Branch opportunity of the week: Geneva Financial -- underwriting and compliance

When you’re looking for a branch network, underwriting turn times and compliance can be a big piece of the puzzle. That’s why Geneva Financial makes underwriting and compliance top priorities.

When you’re looking for a branch network, underwriting turn times and compliance can be a big piece of the puzzle. That’s why Geneva Financial makes underwriting and compliance top priorities.

“Our underwriters are in house. All of our underwriting turn times are within 24 hours, says Geneva Financial President Aaron VanTrojen. “When we say 24 hours, we mean 24 hours from submission. And we have an open-door policy with our underwriters – we encourage our loan officers to reach out to our underwriters with any concerns or questions.”

VanTrojen says maintaining that turn time is a priority for the company.

“We don’t use underwriting as a profit source, so the minute we get into a situation when turn times are peaking at 24 hours, we hire additional underwriters,” he says. “We hope to never lose that 24-hour mark.”

And just as loan officers are encouraged to reach out to underwriters, Geneva Financial underwriters will reach out to loan officers.

“They’re seasoned. They know what they’re doing. They’re well-versed, and if an underwriter has questions about anything, it’s generally not our position to immediately decline a file unless it’s clearly in violation of guidelines,” VanTrojen says. “They’ll generally contact the loan officer to walk through the file and go over any questions.”

Keeping compliant also tops Geneva’s list of priorities.

“We pride ourselves on being compliant,” VanTrojen says. “We stand out because we do internal audits on every single loan that we do, which is rare in this industry. We also use third-party providers to audit samples of our loan files as well and kind of check our work, so to speak. It’s not like we rule with an iron fist, but we make sure everybody’s compliant. We give people the benefit of the doubt, but we make sure everything’s being done to federal and state law.”

Geneva Financial is currently licensed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Texas and Washington. Licenses are pending in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Nebraska and South Dakota. For more information, visit http://www.genevaopportunities.com/.