In this week’s Hot Topic, David Lykken sits down with Brian Vieaux, the newly appointed President of MISMO, for an eye-opening conversation about the future of mortgage lending. In a rare blend of industry insight and personal vulnerability, Brian shares how a life-altering family crisis reshaped his perspective just weeks before stepping into one of the most influential roles in housing finance. Together, David and Brian unpack the powerful impact MISMO has on every mortgage loan in America, the organization’s crucial work in AI standardization and regulatory alignment, and why lenders can no longer afford to overlook the importance of industry-wide data standards. This interview delivers a timely, behind-the-scenes perspective on leadership, resilience, and the innovations poised to define the next era of mortgage banking.
[David]: Listeners, our next guest does not need much of an introduction. He’s so well known for so many things. He’s the former President, CEO of FinLocker as well as the next president MISMO. He’s now in that role, and we’re so excited to have Brian Vieaux with us. Brian, what a blessing to have you join us on the podcast. Honored by your presence and congratulations on your new role.
[Brian]: Thank you so much, David. Thanks for having me. I think I’m a return guest here.
[David] Yes, you are.
[Briano] I’m excited to share, you know, the first four weeks, if you will, of my uh tenure here at MISMO, and just uh honored to be with you.
[David]: Well, most important, a lot of people in the industry know because you’re a high-profile individual. You went through some things that were pretty traumatic. You got a phone call that no parent ever wants to receive about their daughter. How is she doing overall? Quick update, and uh so glad to hear uh that sounds like a good outcome out of what could have been a massive tragedy.
[Brian] Yeah, it’s we got the call, you know, it was a Sunday afternoon. We were watching football, just my wife and I, and her cell phone rang. And you know, these days you get a call in the middle of the day, it’s like spam, you kind of ignore it, and she looked at it and glanced again, and it was Seattle zip or area code rather, and it said hospital and so she took the call and we learned that we needed to get to Seattle like right away. And so we flew that night, got to Seattle, and I shared a lot of what was going on with my kind of audience on LinkedIn, if you will. And yeah, we’re six weeks now returned home. She’s amazingly doing extremely well medically, working, you know, all the things that you would hope for are happening, and you know, that recovery process continues. But you know, what I wanted to share, Dave, was that the outreach, including yourself, the outpouring of support, love, vibes, prayers, you name it, we were taking it in and accepting it all, and we felt it. I felt it directly, but I was sharing in real time what was coming in, in my DMs and texts and emails and whatever with my wife, and it was you know, even though we were kind of out there across the country on our own, we felt like we had this army of support behind us. Here’s what I would leave the audience with because this was the most um the most I’ve ever put myself out there, and our certainly our family. And I thought a lot about what that would look like, why I would do it, what would be the outcome, and I can’t tell you that there’s at least 20 people who I’ve talked to, some as recent as at the MBA, you know, event, who came up and thanked me for sharing what we were going through, and then went on to talk about stuff that they’re going through, whether it was their spouse or family or whatever. And for me, that just tells me that we’re all dealing with stuff. We all are, and we need to slow down and not be so fast to judge people because you just don’t know what they’re going through.
[David]: Yeah, we don’t, and I think the other thing about it, certainly I’m glad to hear your daughter is doing much better, and you are a part of our daily prayer life. I mean, I’m a man of faith, and I mean we doubled down because it hit us right in the gut. And so our community was praying for you very strongly, and I’m so glad for the outcome. And it you know, I was thinking as I picked up your book the other day, rethink everything and an event like that. Now that’s a the whole rethink everything had to do another context, but it really does. An event like that, that phone call going through what you went through as a family caused you to rethink and reevaluate everything. and I’m very grateful that you did share it transparently because it allows us to feel free to start sharing because we do have a tendency to compartmentalize and bring that in. So kudos to you guys for open coming and we continue to pray for your daughter as she continues to grow and life changes are probably going to be necessary, and it’s good to see that happening, you did write the book, Rethink Everything. It is something that was so outstanding and is really talking about the next generation loan officer, the next generation loan officer. Is there any if you were writing a sequel or adding to it? I mean, things are advancing so quickly right now, Brian. What would you say that you would add to that book right now?
