The 2025 Connections Award Winners Are …
In this very challenging market, the companies that are thinking strategically, will win the day. How? By making the right connections. And we at PROGRESS in Lending believe that those connections deserve recognition. Every day companies are embarking on groundbreaking partnerships, integrations, and acquisitions to improve this space, but they are going unrecognized until now. The 2025 Connections Award Winners in alphabetical order are:
Argyle
For decades, verifying a borrower’s income and employment has been one of the mortgage industry’s most persistent friction points: costly, inefficient and frustrating for everyone involved. Traditional verification methods rely on outdated databases or time-consuming back-and-forth with employers. These processes fail to reflect the realities of today’s workforce and introduce unnecessary delays, errors and costs into the lending process.
Argyle offers a transformative alternative. As a real-time, consumer-permissioned payroll connectivity platform for mortgage lending, Argyle replaces static third-party databases and manual paperwork with live, direct-source access to over 90% of the U.S. workforce. When a borrower authorizes Argyle, the lender receives instant, secure access to verified income and employment data and documents pulled directly from employer and payroll systems—no faxing, scanning or phone calls required.
By enabling a truly automated VOIE experience, Argyle delivers both operational and strategic benefits. Lenders using Argyle reduce verification costs by 60–80%, cut 5–7 days off loan processing timelines and improve pull-through. Because the data is complete, refreshable and sourced directly from payroll systems, lenders also report a higher rate of rep and warrant relief eligibility, translating to fewer defects, better loan salability and reduced secondary market risk.
More than just a tool, Argyle represents a new model for income and employment data: one that prioritizes accuracy, a great borrower experience and lender efficiency. By eliminating the outdated, manual and expensive steps that have long plagued mortgage verifications, Argyle is reshaping the lending process for the better.
What sets Argyle apart is that it doesn’t just improve the existing verification process, it replaces it with something fundamentally better. Before Argyle, “automated” VOIE meant purchasing stale, incomplete consumer data from centralized databases, often at significant cost and with limited transparency for borrowers. When those systems failed, lenders had to fall back on phone calls, manual uploads and endless paperwork.
Blue Sage Solutions & Optimal Blue
Blue Sage Solutions’s strategic integration with the Optimal Blue PPE stands out as a model of innovation and collaboration in the mortgage technology space. This partnership brings together Blue Sage’s modern, cloud-based Digital Lending Platform with Optimal Blue’s industry-leading product, pricing, and eligibility (PPE) engine– resulting in a seamless, bi-directional API-based experience that allows lenders to access real-time pricing and eligibility information directly within the loan workflow—without ever leaving the Blue Sage Digital Lending Platform. Unlike loosely connected systems, this integration is API-based and bi-directional, meaning updates flow automatically between the systems. Lenders can run pricing scenarios, request, extend, or cancel rate locks, submit concessions or re-locks—all without ever leaving the Blue Sage platform. Every interaction, from pricing to loan delivery, occurs within one cohesive system that spans the loan officer portal, back-end LOS, consumer portal, and even LO Mobile. This isn’t just a standard integration—it’s a unified product ecosystem where all users—including consumers, brokers, and loan officers—can initiate a rate lock, and all actions are fully tracked and compliant. From borrower to secondary desk, every stakeholder has real-time visibility into lock history, pricing actions, and loan changes, all while staying within the Blue Sage platform.
This integration significantly elevates the mortgage process by automating and optimizing one of the most critical parts of loan origination: pricing and eligibility. Lenders using Blue Sage and the Optimal Blue PPE together benefit from: Real-time decisioning: Instant pricing and eligibility data are embedded within the workflow—no need to leave the LOS—enabling faster cycle times and better borrower responsiveness. End-to-end automation: Every rate lock action—from initial lock to cancelation or concession—is executed and tracked in-platform, eliminating manual steps and reducing risk. All channels supported: Whether retail, wholesale, or consumer-direct, all contacts and borrowers can initiate rate locks—across all product types—through our fully integrated ecosystem, including consumer-initiated rate locks. Dedicated lock desk tools: Secondary market teams gain full visibility into pricing history and loan activity, with all data logged and centralized for better execution and control. Compliance-first design: All pricing changes are logged with timestamps and tied directly to loan actions, ensuring built-in compliance tracking. Scalability and transparency: With over 90 API calls tracked per order, lenders operate with precision and confidence—regardless of loan volume. By embedding the Optimal Blue PPE engine directly into the LOS, lenders don’t need to toggle between systems or re-enter data. Loan officers can work smarter and faster, and borrowers get a more consistent and streamlined experience. This integration reflects how technology collaborations should work—unifying critical tools, reducing complexity, and driving better outcomes.
