of a specific company, product or service. For more information about sponsored content opportunities, contact Bill Farmakis at bill@jlfarmakis.com or 203/834-8832.)