[Brian]: So there’s a couple chapters, and I always have to correct people, I didn’t write the book. You know, Kyle Draper and I, we contributed like a little, little, little, little bit. Like I think I might have written the introduction as an example. And yet our names are you know on Amazon as these published authors, but there was 37 professionals, experts in their own craft, their own field, and that contributed selflessly to the book in the form of a chapter. And that thing now is getting on two years old. I mean, it was it was February, end of February 2024. So we’ll be two years old here. Kyle and I have talked about like, do we refresh the edition? Do we write a sequel? What you know, I think what I would tell you is there was a little bit of AI in that book, very little. Imagine what it would look like today if we were writing it. Yeah.
[David]: Yeah. I mean, it our world is changing so rapidly, and AI is at the center of it in so many ways, well, kudos on the success of your book. We do look for a sequel, so I encourage you to go ahead and do it. But let’s get over to talking about your role as the President of MISMO. What an honor and the NBA selected you, and you’ve done so well. You’ve had a stellar career already. FlagStar, and what you did previously. It is just so exciting to see what you are now stepping into. Let’s talk about this last conference, the MBA conference, because this has got to change a whole new you went to the conference as a participant before when you were at the president of FinLocker. Now you’re in the midst of the beast, so to speak. I mean, and I mean that uh in a positive way. It’s a huge organization that does puts on a massive conference. Talk about your experience at the conference as the new President of FinLocker. I mean, at the new President of MISMO.
[Brian]: Yeah, so it was it was day three of my employment, was getting on a flight on Sunday, going to Vegas. And um, you know, I think I did some math. I thought, I think I may have attended 25 annual MBAs over the years, right? And this one was definitely different in a lot of ways for the reasons we just talked about and kind of what was going on in our personal life. I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to schedule appointments, meetings, etc. So Amy Moses on the team, who I think you know well, She just jammed me up with uh with meetings, which was awesome. That part I’m good with, because that’s that was like my Flagstar days, and even the FinLocker days. You go there and you’re doing, you know, yeah networking and relationship building and business development. That part was great. What I didn’t expect was like you said, in the belly of the beast, as they say, the 7AM, all staff MBA, you know, pre-day, pre-morning meetings to here’s what’s up, here’s what’s up, here’s what’s going on. Those were interesting. But then as because of the freshness of my role, I was on just about every agenda for every committee meeting that was going on. It was five or ten minutes, but you know, that was like room to room to room. And so what struck me as I kind of was flying back home after the conference was I barely saw you. I think I saw you across the room one time. Yeah, one time you know, dear friends who I normally would spend you know quality time with, I didn’t see at all. It’s because I was either at our at the MBA slash MISMO booth on the convention floor, I was on stage a few times doing stuff that you know in the role, but then I was in all these committee meetings while stuff was going on. So it was I learned a lot more about really how these things operate and have a much greater appreciation for that particular event because it is the Super Bowl for mortgage banking, as we like to call it. And to watch the MBA staff just it’s nobody understands how much work goes into those things, but when you see the work that’s going into it, you’re like, wow, like that’s a they need to take a big breather after those events.
[David]: Yeah, Marsha Davies does an amazing job. And I remember seeing her several times with while she’s organizing that thing, and she has this spiral notebook, and it is, I mean, this three-ring binder, and it’s like massively thick with everything. She runs that so she’s run that so well and so happy for her and Scott as she now goes off into retirement. But really excited to see the next chapter and your leadership there, MISMO. I want to give a shout out to Amy Moses. She is one of those delightful, cheerful. I went to college with her dad. It’s yeah, no kidding. In a little school in Iowa of all place, a little junior college in Iowa. So Amy Moses, we love you. You’re amazing, but what a tremendous asset to you and working with you in what you’re doing. What may motivated you to make this change? I mean, because you had a great gig at FinLocker, you were loved there, they valued you, you were having good success. What made because you almost have to, it’s just almost like going into a public office.