Together, Blue Sage and Optimal Blue are delivering not just automation, but intelligence. The result is a fully integrated, end-to-end pricing and loan decisioning experience that sets a new standard for what modern mortgage technology can do.
Cloudvirga
The most persistent bottlenecks in mortgage lending: employment and income verification. The collaboration gives users of Cloudvirga’s retail and TPO digital mortgage platforms seamless access to Informative Research’s verification of employment (VOE) and verification of income (VOI) tools. By enabling originators to deploy configurable, multi-provider waterfalls for VOE and VOI at the point of sale, the integration delivers accurate and complete results in seconds, accelerating loan origination, reducing costs, minimizing manual effort and improving borrower satisfaction.
Employment and income verification have long been friction points in the mortgage process, often requiring borrowers to manually collect and submit sensitive documents. Lenders, in turn, face delays, increased costs and inefficiencies—particularly when working with single-source verification providers that don’t have access to comprehensive data. The partnership between Cloudvirga and Informative Research directly addresses this problem with a flexible, automated solution. Through the integration, originators using Cloudvirga’s retail or TPO point-of-sale platforms can configure dynamic waterfalls of multiple VOE/VOI providers via Informative Research’s Verification Platform. If one provider lacks the data needed to complete a verification, the request automatically cascades to the next provider in the sequence—continuing until a successful result is returned. The system delivers a complete transaction report and auto-populates the verified data into the borrower’s loan file, ready for underwriting. This streamlined workflow improves speed-to-close by delivering verified employment and income data in seconds. It also eliminates the need for borrowers to supply pay stubs, W2s or employer letters, removing friction and improving the borrower experience.
For lenders, automation reduces manual tasks and operating costs while increasing the accuracy and completeness of the data used to make underwriting decisions. This integration delivers measurable benefits in an industry where time is money and borrower experience is a key differentiator. By combining Cloudvirga’s front-end efficiency with Informative Research’s flexible verification engine, the partnership empowers lenders to modernize a critical step in the origination process—resulting in faster, smoother and more reliable closings.
EquityProtect
EquityProtect, a leading innovator in real estate fraud prevention and data security, has partnered with title companies across the nation to provide property owners with enhanced safeguards that complement their existing title insurance. Because traditional title insurance policies only cover issues that arise before a transaction’s closing date, property owners are vulnerable to fraud post close. And although some states allow for the ALTA Homeowners Policy to provide additional protections post close, this coverage is limited and may include restrictions based on the property type and nature of the fraud. With EquityProtect’s free title monitoring service, property owners gain protection free of restrictions that includes immediate alerts to any changes in their property title. While it does not prevent fraud, it empowers homeowners to take swift corrective action before serious issues arise. Through this partnership, title companies can build deeper relationships with their customers by offering them an added layer of protection against title theft through free EquityProtect monitoring. And, for those who are deemed at-risk for fraud by EquityProtect’s assessment tool, preventative services are available to effectively safeguard their home’s title.
