MCT was fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down with Daniel Sugg, Chief Mortgage Lending Officer at Michigan First Credit Union, to discuss his experience with Mortgage Capital Trading’s MCTlive! software, one of MCT’s products that has added efficiency to their process at Michigan First Credit Union.
Mr. Sugg’s mission is in alignment with MCT’s as he believes in serving members without fail to the best ability. He sees MCT’s MCTlive! as a solid incorporation into their system that has propelled their business model forward and has added efficiency.
In this case study, MCT sits down with Mr. Sugg to hear how the MCTlive! integration has added efficiency to their loan selling process.
Daniel Sugg
Chief Mortgage Lending Officer
Daniel Sugg has been with Michigan First Credit Union for over five years. He is an experienced Chief Lending Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the banking industry. He has strong finance professional skills in construction loans, banking, sales, credit analysis, and U.S. FHA financing. He has worked with MCT using MCTlive! since 2017, and it has transformed the way they do secondary market transactions at Michigan First Credit Union.
Featured Quote: “When we first started, our average loan sale from start to close was ten days. Prior to these systems, it wasn’t even measured. If the market moved and we weren’t able to sell loans we’d sit on them for a while, maybe even weeks. After using MCTlive! over the last four years, we’ve gone from 10 days to one. It works pretty well.” – Daniel Sugg
Michigan First Adds Efficiency Through Automation
Michigan First Credit Union has taken advantage of technology like MCTlive!, Rapid Commit and Lock Central to improve their efficiencies. Advanced technology systems and actionable data insights have become a prominent catalyst for the success and ease of their business development. Learn more about these technologies below.
MCTlive! – A powerful platform available for day-to-day loan pipeline management, trade positions management, and loan sale best execution. MCTlive! automates repetitive tasks and frees your time for other high-value functions.
Rapid Commit – With Rapid Commit, lenders can automate Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loan pricing and commitments with intelligent best execution capability through an application programming interface (API). This technology pairs with MCT’s Bid Auction Manager® to easily price and commit loans.
Lock Central – Increase productivity, improve data integrity, and gain full control over lock management. Effectively outsource some or all of your centralized lock desk functions to our established team of secondary market analysts. Our variable pricing model allows you to select from a menu of customizable service levels and only pay for the services you need.
Michigan First Credit Union: Summary of Software & Metrics
MCTlive! and MCT’s lock desk services have changed the way Michigan First Credit Union does business. Before MCT, their process was time-consuming, manual, and unorganized. MCT has helped Michigan First become a more efficient credit union through software systems like MCTlive! and the lock desk services.
In this section, we will highlight the most impactful experiences for Daniel Sugg and Michigan First Credit Union:
Efficiency
“With MCT’s Rapid Commit we greatly increased efficiency. We actually just sold a bunch of loans today which only took a couple of minutes. In 3-4 minutes I got an email and they’re all committed. It used to take me an hour to do so.”
15x Faster
Loan sales to Fannie Mae through Rapid Commit
Customer Service
“MCT has always been very professional, timely, and always kept up with our needs, whether in office or remote. They have always had the resources for us to really help us feel confident in our approach at hedging. It’s always a phone call or visit in person, never just an email back from MCT.”
Profitability
“Hedging and delivery mandatory through MCT has helped serve our members better. It gives us the ability to sell a majority of our loans and retain the servicing but then return the money back into the pool to lend out in other areas, whether it be in portfolio or some products we designed for our own membership to fit their needs. It gives us the ability to be more productive and efficient in our process which helps us deliver a better and fuller product for our membership.”
Support
“We were in our infancy as a company and we literally had a wire basket full of paper needed to be accounted for. It was evident that we needed to put together a lock desk and process and MCT afforded Michigan First the ability to do that very quickly. They helped us grow from the beginning to the business we are today.”
+ 20 Hours/Month
When using MCT’s Writeback Service
Full Interview: Michigan First Credit Union
Most Credit Unions don’t deliver on mandatory but you do – why is that?
We didn’t want to limit ourselves on growth so we designed our company as an independent mortgage space. We wanted to design an origination team that looked and mirrored a non-credit union for more opportunity.
Describe your loan sale process with MCTlive!
We definitely lean on MCTlive! We love the writeback MCT does for us as it certainly saves us a lot of time. Before, we didn’t have a handle on productivity or profitability, for that matter. The efficiency was not great. But now, MCTlive! has brought us full circle to where our execution is now down to really less than a day, but 1-2 days is what we plan for.
How has MCT helped Michigan First Credit Union add profitability to your mortgage department? How has that added value to your membership?
