The Year of the Mortgage Lender IPO 💰
Starting with Rocket Mortgage's highly publicized public offering in August and United Wholesale Mortgage, Caliber Home Loans, AmeriHome Mortgage, and LoanDepot.com all recently taking steps to go public - 2020 is the year of the mortgage lender IPO.
The public filings provide a wealth of information to other mortgage lenders that may not have the scale of these behemoths. Digging into the Rocket Mortgage S1 we can see how effective use of technology is a pillar of their customer acquisition strategy and one of the key tactics in maximizing customer lifetime value.
"As a result of our operational excellence, in 2019 we achieved overall client retention levels of 63%, and refinancing retention levels of 76%, which is approximately 3.5 times higher than the industry average of 22%."
With new norms limiting in person interaction, the digitization of the mortgage industry shows no signs of stopping and is only accelerating even faster than it was in 2019. The reality is that financial institutions of all sizes need to adapt to digital as much as possible.
How do independent mortgage banks, credit unions, and depositories compete with these behemoths?