In April 2025, the FBI issued a warning to property owners to take action to protect themselves from quit claim deed fraud, a scam it said was on the rise and has cost landowners millions. Some states, like Michigan, are actively working to pass laws that will require county recorders to put preventative alert systems in place. But to date, EquityProtect is the only company with an effective, preventative alert system that uses patented technology to lock a home’s title and prevent it from being altered by anyone other than the property owner. As cybercrimes become increasingly sophisticated, it will be more critical than ever that property owners put protections in place. EquityProtect’s innovative solutions safeguard property owners from unauthorized data modifications and fraud, ensuring the integrity and security of real estate transactions worldwide.
iEmergent
CONVERGENCE Columbus is a multi-year, cross-sector initiative launched by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) to increase Black and minority homeownership in Central Ohio. Housed at the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio and supported by leading financial institutions like Huntington National Bank and Fifth Third Bank, CONVERGENCE Columbus brings together lenders, housing advocates, nonprofits, and public agencies to co-create community-driven, data-informed solutions to systemic barriers in housing. As a founding member and active steering committee participant, iEmergent has played a pivotal role in shaping the strategy, data infrastructure, and community engagement approach that guides the initiative’s work. CEO Laird Nossuli co-leads the Evaluation & Outcomes workstream, supporting stakeholders in measuring progress and assessing impact. iEmergent has donated tens of thousands of dollars in technology and services, including access to its Mortgage MarketSmart platform, which provides localized market forecasts and visualizations to guide decision-making.
CONVERGENCE Columbus began with in-depth community research to identify the most significant barriers to homeownership for underserved communities. Today, its coalition is organized into workgroups addressing those core challenges. The initiative’s public-facing platform, Bloom614.org, was designed to guide prospective homeowners through the homebuying process with a down payment assistance matching tool, a home repair resource hub, and the newly launched Journey Map and Practitioners Page. With support from iEmergent and its partners, CONVERGENCE Columbus has helped catalyze the development of special purpose credit programs (SPCPs), promote zoning reform through accessible public engagement, and launch innovative programs like the Maude Hill Growing Homeownership Fund and FHLB Cincinnati’s Rise Up Program. Together, these programs have supported more than 230 households and laid the groundwork for broader impact and scalability. CONVERGENCE exemplifies how data, collaboration, and community insight can drive scalable and sustainable progress toward closing the racial homeownership gap.
CONVERGENCE Columbus is transforming mortgage lending by aligning community-led housing solutions with data-driven strategies that empower lenders to serve underserved markets more effectively. Through its collaboration with iEmergent and other coalition members, the initiative helps lenders and housing stakeholders identify mortgage-ready households, develop inclusive lending goals, and build trust-based relationships with community partners. iEmergent’s Mortgage MarketSmart platform plays a central role by offering granular, neighborhood-level forecasts and insights. This enables CONVERGENCE participants to visualize opportunity gaps, track performance, and tailor outreach and product development efforts in ways that meet local needs. The platform has also informed the design and targeting of SPCPs such as the Maude Hill Growing Homeownership Fund, which provided flexible down payment assistance to 70 households, and the Rise Up Program, which has already helped more than 160 first-generation homebuyers in Franklin County.
In addition to these lending programs, CONVERGENCE Columbus enhances the overall housing ecosystem through education and engagement. The initiative’s Keys Unlock Dreams panel—hosted in collaboration with the FDIC and HUD’s Office of Housing Counseling—connected over 300 housing professionals to strategies for advancing Black and minority homeownership. Zoning reform efforts, supported by tools like the “Party in a Box” community engagement kit and accessory dwelling unit (ADU) development guides, further demonstrate how CONVERGENCE works at multiple levels to reduce barriers and build sustainable pathways to ownership. By contributing proprietary loan officer data and leading impact measurement efforts, iEmergent ensures that lending outcomes are not just anecdotal but evidenced. Lenders within the coalition are moving from reactive, compliance-based approaches to proactive growth models rooted in equity and inclusion. CONVERGENCE Columbus offers a powerful and replicable model for the mortgage industry—one that integrates technology, community partnership, and purpose-driven innovation. This partnership is improving mortgage lending not just by increasing volume, but by expanding access, strengthening trust, and reshaping how the industry serves diverse communities.
LoanPASS
LoanPASS, a provider of loan pricing and decisioning software, has acquired PMI Rate Pro, a Kansas-based fintech specializing in API-driven private mortgage insurance (PMI) pricing technology. The acquisition brings together two innovators in mortgage tech to deliver a comprehensive and connected platform for product configuration, pricing, eligibility, and mortgage insurance quoting.