“Every time I’ve had a concern or misunderstanding, it wasn’t an email, it was a phone call directly or personal visit to the office.”
– Daniel Sugg, Chief Mortgage Lending Officer
It is unique in the sense that we are a non-profit. We don’t get to take bigger checks home when we make more money. However we can return the profit back to our membership by making their cost of goods cheaper, rates lower, and provide an assurance that will soldier on for them. All the extra profitability MCT has helped us create goes back to the membership, which is our main mission.
How is MCT helping you reduce risk?
MCT has really helped reduce reputational risk. We are run by a board of directors and their volunteer board. They look to us to help them manage that risk. MCT has been instrumental in helping us to educate our board and CEO and helped us continue to grow our business through all the craziness with the bond and stock markets today. Kudos to MCT. Every time I asked they’ve been here to help.
Can you describe your process using Rapid Commit?
The setup was super easy. I would actually say seamless. Our secondary team identifies the loan that we want to deliver and to what investor and we shoot it over to MCT to do the Rapid Commit and the writeback for us. It’s all in a matter of minutes and MCT does it all for us.
Is there alignment in MCT’s service and how you service your members?
Credit Unions are like a church, I like to say. And by that I mean they both believe in the same concept that is: servicing our members without fail. We definitely take that to heart more seriously than most credit unions, I believe, as does MCT. We speak a lot in our pledge to our members around financial adherence and integrity. If you equate that back to MCT then without fail their service-minded customer engagement is probably one of the best I’ve seen. If I call, someone always picks up, there’s no voicemail.
I don’t think of it as just a software at MCT. I think of the company as people – people serving people. That’s how we like to do things at Michigan First, too. If it was just as easy as giving us a software system, it wouldn’t be as relationship driven as it actually is at MCT, and that reflects our ideals.
How has your experience been with the lock desk team?
It’s ran by Natalie and she’s a rockstar, but the whole team itself is great. There isn’t a lot of need for back and forth because they have figured us out so well, so the cultures are aligned. The consistency and leadership that’s been given by MCT always comes through.
Have you been introduced to any new contacts through MCT?
When we needed to switch investors we reached out and they were able to help us get what we were looking for. We also have had the ability to network at the MCT Exchange. One phone call and they will definitely hook you up with someone.
How has MCT earned your trust?
Transparency from day one. We even had an occasion where Chris Anderson flew out for the day and made sure we understood our numbers in person. Their transparency and ability to be genuine and face every obstacle head on has been great for us.
“If you’re just getting started and haven’t hedged before and need some consistency, it’s a huge benefit to join MCT.”
– Daniel Sugg, Chief Mortgage Lending Officer
Case Study Summary: Michigan First Credit Union
MCTlive! has provided efficiency and the lock desk experience with MCT has provided support in regards to Michigan First as an independent mortgage space. MCTlive! has illuminated the power of quality data aggregation and have assisted Michigan First Credit Union in their best execution strategies.
- MCTlive! – A powerful platform available for day-to-day loan pipeline management, trade positions management, and loan sale best execution. MCTlive! automates repetitive tasks and frees your time for other high-value functions.
- Rapid Commit – With Rapid Commit, lenders can automate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan pricing and commitment with intelligent best execution capability through application programming interface (API). This technology pairs with MCT’s Bid Auction Manager® to easily price and commit loans to Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs).
- Lock Central – Increase productivity, improve data integrity, and gain full control over lock management. Effectively outsource some or all of your centralized lock desk functions to our established team of secondary market analysts. Our variable pricing model allows you to select from a menu of customizable service levels and only pay for the services you need.
FURTHER READING – Additional Case Studies
MCT has had the opportunity to sit down with Atlantic Coast Mortgage, On Q Financial, and Homestar Financial Corporation to discuss how MCT’s offerings improved their loan sale efficiency and profitability. View their case studies below.
Contact us to discover how MCT can improve efficiency in your loan sale process!
About MCT
MCT is a capital markets advisory firm focused on technology and service with a 20 year track record of success. This unique blend of customer service and cutting-edge technology has helped establish MCT as the industry leader in production pipeline hedging.
- Growing for Your Needs – Since 2001, MCT has grown from a pipeline hedging services specialist into a fully integrated provider of capital markets services & software.
- Capital Markets Expertise – Through a combination of unparalleled industry experience and relentless focus on data, MCT is pioneering the future of capital markets technology. From MCTlive!, to MSRlive!, to our award-winning Bid Auction Manager (BAM) – MCT pushes the envelope to exceed client expectations.
- Clients & Employees Agree – MCT delivers unparalleled customer service and prides itself on being a regular winner of San Diego’s “Best Place To Work” Award.
