Method has introduced a portfolio-monitoring product designed to help mortgage lenders and servicers identify borrowers who may qualify for home equity loans, debt consolidation, or other credit products after closing.
The financial connectivity company said its Portfolio Intelligence platform monitors changes across more than 90 financial health indicators, including borrowers’ credit utilization, payment behavior, balance reductions, payment-to-minimum ratios, and autopay status.
After a borrower provides consent, Method automatically refreshes liability data weekly without requiring the borrower to reconnect individual accounts. The platform can then alert a lender when the borrower crosses eligibility criteria established by that lender.
The technology addresses a persistent recapture problem: A borrower may become eligible for another product months after closing, but the original lender often does not learn about the opportunity until the borrower applies elsewhere.
Portfolio Intelligence is intended for lenders with existing customer portfolios, including mortgage servicers, credit unions, personal loan companies, and fintech firms. Method said the technology can integrate with lenders’ existing systems and deliver alerts through webhooks, Salesforce, and HubSpot.
Pilot Identifies More HELOC-Eligible Borrowers
During an eight-week pilot, Method said the lender identified 27% more borrowers who met its HELOC eligibility criteria and 40% more who qualified for debt consolidation.
Those results reflect an increase in borrowers identified as potentially eligible, not necessarily an increase in funded loans.
The company also said borrowers identified through the pilot could reduce their avoidable interest expense by approximately $4,000 each by consolidating higher-rate debt. Method compared a median credit card annual percentage rate of approximately 24% with a mortgage rate near 7%.
Consolidating revolving debt through a mortgage-secured product can lower a borrower’s interest rate and monthly payments. It can also convert unsecured debt into debt secured by the borrower’s home, potentially extend the repayment period, and introduce closing costs or other fees.
More Than A Sales Tool
Method is marketing Portfolio Intelligence around three functions: generating additional business, identifying emerging credit risk, and re-engaging borrowers previously denied credit.
The platform could, for example, alert a lender when a borrower’s falling utilization, declining balances, or improving payment record makes the borrower a stronger candidate for another loan. It could also flag potentially negative changes, such as rising utilization, lower payment-to-minimum ratios, or the cancellation of autopay.
Lenders could use those signals to contact borrowers before financial stress becomes a more serious servicing problem. They could also reconnect with applicants who were previously declined once their financial profiles meet the lender’s requirements.
“Current data and connectivity options in financial services are unreliable and don’t provide a comprehensive picture of liabilities, reducing the accuracy of targeting,” Method co-founder and CEO Jose Bethancourt said. “We think our Portfolio Intelligence tool addresses both of these gaps.”
Bethancourt said lenders have told the company that incomplete customer data leaves them unable to see potential opportunities and risks within their existing portfolios.
Method says its technology connects with more than 20,000 financial institutions and is used by more than 100 fintech companies and financial institutions, including SoFi, Figure, Bilt, Aven, and Cleo.
For lenders facing high customer-acquisition costs, post-close monitoring could make an existing servicing portfolio a more productive source of HELOC, refinance, and debt-consolidation business.
*This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed and edited by a human editor before publication.
