CEO Ike Suri’s Spotlight article with California MBA
FundingShield provides FinTech B2B & B2B2C solutions that deliver transaction level coverage against wire & title fraud, settlement risk, closing agent compliance & cyber threats while reducing operating costs and improving asset quality. The solutions are user-centric plug’n’play tools that are scalable, pay-per-loan, secure, cloud-based and integrate easily through APIs driving ROIs greater than 200%. Clients in turn are able to confirm data integrity, confirmation that 3rd party interference and data breaches are not impacting their closings and can lower their operating costs.
Lenders who use FundingShield are able to achieve compliance, risk management and operational efficiencies while creating secure work flows to vet, verify and approve a closing agent on any transaction in the country. This frees up your operational brain trust to drive further efficiencies while having the benefit of up to $2mm per transaction coverage on each loan reviewed.
Q1 How has FundingShield protected lenders from wire & title fraud on over $700 billion in transactions?
The wire and title fraud threats to lenders, real estate investors and consumers are dynamic hence FundingShield only relies on independently verified live data to determine if a closing agent, bank account, license or other aspect used to approve a closing agent and title insurance is valid. We focus on fraud prevention to get ahead of irregularities, data inconsistencies or mis representations that are indicative of risk and fraud while assuring our clients that all avenues of recourse are available to them. We stand behind our work by providing $2mm to $5mm of coverage on each loan for residential and commercial transactions in any state in the country. Our clients verify billions of dollars of transactions with us each month giving us a great data set that grows in line with our coverage of lenders, banks, investors, asset managers and warehouse banks closings.
Q2 How does FundingShield’s approach provide a unique perspective that gives it a competitive advantage in the risk management space surrounding wire fraud?
Our transaction level data (HousingWire Article) goes beyond any self-attested representations that are not validated by a third party such as trade group directories or static databases that do little beyond tick a compliance or vendor management box. These data sources are great to identify potential title partners but are not suitable for risk management based data latency and lack of independent validation of the data being supplied. Given FundingShield has transaction level conduct of closing agents, confirms the suitability of a closing agent relative to their registration and licensing (versus state & local laws and closing conventions), we can get ahead of problems whether they be fraud, data errors, outdated information or something more nefarious.
This ecosystem of data in our platform drives our ability to quickly, efficiently and cost effectively provide verification of closing agents, the wire/bank accounts, the closing documents (CPLs / ICLs) and also compare data in the lender system to closing agent system vs the title insurance systems to derive a deeper layer of validation than what has been achievable by title companies, insurers or even top 10 lenders in their own efforts. It is also the largest database of its kind in the industry and more importantly is highly relevant with low latency allowing us to create user-centric approaches to managing these risks whether it is a one of our top 10 bank or non-bank clients working with us or a small IMB or Credit union client of FundingShield who seek varying services and have unique workflow challenges.
Q3 As great sponsors at our California MBA Mortgage Innovators Conferences, we are keen to ask – where do you see the future and innovation in the market in wire and title fraud prevention?
Firstly, we are grateful for the explosive growth we have witnessed in the past year of over 700% growth but we see the opportunities for the firm to be just the tip of the risk iceberg as we continue to drive ROIs while reducing risk. The major arena we see this in is with our Consumer focus which is a B2B2C offering sold through our lender, real estate services and other strategic partners such as Volly and Ellie Mae.
Consumers are being heavily targeted during real estate and mortgage closings and we see this risk growing where consumer are being warned by all the parties in the transaction but no one until FundingShield has given the consumer tools to proactively verify the destination of their closing funds. We have designed (on the request of a US Top 5 Prime Bank) a solution that is being leveraged by the most innovative and risk conscious lenders in the market to drive further consumer value by protecting their clients funds from wire fraud.
The product is Consumer WAVs and we would love to discuss the solution in more detail with your membership who wish to secure their clients funds from what is a financially devastating event that often results in lost revenues, lawsuits, consumer financial harm and reputational damage to the max for lenders and title companies.