[Brian]: Yeah, it is uh so like the way a lot of these things kind of come about, you know, somebody reached out ahead of you know the official posting, I guess, and just said, might you know somebody that has these attributes and has this experience? And they started going through it, and I was just like, all right, what are we talking about here? And you know, this particular person couldn’t really say what was going on, just said, keep your eyes open. There’s gonna be something interesting coming down the pipe soon. And so um that that’s always you know interesting to think about from yourself. But I I’ve always taken those calls, and then I immediately go to my network and like who do I know that would be a great fit? And that’s where my mind went right away, even though I had no idea what the role was. And then a few weeks later, the day that the role was posted, the same person reached out and said, Hey, check out this link and let me know what you think now. And my first reaction was, I’m not a I’m not an association guy, I’m not a, you know, that that doesn’t feel like right for where I’m for me for what I was encouraged, just throw your hat in the ring and have a conversation. So of course I did that. And as soon as I did it, like something went off in my head where I’m like, I’m gonna learn a little bit more about MISMO. I’ve been joking with people, Dave, that I’ve known the letters M-I-S-M-O. I even knew what a few of the letters stood for, but I didn’t have a good appreciation for the level of depth of impact that MISMO has had on our industry for the greater part of 25 years. And as I started to dig in and research and understand that literally MISMO touches every loan every day, every minute, everywhere and what hit in my mind was I’m pretty well connected in the industry. I’ve got my little you know three-letter CMB designation, so that’s supposed to make me a smart guy, I guess. But I didn’t really understand MISMO. Yeah. And so I just had one of those moments where it’s like, actually, I owe it to this industry to give back. And what better way to give back than to elevate and lift this organization that frankly is going to be the key to the future of mortgage. If you think about what’s, you know, the AI.
[David]: Especially where we’re going now. Oh my gosh. And if so funny about the beginning of MISMO, I was chaired the Echo One Application Oversight Committee in 1986. Out of that, we sit around in that committee and we brainchild the beginning and the concept of MISMO. And we went from there, we had some committee members that said, we need to get a data standard, we need to get all these standards going. And it was out of that committee that was birthed what became MISMO. It was X.12, then we moved it, migrated, and moved after my position. I was in that position for two years, it was really fun to see. And so to know that you’re handling it and taking the next chapter, and what an exciting new chapter we’re facing as we look at where things are going. Many of our listeners have heard of MISMO, but not many fully understand what it does. And you say you did. Can you explain in plain terms what MISMO is and why it is so critical to our industry today? so I touch on it slightly, but I want to go into that a little bit more depth.
[Brian]: MISMO is the the standards organization for the mortgage industry, right?
[David]: So and started out as kind of a data standard, so now it’s become the the standard for almost any aspect of uh everyone.
[Brian]: Oh, yeah, I’ve got I’ve got something I want to share because I think what I’ll share in this current, you know, one of the current initiatives, it really is a tangible value that every lender should be grasping. But we’ll come back to that, so MISMO was founded some some 25 plus years ago uh within the Mortgage Bankers Association within the MBA, so MISMO is a wholly owned subsidiary of MBA, it’s a nonprofit, but what’s unique about MISMO in that construct is MISMO has its own independent board of directors, and MISMO serves the entire ecosystem, not just members of MBA. And I think that’s important. There’s a little, sometimes there’s some questions around, oh, I have to be an MBA member to get value from MISMO, that’s not necessarily the case. We, of course, would love if you were an MBA member and a you know participating member of MISMO, but MISMO exists for the ecosystem. And so that’s one thing. We’re we’re a wholly owned sub of MBA, but we’re an independently operated, we have our own you know P&L and we’re a self-sustaining organization. The other thing that people don’t understand and appreciate, and I have come to appreciate it very rapidly, is that we’re lean and mean. There are six of us on the MISMO team, myself included.
[David]: Only six? I had no idea. I thought it was a much bigger organization. Is that right?
