OPENING GENERAL SESSION: IMB Quarterly Report and Forecast
Get the latest market intel to take action for your company. Hear the latest quarter’s report-out on the financial performance of independent mortgage companies overall. Gain insight into how the data may impact your business decisions for the rest of 2025 and 2026. This session kicks off the conference with opening remarks from MBA leadership.
Speakers
Welcome
Laura Escobar is the 2025 MBA Chair and President of Lennar Mortgage. A 30-year mortgage industry veteran, Escobar has held leadership positions with both bank-owned and independent mortgage companies overseeing all aspects of mortgage banking, including production, operations, compliance, accounting, and training. Her personal ground level experience in every facet of mortgage lending has enabled her to manage and fully integrate all of these departments within Lennar Mortgage. Escobar is highly engaged in the industry, serves on MBA’s Board of Directors, and was co-chair of MBA’s IMB Executive Council from 2020–2022. She is also a director of the MBA Opens Doors Foundation, which she has supported by successfully fundraising for the foundation’s work and leading Lennar in company campaigns. Beyond her industry work, she is also a licensed mental health counselor and devotes much of her time to working with underprivileged women.
A 30-year mortgage banker, Norman got his start as a loan officer with Temple-Inland Mortgage Corporation, later becoming President of the Austin Mortgage Bankers Association. In 1999, Norman captained the original campaign to amend the Texas Constitution to authorize reverse mortgages in the state. In addition to his work in the Lone Star State, Norman has testified numerous times about mortgage lending before the legislatures of California, Arkansas, and Minnesota to help craft legislation to protect homeowners around the country. In 2017, Scott was awarded the Larry E. Temple award, the highest honor the Texas MBA can bestow to one of its members, for his work supporting the mortgage banking industry in Texas.
Introductions
Robert (Bob) Broeksmit is President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Bob is a senior finance executive and corporate officer with a 35-year career in the mortgage sector. He has directed all aspects of lending activities, including marketing, sales, operations, secondary marketing, loan servicing, and default management. He has also served as a mortgage underwriting expert testifying on many large, high-profile cases. Prior to joining MBA in 2018, Bob served as President and Chief Operating Officer with Treliant, heading the firm’s mortgage litigation support practice and serving diverse financial services clientele including large banks, independent mortgage lenders, community banks, credit unions, and service providers to the mortgage industry. As a Washington-based financial services consultancy, Treliant’s mortgage practice included strategic advisory for executive management and corporate boards; litigation defense, including file reviews, litigation strategy, expert reports, and expert testimony; CFPB examination preparation and implementation of mortgage regulations promulgated by the CFPB and other regulators; and operational aspects of mortgage banking, ranging from origination to servicing and loss mitigation. Before Treliant, Bob held senior leadership positions in the mortgage business, including fourteen years with Chevy Chase Bank (including after its purchase by Capital One), where he was Executive Vice President and President of its B.F. Saul Mortgage Company subsidiary. Bob also was a Vice President at Prudential Home Mortgage for seven years. He has overseen annual originations of $9 billion, a balance sheet of $10 billion in residential mortgages, and a servicing portfolio of $20 billion. He also held positions at Great Western Mortgage, Krupp Residential Mortgage, and The Money Store. Bob has served as the Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Residential Board of Governors and as a member of its Board of Directors. Firms under his leadership have garnered multiple awards for servicing operations excellence, including Freddie Mac’s Tier One and Hall of Fame designations. He is a Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) and a graduate of Yale University.
Speakers
Michael Fratantoni is MBA's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Research and Business Development. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing MBA's industry surveys and benchmarking studies, economic and mortgage originations forecasts, and policy development research for both single-family and commercial/multifamily markets. Additionally, Fratantoni is a member of the Board of Directors of the CONVERGENCE Collaborative, and the Smith Enterprise Risk Consortium’s (SERC’s) Advisory Council. Prior to joining MBA, Fratantoni worked in risk management and senior economist roles at Washington Mutual and Fannie Mae. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in economics from The College of William and Mary, and has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington, and Johns Hopkins, George Washington, and Georgetown Universities.
Bill Nelson is Executive Vice President in charge of Secondary Marketing and Mortgage Operations for Standard Mortgage Corporation and has been with the company for 23 years. As a member of Standard’s Executive Management team, Bill is active in the search and acquisition of Mortgage Servicing Rights as well as providing support for their multiple origination channels. Previously, Bill spent many years with Fannie Mae, initially serving on the customer trading desk. He then progressed at Fannie Mae to the Reserve Repo Desk helping investors finance their MBS investments and launching the DUS Bond Brokerage Business to support liquidity in the Multifamily MBS Market. Beyond his role within Standard Mortgage, Bill currently serves as the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)’s Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA) Chairman for the 2025-2026 election cycle, joining MBA’s Board of Directors to report on the level of engagement by MAA members – and the ongoing growth trajectory of this important MBA affiliate organization. Bill graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies.
Marina Walsh, CMB, is Vice President of Industry Analysis in MBA's Research and Economics Department, specializing in industry performance benchmarking for residential lenders and servicers. She leads the management and direction for the Mortgage Bankers Performance Reports, the Peer Group Survey and Roundtable Program, the Servicing Operations Study, the Warehouse Lender Study, and other studies that measure lender performance. She is MBA's spokesperson for all servicing-related studies including the National Delinquency Survey and the Loan Monitoring Survey. Prior to joining MBA, Walsh was a manager in Ernst and Young's Real Estate Advisory Services Group. She has previously been named to HousingWire's "Women of Influence" list. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University.
Nanci Weissgold co-chairs Alston & Bird's Financial Services Group and advises financial institutions and financial service providers on federal and state matters relating to mortgage lending and mortgage servicing, valuation, and other consumer lending issues as part of her national regulatory compliance and enforcement practice. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at legal and industry conferences and webinars, and has published numerous articles on mortgage banking, valuation, and consumer finance related topics. Her pragmatism preparing for, and responding to, CFPB, FHA, state, and other administrative actions is highly valued by her clients. Nanci is co-leader of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Legal Issues Committee, and the 2025-2026 MORPAC Chair.
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