Banking Northeast Issue 4, 2021 by ambizmedia

ISSUE 4, 2021

SUCCEEDING IN 2022 Build Better Teams How To Set The Right Strategy

A P U B LI C ATI O N O F A M E R IC A N B U S IN ES S M ED IA

Empire State Bank - New Banking Center in Staten Island, NY

FUNCTION meets creativity What makes us different? In-house capabilities to imagine, design, and deliver projects of all sizes. We're invested in creating customized solutions that embrace the traditions of the industry while reflecting the quickly evolving demands of an increasingly digital reality.

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k Design Arch itecture Bank Design B a nArchitecture Branding E nYork g l a n d 508-339-6600 N e w Yo r k New England N e w New

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ISSUE 4, 2021

SUCCEEDING IN 2022 Build Better Teams How To Set The Right Strategy

A P U B LI C ATI O N O F A M E R IC A N B U S IN ES S M ED IA

Everything your banker needs to navigate what’s next in banking ■ ■ ■ ■

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OUR MISSION Banking Northeast magazine is dedicated to providing quality informational/educational content that betters the mortgage process at every step. The content is oriented to help professionals progress their understanding of the residential mortgage banking business and develop their skills at improving the efficiency and profitability at all levels. PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Vincent Valvo, CEO, vvalvo@ambizmedia.com

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Beverly Bolnick bbolnick@ambizmedia.com

EDITOR David Krechevsky davek@ambizmedia.com

GRAPHIC DESIGN MANAGER Christopher Wallace cwallace@ambizmedia.com

USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNER Billy Valvo bvalvo@ambizmedia.com

STAFF WRITER Katie Jensen kjensen@ambizmedia.com

MARKETING MANAGER Michael Castro mcastro@ambizmedia.com

MARKETING & EVENTS ASSOCIATE Melissa Pianin mpianin@ambizmedia.com

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GRAPHIC DESIGN Stacy Murray smurray@ambizmedia.com

HEAD OF ENGAGEMENT AND OUTREACH Andrew Berman andrew@ambizmedia.com

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© 2021 American Business Media LLC All rights reserved. Mortgage Banker magazine is a trademark of American Business Media LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Advertising, editorial and production inquiries should be directed to: American Business Media LLC 345 North Main St., Suite 313, West Hartford, CT 06117 Phone: (860) 719-1991 | info@ambizmedia.com

Issue 4, 2021 | BANKING NORTHEAST 3

SPONSORED CONTENT

Taking Your Card Program to the Next Level: Coupling the decision to go more sustainable during a conversion to contactless Terra Grantham Vice President Sustainability Strategy and Partnerships, CPI Card Group

hrough the COVID-19 pandemic, business operations and the ways that consumers interact with their finances have fundamentally changed. Financial institutions find themselves making decisions to meet evolving cardholder expectations, supporting updated technology and sustainability initiatives. Consumers expect fast, seamless experiences and have a desire for more sustainable products more now than in the past. The past year has seen a major acceleration in the shift away from Terra Grantham cash, with the pandemic driving merchants and consumers alike to ramp up the use of contactless options for a touch-free payment experience. Periods of drastic change like these present potent opportunities to drive other evolutions that create an emotional response. One such opportunity is to prioritize a move to more sustainable products, such as more eco-focused cards.

Financial institutions can demonstrate a commitment to sustainable practices by offering contactless payment cards made with recycled or reclaimed materials, like recovered ocean-bound plastic and recycled PVC. In 2020, CPI Card Group commissioned a survey, conducted by an independent research firm that found that 94% of consumers say they are concerned about the amount of plastic waste in the oceans. Further, some 87% of respondents find the idea of an ocean-plastic card appealing, and 53% are willing to switch to another financial institution offering cards with the same features and benefits. If consumers are willing to switch institutions for contactless card options, adding cards made with ecofocused materials to the mix could offer a competitive differentiator. Financial institutions have an opening to introduce products and services that resonate with environmentally conscious consumers while meeting consumer demand for a seamless transaction experience. Now, it’s clear that there’s no better time to capture the convergence of two trends that have risen in prominence over the past year— to meet growing consumer demand and help create a healthier planet in the process by offering eco-focused contactless payment cards.

www.cpicardgroup.com

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RECRUITING, TRAINING AND MENTORING CORNER

Leading Through Change BY DAVE HERSHMAN | CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

t seems like the only constant in this industry is change. In my almost 40 years within this industry (yes I started when I was seven years old), I have seen plenty of change. But what strikes me is that the pace of change accelerates more quickly every day. It took sixty years for records to become obsolete. It took only twenty years for cassettes to fall by the wayside. Now we have the successor to CDs—DVDs and they are becoming obsolete as well. The power of computing doubles every eighteen months. Interest rates and the stock markets are more volatile each year. And all of this was true before the pandemic hit. Nothing changed our business more suddenly than COVID. It accelerated technological change as we had to adjust to doing business remotely. But it also charged us into the biggest refinance market of them all and a real

estate market like no other as well. As the refinance boom fades, we are likely to see even more mergers and acquisitions, which points to even more change. Nothing is more daunting than working for an independent mortgage banker for ten years and then being part of a huge bank overnight (or the opposite).

