Lykken on Lending

The Lykken on Lending Weekly Mortgage Update delivers expert commentary and timely insights from across the mortgage industry. Each episode features a curated lineup of respected thought leaders and analysts:

• Adam DeSanctis with the MBA Mortgage Minute, providing key updates from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
• Les Parker’s TMSpotlight offers a macroeconomic perspective with his signature musical parodies.
• Matt Graham of MBS Live, breaking down market activity and interest rate movements.
• David Kittle, CEO of The Mortgage Collaborative, sharing insights on mortgage originations and industry trends.
• Alice Alvey of Union Home Mortgage, delivering essential regulatory and legislative updates.
• Allen Pollack, with the Tech Report, spotlighting emerging technologies impacting mortgage operations.
• Bill Corbet, presenting Bill's Bullet Commentary with focused insights on loan servicing and capital markets.
• Marc Helm, offering Marc’s Rant, an unfiltered take on operational and agency-related developments.

Together, this expert panel brings clarity, relevance, and a touch of personality to the ever-evolving mortgage landscape.

Mortgage rates continue to defy expectations, leaving lenders and borrowers wondering when relief might finally arrive. In this week's Lykken on Lending market commentary, Bill Corbett joins Alice Alvey to explain why traditional economic indicators are no longer producing predictable results in the bond market. With bond vigilantes driving Treasury yields higher, mounting federal debt, persistent inflation concerns, and global economic uncertainty, the mortgage industry is navigating a market where the old rules no longer seem to apply. Corbett challenges mortgage professionals to stop waiting for rates to return to historic lows and instead focus on adapting their strategies, understanding today's borrowers, and finding opportunities in the current environment. His message is clear: Hope is not a strategy, and success in today's mortgage market requires looking forward rather than in the rearview mirror.

Allen Pollack challenges mortgage lenders to look beyond impressive AI demonstrations and evaluate real-world integration, exception handling, human oversight, and vendor accountability while exploring emerging technologies that improve borrower communication and retention.

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Allen Pollack, a Mortgage & Financial Services Technology Advisor, is a subject matter expert in the mortgage origination process along with software product management and software development.

In today’s financial services push to all things Digital, Allen has been helping lenders and financial services solution providers align their digital transformation and technology strategies by removing the human element of risk, and automating processes that drive efficiencies and margins into profits.

Over the course of his career, Allen has co-created and developed technology business models that have birthed highly successful, innovative solutions and companies.

Allen co-founded and served as CTO of New York Loan Exchange (NYLX), a loan product eligibility and pricing engine (PPE) that made an immediate impact on the industry, scaling the company quickly and forming partnerships with multiple mortgage and financial lending companies. In 2012, Allen was a co-founder of a merger between NYLX and Aklero Risk Analytics that created LoanLogics, A Mortgage Loan Quality and Performance Analytics company. Allen served as CTO where he continued to bring new and innovative product solutions to the market that made a significant impact to mortgage lenders that reduced risk, scaled business channels, and grew profits in a very competitive and highly regulated market.

Allen is also is mortgage and finance technology contributor on a weekly live industry podcast, Lykken on Lending, and is launching a new podcast soon to be released, TechStack Radio, dedicated to technology and innovation in Financial Services.

lice Alvey, Marc Helm, and Bill Corbett examine the UAD 3.6 appraisal deadline extension, consumer protection concerns surrounding home equity investments, and how evolving credit scoring requirements could increase mortgage applications without generating additional closings.

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Alice Alvey, Master CMB

Vice President Partner Education and Training at Union Home Mortgage

She handles development of their World Class Training program designed to support UHM partners and organizational effectiveness.

Prior to UHM, Alice served as Senior Vice President at Indecomm leading the Indecomm-Mortgage U division, Internal QA and Compliance and SaaS technologies. Indecomm acquired Mortgage U in 2013, where Alice was President/Co-founder, providing training and consulting since 1996. Prior to MU she served as SVP of Operations at a national bank overseeing operations for wholesale, retail and correspondent from underwriting through servicing, and compliance.

She has been in the trenches of mortgage lending operations from application through servicing for over 30 years. Her authoring work in training content, policies and procedures and the FHA/VA Practical guides illustrates her ability to bridge regulatory requirements with day-to-day operations.

Alice has been a weekly contributor to the Lykken on Lending show since its beginning in April 2009 and has made her weekly contributions to 450+ episodes!

10-06-2026 "Take Me Out to The Ball Game" But Don't Strike Out!

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Take stats out of the Jobs game. Take them out of the Bonds.

Friday delivered the miss Bond bulls had been waiting for: 29K jobs, unemployment of 4.2%, and struggling wages. Sadly, loan officers caught no relief after Thursday's positive positioning.

Meanwhile, Europe’s weakness and Crude oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz reached pre-war levels, according to CNBC. So, 5.50 is a resistance in the 10-yr yield. The bulls can turn the tables with a close below 4.90. So, which happens first, 5.50 or 4.90?

How many times can the Bulls strike out?

'Cause it's one, two, three strikes, Bulls fall

In the old JOBS game.