[Brian]: Six full-time you know, employees, if you will, FTEs of MISMO. Um, we have another you know, six to eight contractors who act as facilitators for all the work that goes into creating and maintaining standards. We can talk about that. But what’s really special about MISMO is that while it’s six FTEs and another, you know, let’s say ten or so contractors, there’s hundreds of volunteers from the industry that form the greater MISMO community. And that is where the work and the magic happens. It’s industry who raises their hand and says, hey, Mismo, there’s a problem that we think MISMO should work on solving, right? And so then what happens is once that problem’s identified, there’s a there’s kind of a t-shirt sizing scoping exercise that happens. And then if there’s a there, right, if the problem is deemed to be, you know, industry-wide, not just a single lender’s having a problem, but a true industry problem, then a work group gets assembled and we attach a facilitator to that, a contract facilitator. And then that work group could be 10 to 50 SMEs, subject matter experts from all over the industry that come together to create a solution, typically around some kind of standard, and so let me, if I can, I’ll give you an example of the a current standard that’s in flight right now. That’s we’re in the comment period at December 4th, it’ll be finalized, and it’s the mortgage compliance data set. So one of the top lenders in the industry, who’s not too far from me, brought an issue to MISMO, and it was around the this idea that as a non-regulated financial institution that’s licensed in 50 states, let’s say, right, that particular lender, when it comes time to state audits, is subject to a simple request like a data file, and they get a request from 50 different states on a data file that’s principally the same data, different column headings, different cell labels, sometimes different data. And so this particular lender was like, I’ve got to have a one full-time FTE that all they do is create data sets for the 50 states that are regulating us and auditing us, right?
[David] What a perfect match for MISMO.
[Brian] Yeah, MISMO, can you help us create a uniform data set, a standard around this data set? And that is what we’re right now, the comment period for the mortgage compliance data set, the MCD, is we’re about midway through that, and so what’s super cool about this, Dave, that again, I didn’t know all this stuff until getting into the seat, is that at the table, as that MCD standard was getting created, were lenders, a lot of lenders, and the and you know, compliance legal folks from those lender shops, service providers that specialize in the legal compliance space of our industry, right? technology companies, the POSs, the LOSs, the you know, anybody that touches data around this this data set was at the table. And then probably the most powerful cohort who’s at the table are the state regulators themselves. So you talk about you know identifying a problem. The problem exists between lender and state regulators, and now at the table bringing a solution together, we include the lender and the technology providers who are ultimately gonna have to build this data set, but also the regulators who get to weigh in on what gets created. Wow.
[David] What a dynamic, complex counterparties all working on a problem. How do the state regulators did they agree that there needs to be a standard? There’d be good to have a standard. Was I mean how I think that’s a perspective from we’re interested now, especially seeing the fragmentation as CFPB seems to be a little less significant than it was, and it’s now the states seem to be rising up and which creates the all the complexity which this would address.
[Brian]: Yeah. So this this is where I’ll give a shout out to MBA, and specifically you know, William Cooper, Coop and his team, Coop and the team. He’s a very good thing. So you know, though they’re so dialed into what’s going on, you know, in DC, but also his team specifically at the state and local level. And so he learned his team learned of uh an initiative that the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, the CSBS, was working on behalf of its membership, which are the state regulators, and they surfaced up a challenge that they were facing across the states and basically said to CSBS, we want you to help us solve for create a standard that we can all leverage and use, and just maybe we’ll take some cost and inefficiency out of our own processes. So this is like this was like this problem getting identified at two different you know areas so exciting, yeah. And coming together because of MBA, right? That’s how it all connected, and then MISMO gets to be the facilitator of the solution, right? And so it’s just a it’s a great example of how well this is one of the reasons why IMBs need to get involved in this thing.
[David]: I mean, IMBs, I think the larger financial institutions have been carrying the water for a lot of this, and they see the value of this. But I mean, a lot of people say the dues we can’t afford the MBA. I mean, margins are tight, I get it, but we need to have participants in this. But you were saying something earlier for those IMBs that are thinking they don’t need to be involved, they can be involved in MISMO, even though they might not be members. They should be members of the MBA, but there might not be. Am I hearing you correctly?