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? As a manager, you will have to lead through change. With each change losses will be suffered and there will be more obstacles to overcome. There will be a grieving process. There will also be challenges and positive opportunities. However, we cannot ignore the losses and grief that will be suffered. J. Shep Jeffreys, in Coping with Workplace Change, identified these example cases: • The Survivor They are gone, I have survived. Why do

I feel guilty? •W here Do I Belong? I don’t recognize this organization. I feel lost. • Fear of the Unknown Being laid off was a relief after not knowing for 18 months The question is—how do you deal with these cases of change? You must recognize the stages of grief and let it run its course. Grief cannot be stopped, nor can the process be accelerated. Understand their feelings: shame, guilt, loss, aloofness, and distrust. Facilitate communication: let everyone know what you know (when this is possible and without losing their trust). Develop a trust with your employees so that they believe what you are telling them. It is here that the development of the excellent communication skills we have spoken about previously will become of major importance. As a matter of fact, excellent communication skills are the key to being a great leader. When dealing with change, these skills become even more important.

UNDERSTAND THAT EMPLOYEES WILL RESIST CHANGE In the famed show “Star Trek” there was a saying by the “Borg” — resistance is futile. Well, your employees will try to resist anyway. The explanations for resisting change widely vary. From another work on change—Leading Change, by James O’Toole—these include: it is a natural condition of life, the force it takes to move a body of motion to alter its course (inertia), satisfaction with the status quo, fear of the unknown, etc. To help people deal with change, you must understand their motivations in resisting change. In summary—change is always happening. It is always accelerating. A great leader meets the challenge of change head-on. Otherwise, they will be left in the dust.

Dave Hershman, senior vice-president of sales for Weichert Financial Services.

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BENCHMARKS & BEST PRACTICES

Resetting For The New Year

MARY KAY SCULLY

BY MARY KAY SCULLY | CONTRIBUTING WRITER, BANKING NORTHEAST

hen times are busy, it can be difficult to stay on the same page with your teams and perfectly on plan. It can be easy to lose sight of the big picture amid day-to-day operations. The end of the year is the perfect opportunity to take a breath, step back and reassess your teams. With the end of the year quickly approaching and the shock of the coronavirus pandemic settling, workplaces can use this time to plan for the possibility of a post-COVID-19 world and beyond. On the other hand, a failure to appropriately plan for the next year can leave you flatfooted when operations start up are back in full swing again in January.

DEBRIEF 2021 So much can change in the workplace within a year’s time. Those changes can seem earth shattering when they occur, but they quickly fall to the wayside as time passes. The end of the year offers time for reflection and a benchmark to measure against. Take time at the end of the year to evaluate how your office and teams have changed. Apart from managing changes in the workplace,

8 BANKING NORTHEAST | Issue 4, 2021

checking in with your teams allows you to align everyone’s goals and gauge team members’ morale. Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to impact offices and workplaces everywhere. Those changes are often some of the most drastic and noticeable, but their effects are not always as clear. For example, some employees working remotely may not communicate with their superiors as well as those working in the office. It’s important to monitor those changes and incorporate them into plans for next year. There also have been changes to the mortgage industry itself in the past year. Even after the first year of the pandemic, COVID-19 guidelines and flexibilities continued to change. Fannie Mae’s lender letter 2020-03/ 2021-03 has been updated 13 times, and Freddie Mac issued multiple bulletins. However, while changes due to COVID-19 took center stage, other important credit policy updates and guideline changes may have gone unnoticed.

PLANNING FOR 2022 A study conducted at the Dominican University of California showed that you are 42% more likely to accomplish a goal if you write it down. It’s an interesting piece of trivia and psychology, but it also reflects how planning affects outcomes. Making the effort to effectively plan helps in the long term and increases the likelihood of achieving those goals. Once you check your knowledge, meet with your teams and identify what makes them tick. Take the information you learned from the past year and apply it to the future. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Where have you been successful and where could you improve? Give yourself a goal, so you are prepared to act when the new year comes.

ON TAP FOR 2022 Trends from the end of 2021 often signal what’s to come in 2022. One of the more concerning shifts has been the increase of interest rates. Interest rates could continue to increase in 2022, but the panic it’s caused isn’t proportional to its actual impact. Let’s say you have a borrower with a $300,000 loan and their interest rate went up from 3% to 3.25%. That sounds devastating, but that comes out to a $42 difference in principal and interest payment. The alarm I’ve seen doesn’t match with the actual impact on borrowers. At the end of the day, interest rates are still at historic lows, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. An increase in interest rates could mean transaction types may change to a much higher percentage of purchase transactions rather than refinancing. Who are your referral generators? Have you stayed in touch during the refinancing boom? You also may want to review sales contracts. A seller’s market and bidding wars make for interesting offers with flexible terms. Finally, high appreciation may have created an increased cash-out refinancing market. No matter what the new year might bring, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Make time during this season to learn from the past year, catch up on any important information your team may have missed out on, and start planning for 2022. Whatever 2022 has in store, stepping into it with a unified team that’s working toward the same goal ensures you will start the year on solid ground. n

Mary Kay Scully is the Director of Customer Education at Enact, leading the development of the company’s customer education curriculum. The statements in this article are solely her opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of Enact or its management.

DATABANK

Issue 4, 2021 | BANKING NORTHEAST 9