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4 | TH E M R EP O RT MTECH Seamless Lending Experiences Through AI HOW CAN LENDERS BEST ADOPT THIS TECHNOLOGY AND UTILIZE IT OPTIMALLY? D uring MReport's webinar titled "Intelligent Lending: The Rise of AI," presented by AI Foundry, a panel of experts not only sought to answer this question but also gave real-life case- studies of how mortgage institutions were adopting AI to improve their processes as well as cost-efficiency. The webinar panel of subject- matter experts included: Stephen Butler, Founder and President of AI Foundry; Peter Piela, Head of Solution Development at AI Foundry; Rocky Stubbs, Head of Consumer Direct and Digital Mortgage Lending at Flagstar Bank; Rick Bechtel, EVP of Head of U.S. Mortgage Banking at TD Bank, and Robert Bush, SVP, Senior Strategy Manager, Citizens Bank. Opening the proceedings, Stephen Butler shared his insights into the need for adoption of technology enablers such as AI to make the mortgage industry ready for the future. He also listed some key concerns that organizations grapple with such as where to start the journey, how to execute the technology, and the role of digital assistants in the future of mortgage. Addressing the approval times taken for loans, Butler said, "With the use of AI, one-day approvals could be the norm within five years compared to the current norm of three weeks." Peter Piela moderated the panel. He talked about how AI can cre- ate seamless lending experiences using the exponential data that is available in digital format. Though AI is in its nascent stages in many aspects, he said, "It is changing the way we do everything." Piela touched upon the use of mathematical and neural net- works such as machine learn- ing and deep learning to deliver promising results on a wide range of problems faced by the mortgage industry. He also spoke about the barriers to the adoption of AI on account of a lack of proven success, and the difficulty in being able to make a clear business case. Social concerns such as privacy and the shortage of expert staff that have a deep understanding of AI act as impediments to the adoption of AI, he noted. Speaking of the impact of voice technology, Rocky Stubbs pointed out that out of a national survey of 1,000 consumers, 90 percent were aware of the technology and 72 percent said they had used voice technology. "It's an exciting time for the industry," Stubbs said. "We are rapidly moving from an era of product comparisons to an actual intelligent recommendation process." Rick Bechtel discussed the Encompass platform, an all-in-one system that consolidates digital processes on a single ecosys- tem—which helped increase TD's overall agility and enabled faster ability to audit in-process loans and cut down on time consumed in product deployments. "Historically, TD was slow to introduce digital solutions in the mortgage arena. As a result, we could not simply begin launching and integrating these technolo- gies–we had to build the founda- tion in order to deploy digital offerings that would be meaning- ful to our customers and employ- ees," Bechtel said. Addressing some key questions regarding the adoption of AI, Robert Bush, spoke about how organizations can navigate through the process of AI adoption. "Focus on current business challenges across end-to-end experience and then look where AI can be a solution to increase the likelihood of getting AI's benefits and ensure a better buy-in from stakehold- ers," Bush said. Citizens Bank is currently implementing an AI use case in collections for its consumer lending business and will shortly work towards implementing this in their mortgage business. To view an archived copy of MReport's "Intelligent Lending: The Rise of AI" webinar, pre- sented by AI Foundry, search "Intelligent Lending: The Rise of AI" on theMReport.com. Fiserv First Data Could Generate $4B THE TECH PROVIDER'S $22 BILLION ACQUISITION IS ONE OF THE LARGEST IN THE FI- NANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR'S RECENT HISTORY. F iserv is set to acquire First Data for $22 billion, in a deal likely to create strong long-term synergies for both com- panies. Apart from the enhanced revenue growth potential, Fiserv said that the combined entity would also generate significant cash flow that was expected to exceed $4 billion in the third year following the close of the deal. The company also intends to refinance around $17 billion of debt that First Data is likely to have when the deal closes in the second half of 2019. Fiserv, which sold the major- ity of its lending business to Warburg Pincus last year to create a joint entity, Sagent Lending Technologies, has said that the Better, Faster, Smarter From cutting-edge new technologies to events bringing together the industry's innovators, here's how the mortgage industry is moving forward.