Lykken on Lending

This podcast segment highlights FHA’s decision to ease property standards for existing homes, removing outdated well-distance requirements that could expand access to FHA financing in more communities.

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Adam DeSanctis, VP of Communications at Mortgage Bankers Association

As a strategic public affairs and communications executive with nearly two decades of experience, Adam has deep expertise in strategy, management, and media relations. He is widely considered to be an expert in a variety of communications, including advocacy, brand, executive, crisis, grassroots, and social media. In his career, he has been the MBA spokesperson on a wide variety of real estate research and advocacy-related issues, promoted MBA research and advocacy efforts to financial, political, and trade industry media and on MBA's social media channels, and secured media opportunities for MBA leadership on key real estate trends and issues, generated media coverage for MBA's research and data on mortgage applications, credit availability, homebuilder applications, mortgage forbearance/delinquencies, commercial real estate originations, and forecasts, and other industry analysis, developed key strategic initiatives for MBA's organizational public affairs plan, media relations and member communications support for mPower, MBA's Opens Doors Foundation and MBA's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program.

The AI gold rush is in full swing, but many organizations are chasing the latest tools while overlooking the asset that will determine long-term success—their own data. In this episode of the Weekly AI Update, David Lykken and AI innovator Pavan Agarwal break down the biggest insights emerging from the AI4 Conference, discuss why enterprise AI strategy matters more than isolated AI deployments, and explore how AI agents are transforming the way businesses operate. They also examine the growing importance of proprietary AI patents, intelligent automation, and trusted data as the foundation for competitive advantage. If you're looking to move beyond AI hype and build a sustainable strategy that delivers real business value, this conversation provides practical insights into where AI is headed and how forward-thinking leaders can position themselves for the future.

As Fannie Mae's new AI governance requirements take effect on August 6, mortgage lenders face growing pressure to ensure their AI strategies are compliant, transparent, and audit-ready. In this episode of Lykken on Lending, David Lykken sits down with Steve Butler, CEO of TRUE, to discuss what these new requirements really mean, the misconceptions many lenders have about AI governance, and why deterministic AI is becoming essential for reducing risk. Steve also introduces TRUE's new Industry Guide, offering practical insights that help lenders build trust, improve compliance, and prepare for the future of AI-powered 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 professionals hoping for a dramatic drop in interest rates may need to rethink their strategy, because today’s market continues to be shaped by persistent inflation concerns, volatile oil prices, geopolitical uncertainty, and an unpredictable Federal Reserve outlook. In this week’s mortgage commentary, the discussion cuts through the noise to focus on what lenders and originators can actually control: finding opportunities in the purchase market, spending the time necessary to understand challenged borrowers, structuring loans creatively, and helping more consumers achieve homeownership at today’s rates. Buyers are still buying and business is still being done, which makes the message especially relevant for mortgage professionals waiting on the sidelines for a refinance boom that may not arrive anytime soon. Rather than hoping the market will create opportunity, successful lenders must adapt to the environment in front of them, strengthen their execution, and remember one simple principle: hope is not a strategy.

This podcast segment explores why mortgage lenders should embrace AI innovation now while establishing strong governance to manage Shadow AI, protect borrower data, and navigate an evolving regulatory landscape.

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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.

This podcast segment encourages lenders to stop waiting for lower interest rates and instead focus on growing their business by embracing today's market, serving purchase borrowers, and capitalizing on opportunities like non-QM lending.

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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!

This podcast segment explains how surprisingly weak inflation data offset geopolitical tensions and shifting Fed expectations, allowing mortgage rates to improve despite ongoing market volatility.

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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.

This podcast segment highlights MBA’s recommendations to FHFA for modernizing the GSE Duty to Serve program while protecting lender certainty and continued support for manufactured housing, rural communities, and affordable housing.

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Adam DeSanctis, VP of Communications at Mortgage Bankers Association

As a strategic public affairs and communications executive with nearly two decades of experience, Adam has deep expertise in strategy, management, and media relations. He is widely considered to be an expert in a variety of communications, including advocacy, brand, executive, crisis, grassroots, and social media. In his career, he has been the MBA spokesperson on a wide variety of real estate research and advocacy-related issues, promoted MBA research and advocacy efforts to financial, political, and trade industry media and on MBA's social media channels, and secured media opportunities for MBA leadership on key real estate trends and issues, generated media coverage for MBA's research and data on mortgage applications, credit availability, homebuilder applications, mortgage forbearance/delinquencies, commercial real estate originations, and forecasts, and other industry analysis, developed key strategic initiatives for MBA's organizational public affairs plan, media relations and member communications support for mPower, MBA's Opens Doors Foundation and MBA's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program.