I’m in Milwaukee, WI, along with almost 300 attendees at the 2009 Mortgagebot Partner Conference.  My presentation, on June 9, 2009, was Online Lender Best Practices:  New Case Studies Reveal Success and Strategies.  Here at First Wellesley we’ve just completed four new case studies for Mortgagebot.  These case studies focus on lenders that have deployed Mortgagebot online technology and achieved some amazing business results.  My talk focused on Macon Bank, Franklin, NC; LGE Community Credit Union, Marietta, GA; Illini Bank, Springfield, IL and Indiana Bank & Trust Company, Columbus, IN.

The common themes of the lenders were that they all:

• Identified critical business objectives that prompted them to search for advanced online POS technology
• Selected Mortgagebot PowerSite® technology
• Created customized pre-launch strategies to build initial interest in their new online channels
• Implemented specific ongoing strategies and tactics to increase the number of online channel applications
• Produced consistently impressive results including high year-over-year online traffic growth, reduced app costs, faster cycle times and improved back-office productivity

In between sessions, I had an opportunity to network with lenders from around the country.  What I continue to find amazing is the extremely high volume of loan applications that have been received year-to-date by these lenders.  Many lenders have already exceeded their total 2008 app volumes.  Many have employed six and seven day work weeks to process the higher volumes.  And, many report a “flight to safety” trend that has led waves of consumers and realtors back to depository institutions for mortgages.  I was encouraged to hear many great success stories that are occurring during the depths of an economic recession.