"I want to put loans on the Internet." The sea stilled to a dead calm. Suddenly, Cameron King was standing alone, digging his toes into the sand. A wave of protests began -- decades of mortgage banking tradition were about to wash over him, drowning out his idea. But suddenly, the seas parted, and a commanding voice said, "I think that is a great idea." It was Angelo Mozilo, the founder. With that, King crossed to the other side, where he landed on firm ground. He started on his journey, stopping for a brief second, "Thanks, Angelo. You won't regret this. Oh, and while we're at it, I want to put our loans on other companies' Web sites! " The divine brow wrinkled. "Other sites? Hmmm," replied the founder. "Just let my people go with it," King pleaded. "OK, but this time, we're going to skip the part about wandering around for 40 years."
When Cameron King joined the consumer division of Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. (CHL) in 1987 as executive director of Information Services, he quickly proved his worth to the mammoth loan company as an energetic visionary and innovator. In 1991, he was promoted to senior executive director, where he led the technology efforts for all production information systems installed at Countrywide's 350-plus branches. In 1994, he became chief technology officer. As executive vice president of the Electronic Consumer Division, he is responsible for all electronic commerce related to mortgage origination. It is in this capacity that Cameron King launched Web services that would change the mortgage origination process forever.
In this exclusive interview with Agent News Editor Blanche Evans, King reveals the early pitfalls he encountered bringing loan products to the Web, and what he feels is the future of e-commerce as far as it affects the mortgage industry.
B.E.: Was taking Countrywide online your idea?
C.K.: I'm going way, way back to 1990 when we had a senior management meeting, and it was a tiny group then. Now it is 70 or more. Our vice chairman [and co-founder], Angelo Mozilo, was going to give a talk, and he called me and asked my thoughts. He and I worked together to create a prototype kiosk, with the ability to enter minimal information, view pictures of homes, and EDI to bring up a credit report with the goal of giving online approval. So the thought of having a streamlined consumer mechanism goes back a long way.
But it wasn't until 1996 that the Internet was really starting to take off, so we went back to the functionality of the kiosk, and we thought we could use some of this. The business model was something I kept pushing since I was an IT (information technology) guy, and information is usually a cost center (rather than revenue-producing); and frankly, they are treated differently than the parts of the company that bring in income. And I wanted to do loans. Angelo has been one of the champions of the consumer direct strategy.
B.E.: Were you the first?
C.K.: No. Bank of America was first, but we may have been the first non-bank mortgage lender to go online.
B.E.: What pitfalls did you encounter?
C.K.: The first one was I had no experience in marketing or selling loans, much less through a new channel, so we came out with our first Web site. It was very flat, more like a billboard, not much functionality. We were technologists; we weren't marketers or loan professionals. We thought our black page was really cool, but it was too big and took too long to load. We wrote the textbook for what not to do. Until late November 1996, I don't think we got 100 hits a month.
We realized our mistakes pretty quickly, and we hired some marketing people who had experience at creating compelling content. We brought in some functionality. That was when we introduced our first home loan Wizard.
B.E.: Did that get it?
C.K.: This page was better. Consumers were looking at the site and sending us e-mail and telling us what they didn't like. But they found Wizard confusing -- they weren't sure what we were trying to accomplish. We were trying to do home origination and ask them what kind of products they wanted, and then taking them through the steps to qualify for particular loans. But the reality is some other loan may work better for a particular home, contingent on the property and the individual, Our approach was to take their names and financial histories and then show the consumers all of the loans they would qualify for.
B.E.: Were you the first to do it this way?
C.K.: Yes. People were sending e-mail and asking for rates, and they didn't understand. So we went back to the drawing board a third time. We redesigned the Home Loan Wizard(tm) and redid the navigation and graphics. We added a streamlined rate page, loan application page, and calculators. So instead of driving people directly into the Wizard, we gave consumers a path so they could focus on their unique needs. And that has proven to be the right answer.
B.E.: Were applications like Wizard a Countrywide original?
C.K.: We were the first to take that model to collect the consumers' personal information. We are one of the only companies to use the same processing system on the Internet that we use at the branch offices. It goes into the same systems, with the same underwriting rules and guidelines, and so on.
B.E.: When did the redesign of the site go into effect?
C.K.: March of '97.
B.E.: When you proposed the idea of taking Countrywide online, what kind of resistance did you encounter within the company?
C.K.: Not that much, because early on, our people looked at it like it would be teeny, tiny project of minimal significance, and they were tired of me asking when we could do online loans ... but in March, we began to see success. We did six loans that month. It was so exciting.
Click here for Part II of this interview - Find out how Countrywide has grown and where it is headed on the Web.
Published: April 8, 1998
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