[Brian]: 100%, 100%. So, you know, again, MISMO is we’ve MISMO serves the entire ecosystem, right? All players around the mortgage ecosystem, all channels, all company sizes, you name it, the participation, the level of participation, I look at it this way. You can’t afford not to be at the table because what do they say? You’re either at the table or on the table.
[David] That’s exactly right. Yeah, yeah. And so true. I would if I’m you know, especially when it comes to the regular aspect of it. That’s so true. That particular issue you just raised is so true, so true, very true.
[Brian]: So, you know, when you when you talk about you know margins being tight, and I get it, everyone’s everyone is operating at a very tight budget. You don’t have to tell me that. I’m part of a nonprofit that’s you know, we’re as tight as we can be. The IMB population, the way they can participate is two ways. With their experience, expertise, and human resources, so they can send people to the table with us and help solve problems, and they can fund MISMO through the innovation investment fee, the IIF. The IIF is a 75 cents per loan investment that IMBs can make for the future of our industry and their business, their company. if you’re a you know, if you’re originating, I don’t know, eight billion or so in annual volume, your share of the IIF is somewhere around $15,000 annually.
[Brian]: Based on what I just described, that the MCD and and the potential lift in reduction in in and redundant work inside your shop, the ROI on that alone is like off the charts. Yeah, yeah. So it’s kind of a no-brainer.
[David]: It is a no-brainer. And I think uh I applaud what the MBA is doing. I love the partnership and what they’re how they’re leading MISMO. I mean, again, this organization is such a huge size. You just identified one of the biggest challenges that lenders are facing. Are there any other challenges that you would like to highlight that you’re you would say we need to be aware of? There’s so many, I mean there’s so many aspects that it’s so multifaceted. Um AI, right? That’s uh well that’s I was hoping you were gonna go there.
[Brian]: AI big it’s the biggest opportunity and it’s the biggest risk that we face in the industry.
[David]: When you are when you talk about, we’re hearing so much about AI and the digital adoption, what’s going on. How do you see MISMO shaping industry standards when it comes to AI?
[Brian]: Yeah, I think we’ve already done a little bit of work there. We’ve there’s a there’s an active work group that is already up and running within MISMO around AI. Um, it’s led by just some amazing thought leaders in that space. Um and one of the first products they created was a a simple thing, a glossary, but it’s a consistent dictionary, glossary of AI terms, because AI means a lot of different things to a lot of different people depending on where they’re using it in the in the tech stack and in the manufacturing process, etc. So, first piece of work was to build this this glossary that becomes an artifact that will be maintained and updated as needed by MISMO. That’s available to everybody on MISMO.org. It’s free, uh, it’s there for your use. Um, but what’s really exciting as I think about um this AI initiative is you know, ResBog is the residential board of governors of MBA. Um, their top initiative uh as a committee, as a group, as a governance body, if you will, for MBA, uh from members is AI. And specifically, what ResBOG is focused on is um how are the regulators going to be looking at us as an industry and as an individual company as it relates to the use of AI. And so where we believe MISMO can play a role is similar to what I described with those all those cohorts coming together to create the standard for the mortgage compliance data set, with partnership with ResBOG, we can we can facilitate the same type of conversations with regulators to define what’s in and what’s out of scope as it relates to AI when we’re talking about the oversight or regulation of a mortgage company. You know, there’s a couple states, California and Colorado in particular, that have already enacted legislation that IMBs are now subject to. And it’s a little scary because there’s not a lot of definition of what’s in scope and out of scope as it relates to AI. And so, you know, if I’m a lender and I’m using desktop underwriter, which every lender is using du, is that in scope? Am I responsible? Or is that those are the things that you know MISMO can kind of help work and help create the guardrails um and uh standards for responsible use of AI within mortgage lending?
[David]: I mean when we originally envisioned MISMO when my committee in 1986, I mean the whole concept we didn’t have any concept of MISMO, it’s just more of the standards thing. Uh, we never had any idea the far how far reaching it would be. But again, who would have guessed where we would have AI at that point while it existed, it was way below our radar and not even in their focus. When you look at the revenue model, let’s you touched on it, 75 cents per loan, that’s so affordable for anyone doing this, and yet you go like, well, that’s $15,000 and we don’t have it. You put it, I mean, it is you raise a great point. The cost benefit ROI is just so compelling. Yeah, you can’t not to be looking at. So let’s look at how does the revenue model work and the membership model. Bring that together for us.
