United Wholesale Mortgage, a leading wholesale and purchase lender based in Pontiac, today announced it has successfully evaluated and accepted the first-ever cryptocurrency mortgage payment — the first was in September and five more payments were completed in October.
The transactions were the first of their kind for UWM, as well as the mortgage industry. The company will use the payments as a model to better assess scaling cryptocurrency payments from borrowers.
“We’re proud to be the first mortgage lender to successfully pilot this technology and further demonstrate that we’re innovating for the long term,” says Mat Ishbia, president and CEO of UWM.
“As we said last quarter, we were going to look into accepting cryptocurrency and test it to see if it’s a faster, easier, and cheaper solution, and thanks to our innovative technology team members, the transactions were successful. Due to the current combination of incremental costs and regulatory uncertainty in the Crypto space we’ve concluded we aren’t going to extend beyond a pilot at this time.”
This test-and-learn process has helped UWM be the first to this transaction type while helping it prepare for a time when cryptocurrency is more stable and will help propel the organization forward. The company will continue to monitor the use of blockchain technology and opportunities for future use.
Accepting cryptocurrency is one of many technology firsts by UWM, which include BOLT, a self-service platform that provides the ability to get an initial approval for qualified borrowers in just 15 minutes, and Virtual E-Close, the industry’s first end-to-end online mortgage experience without wet signing any documents.
“UWM has been a leader in technology for years because we never stop pushing the envelope and challenging the status quo on what makes the loan process faster, easier and cheaper for independent mortgage brokers and borrowers,” says Ishbia.
“Our most recent roll-out of BOLT is a prime example of that and will change the mortgage game in a significant way moving forward. Our team of nearly 1,200 technology experts will continue to build out elite, state-of-the-art tools that will help independent mortgage brokers win.”
