Push follows pandemic-fueled move from brick-and-mortar to click-and-mortar
AmeriSave Mortgage Corp., one of the nation’s fastest-growing privately held mortgage lenders, has hired Sudhir Nair (pictured) as its first-ever chief digital officer.
The move adds AmeriSave Mortgage to the growing list of companies that are bolstering their technological footprint post-pandemic. By most accounts, the pandemic accelerated tech development within companies as it became increasingly difficult for companies to interact with their clients.
“We’re trying to digitize, automate a lot of the traditional loan processes, be that internally for loan officers, underwriters and servicers or self-service by the customers themselves,” Nair told Mortgage Professional America during a telephone interview. “I will be overseeing the entire technology organization.”
Nair has distinguished himself in the technology field, having been honored as a Super Global Finalist for the 2021 Dallas CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards. He brings more than 25 years of digital experience that has led organizations to scale and grow by using emerging technologies, methodologies and recruiting and developing best-in-class talent.
In his new role, Nair will support AmeriSave’s founding mission of leveraging technology to deliver mortgage
services in a simplified and accelerated process. The efficiency of the process allows AmeriSave to pass along savings to customers in the form of consistently low rates, the company said in a prepared statement.
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“He will be responsible for leading AmeriSave into the next generation of fintech automation and digitization and will do so with the customer’s experience top of mind,” the company said in a statement. “These efforts will also support AmeriSave’s loan officers and employees, making their everyday job more impactful and efficient.”
Nair acknowledged the mortgage industry as a whole is lagging behind other industries in technological offerings.
“Our industry is not quite there, unlike some of the other industries,” he said. He used the example of Amazon, where a customer can order a product and track it up to the point when it gets to the consumer’s door in an interactive experience.
“There are multiple different opportunities in the market for leveraging staffing into some of that digital side of the house and have that customer experience,” he said.
Nair agreed the current spotlight on technology in the mortgage industry was expedited during the dark days of the pandemic. “The pandemic helped significantly in many different ways,” he explained. “Number one, it challenged a lot of lenders to go from brick-and-mortar to click-and-mortar. Why? Because people can’t come to the office. The other acceleration that happened is people actually had nothing else to do, especially folks in technology. They spent a heck of a lot of time advancing systems and things like that.”
One immediate impact of digitization is a quickened loan process for the consumer, Nair noted. “It closes your loan faster because you’re bringing in a lot of data and information at a faster pace, giving them the ability to provide all the right documentation – not just your FICO, but your employment, your income – with all of that done online.”
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Nair was quick to shoot down the notion that increasing automation would eventually take over human jobs. “A lot of people think they are going to lose their jobs to automation,” he said. “I don’t think so. It’s just going to make them that much smarter. If I’m a loan officer who closes three loans in a week, I’ll probably be able to close seven in a week. That’s what it does. It’s not going to take anything from them. It will make them more efficient and customer-savvy and give the customer the experience they like. That’s what it will do.”
Nair formerly had a number of important leadership roles across the industry, including at loanDepot, Bank of America, Xome/Mr. Cooper, CountryWide, Amazon and others. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering in computer science engineering from the University of Madras in India, and a Master of Science in systems & information from Birla Institute of Tech & Science in Pilani, India. He later graduated from the prestigious Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School and serves on the Advisory Board for the Harvard Business Review.
“It’s a privilege to join the AmeriSave team,” he said. “One of the many things I look for in a company is a strong culture – a healthy blend of diversity, inclusion, and growth. AmeriSave’s culture is unmatched in the industry, and I was able to quickly pick up on that in my conversations with other executives and employees. I look forward to making a positive impact and difference through fostering individual team members’ growth alongside the fast-paced growth of the organization with a digital-first leader that is consistently putting the customer first.”
His penchant for strong corporate cultures has propelled Nair to mentor more than 30 of the country's top CIOs working today, company officials said. “Nair plans to grow AmeriSave’s digital business unit by investing in several professionals who are passionate about enhancing a consumer’s journey through AmeriSave’s proprietary AI platform, one that’s making the traditional loan process obsolete,” company officials added.
Magesh Sarma, chief information officer, and chief strategy officer at AmeriSave, expounded on the sentiments: “Having Sudhir join the AmeriSave team is a huge win for our company,” Sarma said in a prepared statement. “In the fintech industry, he’s known as an innovator and a key player in providing solutions that impact an organization’s capabilities and performance. Despite his individual drive, he’s a team player. He maintains a collaborative attitude and drive to win. We’re eager to see the positive results he and his team will make here at AmeriSave.”
Founded in 2002, AmeriSave boasts of its ability to simplify the execution of the loan process online and offers low rates for its different products, including conventional, jumbo, FHA, VA, and USDA loans. Many AmeriSave customers choose to “self-serve” all or most of their loan transactions with intuitive software that drives speed and significantly lowers the cost to produce a loan, the company noted.
“In turn, AmeriSave passes this savings along to thousands of customers each month in the form of low rates,” company officials said.
