Issue link: http://dsnews.uberflip.com/i/1149365
20 Jacquelyn S. Pardue manages and oversees vendor management, purchasing, leases, and compliance of those areas for Gateway First Bank. Pardue has more than a decade's experience in the mortgage and lending industry, including serving as the COO at AgileOne Solutions. She has held various leadership roles at Pacific Union Financial, Rushmore Loan Management Services, and Wingspan Portfolio Advisors. Pardue holds a bachelor's degree from Texas Tech University and is currently pursuing an MBA from Syracuse University. She recently spoke to DS News about the state of the industry and the challenges facing servicers. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES THAT SERVICERS HAVE FACED SO FAR IN 2019? e biggest challenge servicers are currently facing is a desire to innovate and bring in new technology, but there are also difficulties that come along with innovation and new technology. How do we implement new technology into our legacy systems, and how can we ensure that everything is going to work and do what it is supposed to do? IS IT HARDER TO MAKE TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS HAPPEN ON THE DEFAULT SIDE? ere is less cash flow on the servicing side, so the margins are much tighter and more restrictive. You also have levels of old systems in place, as well as a lot of homegrown aspects. How do you bring together all these parts and pieces people have built on top of each other over the course of so many years? How do you implement something new which is going to work successfully with all those elements? is all has to be done while simultaneously ensuring we remain in compliance with all applicable GSE, federal, and state regulations. FROM A SERVICER'S PERSPECTIVE, WHAT LESSONS HAVE YOU TAKEN AWAY FROM PREVIOUS NATURAL DISASTERS? Most recently, our compnay saw homes destroyed by the historic floods in Muskogee, Tulsa, and Wagoner counties in Oklahoma. Over 1,200 homes were affected by the flood and many were in Gateway First Bank's portfolio. While in my previous life, I functioned through many of the hurricanes and dealt with many related challenges, even within Puerto Rico. One of the biggest things servicers can do to innovate is to be proactive. How can we get in touch with our borrowers when we know there is a possibility of a disaster, and to let them know how to get in contact with us? Servicers also need to find ways to contact borrowers that aren't going through the mail or email, because borrowers might not be in their homes in the aftermath of a disaster—they might have been forced to leave their house. Borrowers may not have access to their mail, or there may be difficulties in getting it to them, depending upon the situation. You must have the ability to ensure contact information is being FIVE MINUTES WITH GET TO KNOW INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES BEYOND THE BOARDROOM continually updated for borrowers in these situations. You also need to ensure you have the right vendor partners in place. If you know you are going to have an increased load of calls, you must have additional capacity to input those calls within an outsourced model or a call center. Or you need enough flexibility internally that you can implement weather technology which can help you pinpoint more targeted campaigns, depending upon who was affected, and how. e biggest lesson is everyone needs to make small adjustments based upon their lessons learned in the past. at's one of the great things about Five Star's Legal League or Disaster Summits, where everyone is sharing their knowledge and experiences. If it affects one servicer, at the end of the day it will likely wind up affecting other servicers. ose public conversations can help us all get on the same page. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES OF INTERACTING WITH THIRD-PARTY VENDORS? e biggest challenge with third-party vendors is the interpretation of communication. Oftentimes, we are not communicating face- to-face anymore, we're not communicating in person. Everything is being done through email and other systems, and things can get lost in translation. Also, many of the people in our industry have a tendency to move around throughout "e biggest challenge servicers are currently facing is a desire to innovate and bring in new technology, but there are also difficulties that come along with innovation and new techology. How do we implement new technology into our legacy systems, and how can we ensure that everything is going to work and do what it is supposed to do?" Jacquelyn Pardue Director of Purchasing and Vendor Management, Gateway First Bank