Lenders Seeking Answers to Important Questions

Reflecting on last year's fall conferences and cataloging the conversations we had and the questions we fielded from lenders, we found an interesting set of questions that came up frequently.

We heard these questions from lenders at all of the shows we attended this last fall, including Digital Mortgage, NRMLA’s Annual Conference and MBA Annual.

The questions were intended to gauge our capabilities as a potential technology partner, but they weren’t questions about us at all.

Rather, many of the lenders we met with at the fall business meetings were interested in finding out more about our parent company, Accenture. They wanted this information to answer two important questions.

Question 1: Are you financially stable?

In the current market environment, every company is facing some risk. Those that are not well capitalized have a much higher risk of failing out of the business. And, in fact, lenders have seen a number of technology developers get into trouble and either fail or sell out over the past couple of years.

Just because a company is stable now doesn’t mean they will be if the downturn continues, not without some additional source of investment behind them.

Lenders know this. Most also know that Accenture completed its acquisition of Mortgage Cadence in 2013. Few knew that our parent company is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale.

Lenders asked the question because they know how risky it would be to choose a technology partner incapable of weathering this downturn. Accenture as a parent means that Mortgage Cadence is in a strong position, and so are its clients.

Question 2: But are you truly independent?

Everyone knows that when a big company buys another firm, everything changes. When it comes to technology firms, that generally means things will break. This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows that the vast majority of M&A events do not succeed.

When Accenture bought Mortgage Cadence, many wondered if the same thing would happen to us. That was a decade ago and it didn’t. We remained independent, able to continue to develop the technologies our lender partners needed to grow their businesses.

We realize how unique this is in the marketplace. When a company spends millions to acquire another firm, the temptation is very high to “fix” any problems the new parent company perceives and to “add value” to what the new subsidiary is offering. These attempts generally fail.

Lenders want to know that when they request enhancements & additional development, their technology partner has the expertise & resources to fulfill the client’s requests unecumbered by their parent company

Mortgage Cadence is independent, and we have the resources to get the job done. But if we needed to bring in some talent, we have one of the largest pools in the world to tap.

As our parent puts it: “We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 733,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships.”

That’s about twice the number of people who currently work in the home finance industry.

We took it as a good sign that lenders were asking these questions and sizing us up as their next technology partner. It’s a role we love to play, no question about it.

By George Morales, National Sales Director at Mortgage Cadence 

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Media Contacts

Mortgage Cadence: 
Alison Flaig 
VP, Marketing 
(919) 906-9738