loanDepot Developing Fintech Ecosystem Of The Future

IRVINE, Calif., March 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- loanDepot, America's lender, today announced the launch of its proprietary digital lending platform (DLP), part of an $80 million investment in technology over the last 18 months and signaling the company's commitment to developing the fintech ecosystem of the future.

The first three proprietary technology solutions comprising loanDepot's DLP, appropriately named mello™ which comes from the Greek language and signifies the futurity or the dawn of modern lending, includes an intuitive web-based consumer portal, a state-of-the-art mobile point of sale system, and a fully digital mortgage loan application experience. These solutions will be seamlessly integrated with the company's scalable web-based loan origination system (LOS), accessible to consumers and lending professionals via collaborative dashboards from mobile or desk top devices.

loanDepot's mello™ exists within a larger fintech ecosystem boosted with the integration of digital marketing tools and by third-party data enrichment that ensure greater accuracy, speed and certainty throughout the origination experience. mello™ will evolve loan origination to become a fully digital practice on a massive scale that intuitively becomes a faster, easier, and more accurate experience with greater certainty.

Reaffirming loanDepot's commitment to innovation through technology, America's lender recently committed to opening the new 65,000 square foot mello ™ tech campus in Irvine, Calif. It will be at this newest technology campus where loanDepot's 400+ LD Tech team continues its work of transforming the future of modern lending.

"Technology advancements have revolutionized the way we work and live, yet the mortgage industry has largely remained devoid of modernization," said loanDepot Chairman and CEO, Anthony Hsieh. "As a profitable and growing lender, we're in a unique position to invest aggressively in developing our own advanced technology. This philosophy of building our own technology positions us to evaluate market conditions as digital disruption continues to evolve the consumer experience.  It gives us the optionality to define and redefine coverage points unknown to us today, and quickly design solutions for them. We are very committed to innovation through technology as a core basis of our business strategy and competitive advantage."

In the works over the past 18 months, loanDepot's proprietary mello™ platform is an end-to-end technology solution designed to scale with the business as America's lender expands its product categories outside of home lending, its network as a service provider of credit-related products, and its joint venture partnerships.

"It's still very early within our industry. The digital disruption that changed the consumer experience in online books, home entertainment and consumer goods is just now impacting financial services," said Hsieh. "Similar to category leaders in those industries, we can't predict what opportunities will develop within financial services. But by leveraging our deep experience in loan origination, and combining it with the best product and technology talent available, we are building a tech ecosystem that enables us to quickly venture into ancillary services and markets unknown to us today.  As a result, we have the power and flexibility to shape and define our journey as we advance toward our ultimate position as a nationally known household brand."

Anchored by the myloanDepot.com consumer portal, consumers now have 24/7 access to a secure, online and collaborative forum to upload documents, e-sign forms and stay synched with their lending team. loanDepot's web-based mobile point of sale system, now in beta, enables loan officers to give borrowers accurate quotes, pricing, offers and pre-qualification letters in minutes anyplace and anytime, while the technology works in the background to complete the 1003 loan application in real time.

"Ultimately, the complexities of the technology we've engineered to operate silently in the background make the front-end experience easier, faster and with little to no friction for the user," said Dominick Marchetti, chief technology officer at loanDepot. "The reality is that when experienced loan officers use the best technology available to help the consumer access credit, it has the opportunity to change the industry for the better. That's powerful." 

loanDepot will soon release its fully digital mobile loan application that enables borrowers to complete an application whenever and wherever it's convenient for them, with or without the assistance of a licensed loan officer. Integrated with loanDepot's data enrichment technology, this digital loan application automatically verifies borrower income, employment and assets, and enables borrowers to upload documents with their smart phone camera, making the laborious loan application process of the past virtually obsolete.

"We invested considerable time working in the field with hundreds of loan officers to design a suite of integrated solutions forming mello™ which is a web-based tech ecosystem to help loan officers build their business and consumers navigate the loan process," said Tim Von Kaenel, chief product officer at loanDepot.  "The work we're doing at loanDepot in building and leveraging proprietary technology to offer consumers mortgage and nonmortgage loan products across all of our business channels and licensed loan officers nationwide is exciting and game changing."

loanDepot is the nation's fifth largest retail mortgage lender and second largest nonbank consumer lender. The company was the first nonbank lender to offer home, personal and home equity loans, and recently introduced new jumbo loan product it will retain on its balance sheet. The company closed 2016 with the acquisition of a title and closing company, and began 2017 by surpassing $100 billion in fundings in just seven years.  loanDepot increased top-line revenue in 2016 by 41 percent compared to the previous year.

ABOUT LOANDEPOT 
loanDepot, America's lender, matches borrowers through technology and high-touch customer care with the credit they need to fuel their lives. As a fast-growing national consumer lender, the loanDepot platform is disrupting finance by dissolving the lines between mortgage and nonmortgage credit. The company has funded over $100 billion in loans since inception and is passionate about emerging financial technology and dynamic product delivery supported by excellent customer service to empower consumers. Headquartered in Southern California, loanDepot employs 6,000+ lending professionals across the country including 1,700+ licensed loan officers who hold 12,000+ licenses. The company operates 180+ local lending stores nationwide. NMLS # 174457. 

Ginny Walker | (949) 595-7133 
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Julie Reynolds | 949.899.0749
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SOURCE loanDepot