It’s been quite the year here at FormFree, but not one without successes — many of which we can attribute to the talented team we have expanded over this past year. We recently sat down with our head of sales and marketing, Christy Moss, who joined the FormFree family October of last year. Christy was happy to share with us her top moments here at FormFree and her expectations for both our company and the industry in the upcoming year.
So Christy, I can’t believe it’s already been a year! I remember all the excitement around you deciding to join our team. What was it that inspired you to make that transition?
Well, I keep going back to when Fannie Mae introduced Day 1 Certainty™ and the concept of using a consumer’s bank account data to expedite the loan process. I thought it was brilliant. I knew it was going to change how lenders ran their businesses and give them the ability to create a better mortgage experience, which had been so painful for consumers. And I’ve been in the business for 30 years, so I could also see the potential Day 1 Certainty had for helping lenders create efficiency in their mortgage process. It was going to allow them to do more loans with the same amount of resources and reduce their risk by providing a really good picture of a borrower’s ability to pay (ATP). In short, I fell in love with doing business differently and doing business better for the consumer.
With FormFree being the leader in this space that developed the patented technology, it just seemed like the perfect fit!
What were your top accomplishments this past year here at FormFree?
I would say one of our team’s top accomplishments was expanding access to direct-source data beyond just assets. FormFree is continuing to innovate by providing GSE, lenders and the industry at large broader access to data for not only credit decisioning, but also risk mitigation, servicing, cost reduction and more. We understand where consumer financial data resides, how to access it for lenders and how to make the data actionable for lenders in the credit-decisioning phase. I’m also really proud to say that our products (AccountChek and Passport) are expanding access to credit to borrowers who have been underserved and underbanked, etc. because of the lack of a traditional credit score.
This has been a year like no other. What are your biggest takeaways?
Without a doubt I’d say the resilience of the mortgage lending industry. Despite the personal difficulties that have resulted from the pandemic and the historic low rates that have flooded our markets, lenders were able to flip the switch and adapt quickly, often by embracing to technology that has not only served borrowers, but also benefited their own organizations by making the lending process as easy and smooth as possible.
Last question. How do you envision the next year?
I see the expansion of access to direct-source data (DSD) as opposed to the consumer having to provide it. A more holistic understanding of each consumer’s financial DNA will expand access to credit by helping lenders and the industry transition away from traditional scoring models. I envision our industry, instead, tapping into a consumer’s true ATP using asset data that tells the whole story of the borrower’s financial situation (disposable income, expenses, etc.).
In short, I’m really excited to see how our industry is going to lend differently and expand access to credit for a lot of consumers.