NAMB—The Association of Mortgage Professionals will host its inaugural Wholesale Summit on March 21, 2015 at the Hyatt Place Orlando Airport in Orlando, Fla. The event will bring together 15 of the nation’s top wholesale lenders who will come together for a day-long agenda that will discuss how wholesale lenders can grow market share and explore marketing, compliance and profitability issues facing wholesalers and mortgage originators.
The event will be preceded and followed by pre-Summit and post-Summit half-day meetings for NAMB officers and board members, making the entire event run from Friday-Sunday, March 20-22.
The concept of the Summit was born last fall when NAMB President John Councilman, CMC, CRMS attended a Wholesale Breakfast meeting at the 2014 Northeast Conference of Mortgage Brokers in Atlantic City. The event was hosted by National Mortgage Professional Magazine, which was represented at the event by Andrew Berman. When Councilman saw the openness with which the VIP representatives of the wholesale lenders in attendance answered Berman’s questions, he was impressed. He later approached the NAMB board with the idea of hosting such a forum for wholesale lenders as a means of laying the foundation for future industry growth.
The goals of the inaugural NAMB Wholesale Summit will be to brainstorm and exchange ideas on how to change the legal environment where everyone wins, from consumers to mortgage brokers to correspondents, and even large banks and lenders.
“When I walked into that wholesaler breakfast, a few of the wholesale lender VIP’s began talking among themselves and I joined in the conversation,” Councilman said. “They were bringing up many common areas of concern that could only be met by having an extended conversation. The Wholesale Summit is merely that, an extended conversation of common goals and concerns. The overall goal is to improve and enlarge the sphere of wholesale lending. The Summit will bring together leaders from both the origination side and the lender side who have great experience and expertise. These are people who can make meaningful changes that are not possible in most originator-to-lender dialogue.”
Councilman pointed out that many recent mortgage industry conferences have focused on compliance to the exclusion of other important topics. He stressed that only a united community can press to have laws and regulations that are clear, concise and meaningful, while serving to protect the consumer. Although regulation is high on NAMB’s priority list of needed revisions, working together to create greater profitability is important. In addition, while many originators and entrepreneurs have been assimilated into larger companies due to high compliance risk, NAMB research indicates that many would like to return to operating their own business.
“Working with multiple lenders is not an easy task today,” Councilman said. “In addition to overlays, each has significant procedural, technological and compliance differences. On the flip side, it is not at all clear that mortgage brokers and originators fully understand their relationship to their lender partners. Wholesale lending desperately needs the simplicity and accountability that is found when operating as a branch or as a lender originator.”
“This Summit is the first step in NAMB trying to bring together the wholesale market to make it better for everyone,” said Donald Frommeyer, CRMS, NAMB CEO. “The vision is to have all of the moving parts join forces with the goal of simplifying our business and gaining market share. It is all about working together to improve what we have now.”
By the early registration deadline, 15 major wholesale lenders have signed up to be participant sponsors of the event, including: Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, B2R Finance, Carrington Mortgage Services, Freedom Mortgage, HomeBridge Wholesale, Impac Mortgage, Land Home Financial Services’ Wholesale Division, Lenders Compliance Group, New Penn Financial, Quicken Loans, REMN Wholesale, United Wholesale Mortgage, U.S. Bank, Velocity Commercial Capital and WholesaleOne.
Each of these participant sponsors may bring up to three executives to the Summit, all of whom will take an active role in the day's discussions—including special roundtable workshops, panels and interactive exploration of issues and solutions. Participant sponsors will be identified as such in all pre-and-post event communication to NAMB members, and in all public relations initiatives regarding the Summit, including reports and white papers that are expected to be a byproduct of the meeting. Only participant sponsors will be allowed to engage in full discussion on agenda topics during the Summit sessions.
Attendee registration is available for mortgage industry supporters and professionals who wish to be present at the Summit, to listen to the proceedings in person, and to network with NAMB leadership and participant sponsors during meals, breaks and receptions. Although attendee registrants will be allowed in the meeting room during the Summit, they have "spectator capacity" only, and are not allowed to ask questions, make comments or otherwise engage with the participants during the Summit's agenda sessions.
Registration for the Summit officially closed Feb. 20, but NAMB will accommodate a certain number of late registrations on a first-come/first-served basis. The event is limited to fewer than 100 total seats in all, so anyone hoping to attend will need to contact NAMB immediately. For more information about the NAMB Wholesale Summit, please click here. To register as a participant or attendee, please click here.
