TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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32 | M R EP O RT EXPERT INSIGHTS Staying Nimble Amid Market Changes Bryan Filkey, Chief Strategy Officer for Interfirst Mortgage, discusses the non-government guaranteed space and managing workforce capacity as the housing market evolves. Bryan Filkey joined Interfirst Mortgage in November 2020, where he is responsible for identifying opportunities within the non- government guaranteed space, establishing securitization and proprietary execution strategies to arbitrage agency-eligible collateral, and develop- ing and executing on the company's core long-term strategy. Filkey has 15 years' industry experience, with substantial expertise in mortgage banking, alternative product develop- ment, and asset management. Previously, he was EVP of Credit and Strategic Initiatives at PCMA Private Client Lending. Prior to that, Filkey served as Senior Managing Director at theLender, as well as President TPO and Head of Capital Markets at Impac Mortgage Corp. Earlier in his career, he held roles at Sun West Mortgage Company, Credit Suisse, Capital One, and PIMCO. M // Could you speak about how you're working to leverage opportunities within the non-government guaranteed space? FILKEY // Interfirst is really focused on high-quality bor- rowers, So, to the extent that the marketplace is opening up with demand in that space, we're looking for products to put in there. Obviously, the jumbo market has come back and recovered nicely from the COVID-19 experience, and we've also got some significant changes coming from Fannie and Freddie through the PSPA on limitations on non-owner- occupied properties, as well as cash window deliveries. We also have a big potential change to the QM Patch. It looks like we'll be able to have some additional documentation type opportuni- ties there. We're looking at how to leverage the best possible pricing in the industry to help us provide the best rates to the best borrowers. To the extent that that continues to open up, we'll be actively and aggressively trying to figure out how to uti- lize those tools to deliver those products for our borrowers. M // What are the primary headwinds facing the mortgage industry right now? FILKEY // For the broad market, the challenges are trying to determine what's happening with interest rates. If we really knew where that was going, we'd prob- ably all be managing hedge funds. But there's obviously a cyclical nature to the business in gen- eral, and there's heavy purchase appetite. You're seeing a lot of migration from cities to suburbs and a lot of millennials trying to move into that homeownership space, and they're going to face affordability challenges. For the marketplace in general, it'll be trying to determine how much of the business they need to pivot towards purchase or how much