In The News

New Tool Launches To Facilitate MSR Transfers

Staircase, a company building an integrated, digital infrastructure to accelerate tech-enabled mortgages, has launched three tools to facilitate the transfer of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) between mortgage lenders, servicers, and investors. The new tools are:

  • Loan diligence – enables companies to automatically classify documents, extract data, apply business rules, compare to the original servicer’s data tapes, and provide exception handling through an outsourcer
  • Automated loan auditing – identifies the value of key data elements and their location in the loan file
  • Blockchain-based data sharing – allows companies to manage the complexity of data access and sharing between their different partners

These tools are part of Staircase’s low-code marketplace which automates complex technologies and makes them self-service for the U.S. residential mortgage industry. 

The rise in interest rates has prompted high demand and increased trading volumes for MSRs, which increase in value as rates go up. However, the process of preparing, exchanging, and reviewing MSRs is often costly and prone to error due to the amount of manual work that is involved. 

“While interest in servicing rights has soared, there is a huge need among servicers and investors to simplify and accelerate the traditionally complicated process of exchanging MSRs,” said Soofi Safavi, Staircase co-founder and CTO. “Our new tools empower mortgage servicers and investors to sell and ingest MSRs much more quickly and accurately, enabling them to maximize profits and ultimately provide a better borrower experience.”  Staircase’s loan diligence tools are similar to the company’s Loanboarding product launched earlier this year, which uses machine learning tools to automate the ingestion of loan files and transform raw loan data into structured documents. Loanboarding automatically classifies more than 120 common loan document types, extracts 600 different loan data points, and reviews loans for exception handling and quality control.