With this strategic move, LoanPASS will offer a fully integrated PMI quoting and ordering experience from within its rules and decisioning engine – giving lenders access to all six national PMI providers through a single API. The result: faster, more accurate quotes, reduced manual effort, and better pricing options for borrowers.
“Together, LoanPASS and PMI Rate Pro deliver a unified system for pricing and mortgage insurance, elevating the lending experience for our customers,” said Bill Roy, Founder & CEO of LoanPASS. “This integration brings speed, accuracy, and control to the forefront—allowing lenders to manage product pricing and PMI through one modern interface.”
PMI Rate Pro’s platform was designed to simplify one of the most fragmented parts of the mortgage process. Instead of building and maintaining six individual PMI integrations, lenders and tech platforms can now connect once to PMI Rate Pro’s single, unified API—saving time and development resources.
PMI Rate Pro will retain its brand identity and continue operating independently, with full support from LoanPASS for its current lender clients and software integrations. Both teams are committed to uninterrupted service and will collaborate to further expand platform capabilities and tech partnerships.
The acquisition positions LoanPASS to serve a broader market and enable fully integrated lending workflows—from pricing through PMI ordering—on a single platform.
Novaprime & Tradeweb
Novaprime, a mortgage technology company dedicated to making homeownership more affordable, announced a collaboration with Tradeweb, a global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets.
The collaboration leverages Novaprime’s lender-focused Loan Intelligence and Marketplace products and Tradeweb’s electronic trading execution platform, to offer a new solution for hedging mortgage-related risk for the mortgage industry. Built on the Canton Network, the solution aims to assist mutual clients of Novaprime and Tradeweb with reducing risk and hedging costs by offering automated hedging tools and integrated trading connectivity to Tradeweb.
“We believe loans should be committed and delivered the day of closing, and automating risk management including hedging is as essential to our goals as the loan commitments themselves,” said Linus Petrén, Chief Executive Officer of Novaprime. “This collaboration seamlessly integrates Tradeweb’s best-in-class electronic trade execution technology with our Loan Intelligence platform, a major step forward in increasing efficiencies and cost savings for lenders, and ultimately making homeownership more affordable.”
For lenders, hedging their pipeline is essential to protect against downside risk and requires daily management with repetitive tasks. Through this collaboration, we expect lenders and investors to be able to streamline hedging their pipeline and manage trades as they commit loans.
In January, Novaprime completed a STRATMOR audit demonstrating that its Loan Intelligence solution has the potential to become a market leader, transforming the mortgage document review process. The company made its public debut and official launch of its AI-powered Loan Quality Platform in October, which is designed to improve the mortgage process by quickly evaluating loan integrity, reducing processing time from weeks to just days.
RealtyBid, a Covius Solution & FoxyAI
RealtyBid, a leader in real estate auction technology, recently announced its integration with FoxyAI, a pioneer in real estate and proptech AI to bring image-based property analytics directly into the RealtyBid platform. This integration enables RealtyBid users to instantly access: • AI-powered property valuation analytics from FoxyAI that scores listing photos to generate condition and quality scores and estimate the after-renovation value. • Return-on-investment projections from Blue Book International, which combines FoxyAI’s valuation with estimated renovation costs to help investors assess potential returns. • An AVM that incorporates property characteristics, market trends and hyperlocal comparables.
With the integration of FoxyAI’s computer vision and AI scoring models, RealtyBid users now gain real-time insights into the condition and quality of a property based on listing photos—without needing a physical inspection. This marks a major innovation in the valuation and disposition process, particularly for time-sensitive or distressed assets.