These views are mine. Find a reason to cheer at TMSpotlight.

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Song: Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1909)

The mortgage industry is navigating one of its most challenging periods in recent memory, with stubbornly high mortgage rates, affordability pressures, continued consolidation, regulatory uncertainty, and an increasingly fierce battle for production talent reshaping the competitive landscape. In this Hot Topic, David Lykken sits down with longtime mortgage executive and industry advisor Rich Swerbinsky for a candid, no-sugarcoating conversation about what lenders are really facing. From the growing dominance of large IMBs and the pressures confronting smaller lenders to the changing regulatory environment, practical AI adoption, recruiting strategies, and the outlook heading into 2027, Rich shares his perspective on where the industry stands and what leaders should be watching next. In a market where difficult conditions are separating the strongest operators from the rest, this conversation offers a timely look at the forces transforming mortgage banking—and what it will take to compete in the next chapter.

The Lykken on Lending Weekly Mortgage Update delivers expert commentary and timely insights from across the mortgage industry. Each episode features a curated lineup of respected thought leaders and analysts:

• Adam DeSanctis with the MBA Mortgage Minute, providing key updates from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
• Les Parker’s TMSpotlight offers a macroeconomic perspective with his signature musical parodies.
• Matt Graham of MBS Live, breaking down market activity and interest rate movements.
• David Kittle, CEO of The Mortgage Collaborative, sharing insights on mortgage originations and industry trends.
• Alice Alvey of Union Home Mortgage, delivering essential regulatory and legislative updates.
• Allen Pollack, with the Tech Report, spotlighting emerging technologies impacting mortgage operations.
• Bill Corbet, presenting Bill's Bullet Commentary with focused insights on loan servicing and capital markets.
• Marc Helm, offering Marc’s Rant, an unfiltered take on operational and agency-related developments.

Together, this expert panel brings clarity, relevance, and a touch of personality to the ever-evolving mortgage landscape.

Higher interest rates are putting renewed pressure on borrowers and mortgage companies, but they are also creating opportunities for lenders willing to rethink their playbook. In this week’s discussion, David Lykken and the team examine the forces keeping rates elevated and what mortgage professionals can do instead of simply waiting for the market to improve. From developing relationships with community banks and credit unions to offer more competitive fixed-rate and adjustable-rate products, to carefully managing the rising value of mortgage servicing rights, the conversation focuses on practical strategies for navigating today’s environment. The message is clear: protecting your people, maintaining production, managing servicing strategically, and finding creative partnerships may be more important than maximizing short-term margins as lenders position themselves for the next turn in the mortgage cycle.

From AI-assisted pricing configuration and automated underwriting to voice-powered broker tools and insurance-backed AI protection, mortgage technology is advancing rapidly—but lenders still need to prove that innovation translates into meaningful ROI and a better borrower experience.

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Allen Pollack, a Mortgage & Financial Services Technology Advisor, is a subject matter expert in the mortgage origination process along with software product management and software development.

In today’s financial services push to all things Digital, Allen has been helping lenders and financial services solution providers align their digital transformation and technology strategies by removing the human element of risk, and automating processes that drive efficiencies and margins into profits.

Over the course of his career, Allen has co-created and developed technology business models that have birthed highly successful, innovative solutions and companies.

Allen co-founded and served as CTO of New York Loan Exchange (NYLX), a loan product eligibility and pricing engine (PPE) that made an immediate impact on the industry, scaling the company quickly and forming partnerships with multiple mortgage and financial lending companies. In 2012, Allen was a co-founder of a merger between NYLX and Aklero Risk Analytics that created LoanLogics, A Mortgage Loan Quality and Performance Analytics company. Allen served as CTO where he continued to bring new and innovative product solutions to the market that made a significant impact to mortgage lenders that reduced risk, scaled business channels, and grew profits in a very competitive and highly regulated market.

Allen is also is mortgage and finance technology contributor on a weekly live industry podcast, Lykken on Lending, and is launching a new podcast soon to be released, TechStack Radio, dedicated to technology and innovation in Financial Services.

Despite a Fed rate hike and signals that additional tightening may be ahead, mortgage rates and longer-term Treasury yields showed surprising resilience as markets weighed inflation, oil prices, and the Fed’s commitment to price stability.

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Matt began as an originator in 2002. He fell in love with the idea of following MBS in real-time but felt that existing products were only scratching the surface. Thus was born MBS Live in 2007, the first-of-its-kind platform with real-time market data/analysis, and live chat with analysts, traders, and originators around the country. He is currently the Founder and CEO of MBSLive!

He's been covering bond/mortgage markets, writing commentary, alerts, and chatting with the live community every business hour of every business day ever since.

Matt also serves as the Chief of Operations for mortgagenewsdaily.com, where he is one of the industry's most respected mortgage rate experts, frequently quoted in the media. Mortgage News Daily's rate index is used as the definitive resource on day-to-day mortgage rate averages.

He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and son, where he enjoys skiing, fishing, coaching youth sports, playing the guitar, and more DIY projects/hobbies than he'd care to admit.