Nexsys Technologies
Transforming the Mortgage Process Through Innovation

Financing or refinancing a home is complicated. It can be confusing and frustrating to everyone involved in the transaction—buyers, lenders, insurers and notaries. This confusion leads to inefficient, longer-than-necessary processes, which in turn, can lead to larger-than-necessary expenses.

Nexsys Technologies, a FinTech company, has developed a suite of essential tech solutions to overcome roadblocks in mortgage origination, closing and homeowners insurance verification. Nexsys is a relatively new company (founded in 2013), but it’s certainly no neophyte to the mortgage industry. It’s one of the Rocket Family of Companies, which includes Rocket Mortgage – the company formerly known as Quicken Loans. Their mission: Provide simple, fast and trusted digital FinTech solutions for complex transactions.

In a recent interview with CIO Applications, Mike Lyon, Executive Vice President (EVP) of Nexsys Technologies, shared his insights on his company’s innovative solutions, which make the lending processes smarter. Lyon has worked in the financial industry since 1987 in both the private and government sectors. Before joining Nexsys, he held the position of EVP for Quicken Loans, where he was responsible for all underwriting, processing, closing and vendor management activities. Here’s what he had to say:

Could you provide a brief overview of Nexsys Technologies?

Nexsys Technologies is a Detroit-based organization which, among many other endeavors, helps consumers achieve the dream of homeownership. We’re a pure FinTech company focused on how we can make the mortgage process easier and faster for everyone involved. We create technical tools that streamline mortgage origination, closing, appraisal management, homeowner’s insurance and more.

Could you walk me through the challenges your clients face while they look for home loans?

Here’s what’s at the heart of the problem: The residential mortgage industry has resisted change for a very long time. So, the processes associated with mortgages – such as underwriting, closing, third-party vendor management – were complicated, outdated, labor intensive and just plain inefficient. There was no technology involved to support them.

Now COVID-19 has entered the equation. As you know, many companies are encouraging remote work, and social distancing has become the norm. In this environment, we absolutely can’t continue to use old-school mortgage practices. Nexsys is spearheading digital transformation and we’re determined to pull the mortgage industry into the 21st century through digitization.

How do your solutions address these challenges for your clients?

Right now, we’re tackling mortgage process challenges on two fronts: the closing side and the insurance verification side.

For the closing side, we created a digital signing platform known as Nexsys Clear SignSM. This platform digitally connects consumers and notary signing agents, so they can sign closing documents from remote locations using their computers and an audio/visual connection.

We’ve had great results with this platform, and it’s filled a critical need for safe, social distancing during closing appointments. Notary signing agents have given it high satisfaction scores, and they’re especially pleased that they can use their own notaries with this platform. Consumers are happy with Nexsys Clear Sign because of its convenience, and lenders and notaries are comfortable using it because it’s very similar to the processes they’re used to and it provides a clear, comprehensive audit trail.

Then we turned our attention to the homeowners insurance side, where we saw a major opportunity for improvement. In any loan transaction, the lender has to verify that the property which is securing the loan is properly insured. This becomes problematic when a consumer wants to refinance their loan, and needs their HOI information, but doesn’t know what they need or how to get it. Then, it falls onto the loan officer to obtain the information, which typically involves a lot of time, phone calls and faxes. It’s a highly labor-intensive and manual process, and it doesn’t have to be that way anymore!

We took a hard look at the process and its inefficiencies, and said “challenge accepted.” Then we went on to create Nexsys Clear HOISM, an innovative digital platform that streamlines and automates the homeowners insurance (HOI) verification part of the mortgage process. Through it, lenders can retrieve current insurance policies instantly and whenever they need it. They don’t have to call the insurer, then wait for them to fax over information. Insurers won’t be tied up fielding these phone calls, then finding and faxing the documents. They can get back to focusing on the parts of their job that generate income. Plus, everyone knows without a doubt that the consumer has provided consent for sharing their information.

Here’s how Nexsys Clear HOI works: Insurers directly integrate with the platform – several major insurance companies and more are in the process of coming aboard. So, any and all HOI information comes right from the insurer. When a lender needs HOI verification, they can go to ClearHOI.com instead of calling the insurer. The insurance company electronically provides us with the information, then we digitally share the data with lenders who have integrated with us. If they haven’t, we’ll instantly create a PDF document for them.

The information coming from the insurer over to the lender requires no human touch on either the lender’s or the insurer’s side. There are no loan officers or underwriters manually entering this information. It creates tremendous efficiencies for the insurance companies and the lenders, which can result in huge savings for them. And it’s all done quickly, safely and securely through cloud-based technology.

What is a key differentiating factor that sets you apart from other players in the market?

In a word? Finance.

You see, many of the technology companies in the FinTech space are technology first and finance second. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that the players within that company are designing their products primarily from a technological point of view. They’re going to create solutions based on technological considerations, then try to make them work for finance applications.

We flip that strategy on its head. Nexsys has its roots in finance – it was created to solve tech challenges for one of the nation’s leading mortgage companies. Finance is in our blood; we know the unique needs of and processes of this industry better than anyone. That’s the approach we take when we create digital products and solutions. We design them for the finance industry. They’re not a one-size-fits-all solution, so they’re easier and more efficient to use from the start.

What’s ahead for Nexsys Technologies?

We’re constantly looking for ways to make processes easier and more efficient. Even small enhancements can make a big difference in the end result, because the faster a loan closes, the happier everyone involved is. Not to mention that more efficient processes save money – which is one more reason for our clients to be happy. Our solutions enable loans to close faster and with fewer errors.

We’ll continue to seek any improvements – large or small – that we can make through technology. That’s how Nexsys is going to help move mortgage closings into the 21st century. If, along the way, we see outdated processes in other areas of the financial industry that we can improve, well, then there’s another challenge we’ll consider accepting.