This integration significantly enhances transparency, efficiency, and confidence for REO and default servicing teams, investors and asset managers. Key benefits include: • Accelerated Decision-Making: Lenders and investors can assess property condition instantly, reducing time spent analyzing listings and speeding up the bidding or disposition process. • Risk Reduction: Computer vision condition scoring offers a more objective and data-driven understanding of asset quality, leading to more accurate pricing and reduced exposure to surprise repair costs. • Scalability: The AI-powered analysis enables teams to review large portfolios of properties without needing boots on the ground, making it ideal for high-volume investors and servicers. • Improved Confidence: With a clearer picture of property condition, stakeholders can make informed, confident decisions even when operating remotely or under tight timelines. • Efficiency Savings: Greater scalability, reduction of risk, the ability to scale and work more efficiently with more accurate information creates instant margin improvement.
This innovative collaboration is reshaping how the industry evaluates and transacts on real estate assets. By merging RealtyBid’s robust auction infrastructure with FoxyAI’s AI solutions, the partnership is ultimately creating a better customer experience and enhanced customer economics through better decision making.
Volly, a Williston Financial Group Company
Through ongoing conversations with its customers and prospects, Volly, a Williston Financial Group® Company and division of WFG Enterprise Solutions, consistently heard a common challenge: lenders want to leverage and strengthen their relationships with their real estate partners more effectively. This insight became the foundation for the creation of Volly Network Connections, a powerful new component designed to transform how lenders and agents collaborate. Volly Network Connections offers a streamlined platform that enables loan officers to co-brand with real estate professionals through direct MLS integration. With just a few clicks, users can create co-branded flyers and single-property websites and generate new leads, all tailored to active listings. By making co-marketing faster, easier, and more integrated, this innovation empowers loan officers to build deeper, more productive real estate professional partnerships, ultimately driving growth for both sides of the relationship.
Volly Network Connections stands apart by delivering a centralized, intuitive dashboard that brings true visibility and efficiency to co-marketing. Loan officers can instantly view all connected Realtor® partners and their active MLS listings in one place, making it almost effortless to generate compliant marketing materials. Integration with Optimal Blue facilitates real-time pricing, and with lead capture functionality built into property websites, every opportunity to engage potential buyers is maximized. What makes the Volly Network Connections platform truly original is not just the automation, it’s the measurable collaboration. New leads are shared directly between the lender and the real estate agent, and detailed performance metrics within the Volly Marketing Suite enable users to track lead generation, engagement, and overall campaign success. Volly Network Connections doesn’t just simplify co-branding, it creates a powerful, relationship-driven ecosystem that grows business and fosters long-term, meaningful partnerships.
Xactus & FICO
What happens when two industry leaders collaborate? It results in a groundbreaking new tool like the FICO® Score Mortgage Simulator.
Xactus and Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) combined their expertise to develop a tool that empowers lenders and consumers to make more informed decisions around credit scores. As the pioneer in credit scoring technology, FICO contributed unmatched analytics capabilities and proprietary algorithms. Xactus, a fintech and mortgage technology innovator, provided input and is the first technology partner to bring this tool to the mortgage industry.
The FICO® Score Mortgage Simulator is the first and only scoring simulator for mortgage professionals that uses actual FICO scores and algorithms instead of approximations or third-party estimates. This tool allows lenders to provide borrowers with the most accurate picture of how specific actions could impact their mortgage eligibility.
Lenders can now run customized credit event scenarios by applying simulated changes to an applicant’s credit report. For example, a loan officer working with a borrower who is just shy of qualifying for a better rate can visually demonstrate the impact of paying off a specific credit card balance. The results show exactly how this action might improve their FICO® Score, potentially opening access to more favorable loan options.
The partnership between Xactus and FICO exemplifies how industry leaders can collaborate to transform the mortgage process. Xactus’ deep industry connections and experience with score simulation tools are playing a key role in the simulator’s roll out and fostering its quick adoption.
By leveraging FICO’s analytical expertise and Xactus’ mortgage and technology industry experience, the new tool delivers unmatched value to borrowers and lenders alike. Borrowers gain clarity, while lenders see improved success rates and an expanded qualified pool of applicants. This transformative partnership deserves recognition for advancing the entire mortgage lending process through precision, transparency, and actionable insights.
The Place for Lending Visionaries and Thought Leaders. We take you beyond the latest news and trends to help you grow your lending business.
