Don’t forget to put your flag out today for Flag Day. To warehouse banks, a “red flag” is a client who loses money for months on end, or for several quarters, and with good reason: counterparty risk has increased. (Below: a quick opinion of the current warehouse bank situation.) But back to the flag thing… Did you know that there are 986,000 U.S. flags in Manhattan? You didn’t? Me neither, and I just made up that statistic. The U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t make things up, and it reported that New York City continued to exhibit the largest numeric decline of any U.S. city, losing 123,104 people from 2021 to 2022. But this was nearly 60 percent less than its 2020-2021 population loss of 305,465. Declines also slowed in other large cities that had experienced significant population losses, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland, and San Jose. Fort Worth, Phoenix, and San Antonio were the largest gainers. Do you have the products and branches to help those moving? (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by SimpleNexus, the homeownership platform that unites the people, systems, and stages of the mortgage process into one seamless, end-to-end solution that spans engagement, origination, closing, incentive compensation, and business intelligence. Today’s has an interview with SimpleNexus’ Ben Miller on why mobile matters to the modern mortgage movement.) Broker and Lender Services and Software “Are you thinking of using Artificial Intelligence? The adoption of AI is easily the game-changer that mortgage servicing needs as margins are compressed, resources restricted, and the cost to service increases yearly. However, the real question is, are you ready to implement AI into your operations? Read our blog “How to Prepare For and Measure the Effectiveness of AI in Your Servicing Operations?” and explore what steps you need to take to gain the most benefit. Step number one is the implementation of workflow automation. CLARIFIRE® is positioned to help mortgage servicers deliver workflow automation that captures the best aspects of operational efficiencies through process standardization and AI to optimize the results. Find out more about the steps to prepare for AI’s benefits. Prepare your organization with CLARIFIRE, truly BRIGHTER AUTOMATION®.”