Mortgage competition will depend on execution, not credit, COO says

The competitive environment following the subprime crisis will be based on loan underwriting execution rather than the types of credit offering a lender can make, according to the COO of Prospect Mortgage

The competitive environment following the subprime crisis will be based on loan underwriting execution rather than the types of credit offering a lender can make, according to the COO of Prospect Mortgage, Amy Brandt.

Brandt has only recently returned to the traditional origination space, after having spent nine years as president and CEO of WMC Mortgage, a major subprime lender during the run-up of the mortgage meltdown, and then as the owner of a private investor of distressed mortgages, Vantium Capital.

In the early 2000s “lenders were competing on credit, doing anything they had to do to stay in the market,” said Brandt, of Prospect Mortgage, a retail lender based in Sherman Oaks, California.

Now, the new level of regulatory oversight is forcing mortgage companies to play on an even playing field, competing more on execution – getting loans underwritten quickly and seamlessly.

Brandt has had a long-run in the mortgage industry. Following her subprime days she started Vantium Capital, which invested heavily in distressed mortgages. Her company extracted value from servicing and restructuring defaulted or distressed loans, as well as mortgage-backed seucrities.  It was only until recently at the end of 2012 that she returned to the origination business, and wasn’t until this week she became COO.

“I love the business and I have the technical knowledge,” Brandt said. “As much as things have changed, so much has stayed the same. There are still danger signs, but that value comes with experience,” she said.