Polly has worked with Freddie Mac since we burst onto the scene in 2019 with the industry’s first cloud-native, vertically integrated capital markets solution.
So naturally, when Polly Founder and CEO Adam Carmel and COO Jackie Studdert were invited to participate in Freddie Mac’s Power of Partnership podcast, they jumped at the opportunity. In this timely and informative episode, Adam and Jackie sit down with Cathy Stickelmaier, a mortgage industry veteran that specializes in secondary marketing, to discuss Polly’s longstanding collaboration with Freddie Mac and ponder the future of capital markets technology.
How it started
Since day one, Polly has adopted an API-first mindset. In fact, we are continuously expanding our API portfolio to support process automation and efficiency via a modern and agile, cloud-native infrastructure. It is important that our customer partners have a seamless connection with other systems of record within their mortgage tech stack. Among other things, this ensures the lender avoids the onus of building additional APIs themselves.
Polly’s partnership with Freddie Mac is just one example of this ethos in action, as Polly is fully integrated with Freddie Mac’s pricing and committing APIs. Users can access Freddie Mac cash pricing, conduct best execution analysis, and take out commitments without leaving Polly’s platform. Take the example of committing a loan. When a Polly user wants to sell to Freddie Mac, they can do so with a single click, automatically creating the commitment on Freddie Mac’s website. In particular, loan-level pricing efficiencies within the Polly platform support Freddie Mac's Cash-Released XChange®, providing servicing release premiums based on loan-level characteristics.
The lender benefits
Polly’s cloud-native technology presents some clear advantages for mutual clients with Freddie Mac, providing them a clear competitive advantage.
The first is minimizing user error. Using old-school mortgage technology, users would be required to download pricing from Freddie Mac's Loan Selling Advisor® platform and upload the data to a separate spreadsheet or platform. With Polly, this entire process is automated, removing the chance of any pesky, damaging mistakes.
The second crucial advantage is enhanced efficiencies. Polly’s platform frees users from monotonous, time-consuming administrative tasks, enabling them to spend more time building valuable customer relationships and pursuing new deals. Work smart not harder, right?
Now is the time to embrace innovation
Interest rates are climbing, affecting businesses in all sectors. But when paired with the ongoing housing shortage, it’s fair to say that mortgage lenders have been hit particularly hard.
Right now, lenders are fighting for every basis point. Given that the cost of origination for loans has more than doubled over the last 12 or so years, it's clear that the “old way of doing things” just isn’t working anymore. To continue thriving, lenders must find new ways to enhance and streamline business operations, drive down the cost of origination, and increase revenue per loan. Allocating budget to 'leveling up' their mortgage tech stack is both an investment in immediate automation improvements, as well as future growth and profitability.
Working with an industry- and lender-trusted mortgage technology provider can deliver the innovation, focus, and bottom-line impact lenders need. That’s precisely what Polly delivers. Our revolutionary Product and Pricing Engine (PPE), Loan Trading Exchange, and actionable data and analytics automate and optimize the entire capital markets value chain, helping secondary teams operate faster, smarter, and more profitably.
What’s next for secondary marketing and capital markets technology?
Looking forward, we can expect risk and pull-through modeling to become significantly more advanced and accurate. As the pace of innovation accelerates, we'll also start to see pricing – from lock to loan sale execution – become far more granular, automated, and predictive, rather than reactive. For end users, this means more affordable and customized pricing and ultimately, a smoother experience. We are seeing technologies like AI and blockchain begin to play a larger role in capital markets technology. However, lenders should be wary of jumping on this bandwagon unless solutions offer demonstrable ROI.
All in all, the future is bright. The mortgage industry is ripe for innovation and at Polly, we’re delighted to be setting the new standard. To learn more, listen to Freddie Mac’s podcast titled The Future of Secondary Marketing Technology.
