MCT was fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down with Tom Bradley, Trader & Senior Correspondent Product & Pricing Analyst at Gateway Mortgage Group, LLC, to discuss his experience with MCT’s AutoBid functionality, which automates the process of pricing bid tapes and accepting commitments, as well as other tools located within MCT Marketplace.
In this case study, Mr. Bradley speaks to the benefits of time savings, targeting specific loan characteristics, reporting, and the ability to find new sellers as an investor on MCT Marketplace. Leveraging AutoBid within MCT Marketplace has also removed the need for manual processes in Excel, increased efficiency in the bidding process, and reduced the amount of training needed for new hires.
Tom Bradley
Secondary Marketing Trader and Senior Correspondent Product & Pricing Analyst, Gateway Mortgage Group
Tom Bradley is a seasoned finance professional with over two decades of experience in secondary marketing, capital markets, and product pricing analysis. Currently serving at Gateway Mortgage Group, LLC, Tom holds a dual role as a Senior Correspondent Product & Pricing Analyst and a Secondary Marketing Trader. In this capacity, he expertly manages hedge strategies for the Capital Markets team while simultaneously optimizing product pricing for the Correspondent Lending Team.
Gateway Mortgage Uses MCT Marketplace for a More Efficient Buying Process
Gateway Mortgage Group has taken full advantage of the MCT services and integrations to ensure they increase bandwidth, find new sellers, and improve efficiency. Advanced technology systems and actionable data insights have become a prominent catalyst for the success and ease of their business development.
MCT Marketplace is the world’s first truly open mortgage loan exchange, where buyers can bid regardless of approval status, and sellers receive automated live pricing from every buyer on the platform. MCT Marketplace connect buyers and sellers in a unique, digital auction regardless of counterparty approval status. Through patented technology, sellers have access to the most robust set of take-outs, while buyers are seamlessly connected to the largest community of sellers in the U.S.
AutoBid automates the process of pricing bid tapes and accepting commitments. No more organizing, normalizing, pricing, or returning bid tapes and commitment requests via spreadsheets and email. With full support for spec pay-ups and MSR values, whether utilizing MCT’s MSR group or another third party, investors can ensure they’ll be generating the most accurate bid at any point in time. Investors can also choose from several common loan characteristics to margin & restrict by or leverage the multifactor functionality to set up more complex rules.
AutoShadow allows clients to access and shadow price bid tapes for MCT clients with whom they have not yet approved. Bid tapes are anonymized and scrubbed of all NPI, but reporting on market share a client would have won and missed profit opportunity is provided to the seller.
Gateway Mortgage Group: Summary of Software & Metrics
AutoBid has changed Gateway Mortgage Group’s day to day tasks by cutting down time spent on spreadsheets and manual work. Leveraging MCT’s AutoShadow has also allowed Gateway Mortgage Group to access new sellers.
We asked Mr. Bradley to further explain what some of the main benefits of working with MCT:
Time Spent Submitting a Bid:
- Before MCT – 10 Minutes
- After MCT – 10 Seconds
Time Savings
“It use to take me 10 minutes to submit a bid, now it only takes 10 seconds. I hit the button to review and can be done in 10 seconds. This makes it so much easier to confirm bids with the automation of the system.”
Data Granularity
“The AutoBid feature tells me how much the markets moved so I have record and can make decisions in real time. It will inform me how much the market has moved and why pricing was readjusted.”
Finding New Sellers
“The AutoShadow feature gives us the opportunity to have others find us, see our pricing, and then decide if they wanted to work with us.”
Automated System
“I used to have to take spreadsheets and build the actual model that we were using. Now I hit a button to review and confirm the bids within a few seconds. MCT does it all for us.”
Full Interview: Gateway Mortgage Group
Describe your experience working with MCT Marketplace?
I’ve been using MCT Marketplace for about a year now, and overall, it’s been quite effective for our needs. We primarily use it for shadow bidding with clients who aren’t on Gateway, allowing the system to handle automatic bid processing and pricing. This automation streamlines our workflow significantly. For our main clients, I tend to handle pricing manually to have more control and flexibility—especially when aiming to improve our bids to win business. I can also run reports and know where our pricing is compared to others who are bidding.
How does Gateway leverage reporting within MCT Marketplace?
I regularly run reports to assess our competitive positioning and see how our pricing compares with others. The system helps me stay on top of things. We load everyone up, even non-MCT clients, and let them bid through there. I then run the reports to see where our pricing is and where we fall in line with the people that are bidding. I also use the support feature to update my sales manager about which clients might be submitting bids and to verify that our shadow bidding doesn’t overlap with clients we may have overlooked.
Additionally, I send the weekly bid summary report to my sales manager to see what clients might be submitting bids to us vs. who aren’t, as well as also check to see if those who are submitting shadow bids to us are not clients.
How does MCT Marketplace allow Gateway to target specific loan characteristics?
