- Bay Area is an epicenter for financial technology firms focused on the mortgage industry.
- Compliancy is difficult within the fintech sector.
- Fintech companies are focusing on how to streamline the loan origination process.
Dubbed as a sector ripe for innovative, the mortgage industry is attracting a number of San Francisco Bay Area-based engineers, entrepreneurs and venture capitals that are creating financial technology aimed at streamlining the loan origination process.
Clayton Holdings represents one firm looking to take advantage of this increase in the Bay Area fintech industry.
The Shelton, Connecticut-headquartered consulting firm is opening a Silicon Valley office with plans to aid fintech companies with process and workflow, policies and procedures, and ultimately supplement the decision making process.
According to Andrew Pollock, senior managing director at Clayton, fintech firms are often in need of expertise when it comes to understanding how to take an idea and perform the “appropriate choreography to be compliant in originating these loans.”
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Pollock, who will head the firm’s new Los Gatos office, is seeing a number of Bay Area-based fintech companies create applications that allow for the extrapolation of information that is critical to the loan decision.
“The growing fintech sector within the lending industry has a beachhead in the Bay Area,” he said.
Streamlining loan origination
Applications being developed include technology that allows a client’s bank statement information, W-2 or pay stub to be pulled directly from an institution or payroll source.
“It reduces the requirements of the clients and ups data integrity because it comes directly from the source,” Pollock said. “The validity and authenticity is perfected.”
The major tech hub that is San Francisco was home to some of the fiercest bidding wars for homes in 2015.
According to a recent Redfin ranking, the San Francisco neighborhoods of Central Sunset, Noe Valley, Richmond District and Bernal Heights ranked among the top 25 most competitive neighborhoods nationally. Central Sunset ranked as the most competitive of the four markets, coming in at eighth. The other ranks 13th, 21st and 24th, respectively.