One of the great things about MCT Marketplace is that it has a lot of attribute restrictions, so you can go in and determine what you do and do not want to buy. It is also really helpful for when you see a really good client and are able to make the decision if I want to reduce the margins of what we hold back, then show them better pricing to potentially to improve the relationship. Another way we have used it is when we want to buy a lot of non-owners, for example, you can build a restriction that says either don’t bid, bid, or reduce the price on non-owners by X.
We have really been using it a lot for the spec margin hold back feature. It’s great that you can actually control how much of the spec margin you pay, the spec payups you hold back, or how much you choose to give in your pricing. We update this weekly to try and drive more business in the lower loan amounts because that’s where we are really seeing a lot of production, so it has been really helpful facilitating that business.
Spec Margin Hold Back
Investors utilizing the cash windows with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may prefer to hold back a portion of the spec in their bid due to the additional price volatility of the pay ups. Our tools allow you to easily pinpoint these products and apply additional margin, either fixed or as a % of the pay up, as well as differentiate by delivery term.
The fact that the system gives you the ability to go in and get very granular on either margin or restricting the kind of product you want to look at or incentivizing a certain product is very helpful.
-Tom Bradley, Trader & Senior Correspondent Product & Pricing Analyst
Why did you select MCT’s AutoBid for your bid tape pricing needs?
We had worked with MCT before and reviewed the technology and really liked it. It allowed us to go away from pricing everything through excel and move toward an automated system. Handling everything before had been done through Excel, and one of the downsides of that type of process is that it’s difficult to maintain. For example, you have to go into your model each time in a manual process associated with archiving bids. And especially if you have new hires, teaching them how to do this manual process can be difficult. When it becomes automated, it makes everyone’s lives easier and the business more efficient. It has made my life significantly simpler.
AutoBid gives me the ability to explain our strategy to new hires and our pricing based on the market. It’s much more real-time and I will receive the data I need in about 30 seconds, rather than constantly checking my email.
-Tom Bradley, Trader & Senior Correspondent Product & Pricing Analyst
Another positive that has come with working with MCT’s AutoBid feature is the real-time data I am able to access. The ability to update your bids as the market moves, refresh your bids before a price hit or before accepting saves an amazing amount of time.
How has your experience been with AutoShadow on MCT Marketplace?
We have shadow bids being done with MCT clients that aren’t Gateway clients. The system processes the price for us and then we are able to send out bids. The AutoShadow feature gives us the opportunity to have others find us, see our pricing, and then decide if they wanted to work with us.
Can you speak on the Restriction Functionality feature?
It’s great because it’s granular in the fact that I can restrict specifics, like if I don’t want to buy in California, for instance. It’s nice because once I know it’s built out I don’t even have to worry about a loan from a specific state that I don’t want. I also use the min/max rate a lot since there are certain ones I don’t want to if rates are too high. I do this because I don’t always necessarily want refinance issues. I am able to choose where I want to trade and know what interest rates I want and which interest rates I don’t want.
How was the onboarding experience with MCT?
It was nice since MCT set up everything for me and showed me how it worked. It was very easy, painless and functional.
Lastly, how has the client experience been working with MCT?
It has been very good, I have no complaints. They are always on the ball whenever I call or email.
Case Study Summary: Gateway Mortgage Group
Gateway Mortgage Group has taken full advantage of the tools within MCT Marketplace to create more efficiency at work and an overall more effective loan sale process. By leveraging reporting, automation, and the ability to target specific loan characteristics, Gateway has used MCT Marketplace to help achieve their goals. Going from wasting time on spreadsheets to an automated system that cuts time dramatically, Gateway Mortgage Group has certainly reaped the benefits of working with MCT Marketplace
MCT Marketplace is the world’s first truly open mortgage loan exchange, where buyers can bid regardless of approval status, and sellers receive automated live pricing from every buyer on the platform
AutoBid automates the process of pricing bid tapes and accepting commitments. No more organizing, normalizing, pricing, or returning bid tapes and commitment requests via spreadsheets and email.
AutoShadow allows clients to access and shadow price bid tapes for MCT clients with whom they have not yet approved. Bid tapes are anonymized and scrubbed of all NPI, but reporting on market share a client would have won and missed profit opportunity is provided to the seller.
FURTHER READING – Additional Case Studies
MCT has had the opportunity to sit down with Vellum Mortgage, NBH Bank, and Michigan First Credit Union 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
For over two decades, MCT has been a leading source of innovation for the mortgage secondary market. Melding deep subject matter expertise with a passion for emerging technologies and clients, MCT is the de facto leader in innovative mortgage capital markets technology. From architecting modern best execution loan sales to launching the most successful and advanced marketplace for mortgage-related assets, lenders, investors, and network partners all benefit from MCT’s stewardship. MCT’s technology and know-how continue to revolutionize how mortgage assets are priced, locked, hedged, traded, and valued – offering clients the tools to perform under any market condition.
For more information, visit https://mct-trading.com/ or call (619) 543-5111.