[Brian]: Yeah, there’s three legs on our you know, funding stool, right? And I’m gonna remind people as often as I can that MISMO exists by and for the industry. We’re a nonprofit for the industry, and that the work that gets done in MISMO is by the industry. So we are by and for the industry, right? And we’re a self-funded organization, so we only can do the great work we do if the industry comes together and does the work with us, but also helps fund us, right? So we talked about the innovation investment fee. That’s the lender membership side of MISMO today, and you know, just to get in the weeds a little bit, every lender will get invoiced annually based on their MERS registration count, if you will. And so we partnered with MERS. They act as our partner in the reporting, and they actually send out the invoice. It’s a MISMO invoice, but it does get sent out by MERS because they have all the data and then they have the contact. Something I learned early in this process of me joining was that while the invoicing is automatic and every lender gets their invoice, the payment of the invoice is voluntary. Really? It is today it is voluntary. I don’t that it won’t be that way forever, but today it’s voluntary. The good news is you know, a good percentage of the industry recognizes what the benefits are. And they do their they do what’s right for the industry, which is great, and I applaud them and part of my mission and why I’m so excited to be here with you today is I need I feel the responsibility to elevate the awareness of the value prop of MISMO so that when people do get that invoice, they’re like, I get it. I get the value of MISMO. I need to be participating, not just economically, but I need to find ways to get it to the table and be part of these solutions. So the lender piece is through the IIF, the non-lender, so think of the service providers, technology partners, vendors, whatever you want to call that that cohort who I used to be part of. they’re members, they join as a traditional member of a trade association. And we have membership that ranges from corporate level, $5,000 a year, all the way to $55,000 a year if you want to be a champions level. And there’s all kinds of benefits that the vendors get inside their membership based on those levels. We run three summits per year, live in-person summits. These are great places to go and see the in the weeds what’s happening on these problems and how these work groups are collaborating to create solutions and you know, as part of that sponsorship, you either get you know memberships included or X number of registrations, if you will. But then there’s certifications. We certify technology companies around their use of MISMO standards in their product. So there’s certifications that occur, and then the last piece of revenue, it’s a smaller, smallest piece, are the actual events and sponsorships that we put on. And we actually um have some cool things where we have companies that want to sponsor the work groups that are going on because there’s so much visibility around this particular problem and the solutions that are getting created that smart companies are like, yeah, I want to be part of that. So that’s pretty cool too. Very good.
[David]: Yeah. Well, you stepped into leadership roles on October 16th. You’re doing an outstanding job. What are your prior top priorities over the next 90 days? Your first 90 days, they talk about it
[Brian]: it’s the triple A, I’m calling it, awareness, adoption, and alignment. Okay. Awareness is like I said, I’m coming on and talking to icons like yourself and sharing the value prop of MISMO. So you’ll see me. People will probably get you know sick of me sooner than later, but whether it’s writing blogs or coming on different podcasts like this or doing my own content on LinkedIn, I’ll be really promoting and building awareness around all things MISMO uh with a focus on the value to the industry that that is behind MISMO. It really needs to be focused. The second is adoption. You know, we have MISMO for 25 years has created you know somewhere in the magnitude of 200 plus standards, but not all of them have been adopted the way that they need to be adopted.
[David]: Interestingly I I just assume adoption would be just a foregone conclusion. You create it, it’ll be adopted.
[Brian]: Yeah, it’s like it’s it’s like field of dreams. If you build it, they will come. Doesn’t quite work that way. Uh so you know there’s a level of awareness to to promote adoption. Um this MCD, this current work stream, we’re really thinking about it a lot differently as we are in the process to get commitments for adoption before typically at the end of the process, now we’d go find the adoption. It’s like, no, let’s get the commitment while we’re building this. Right, and so adoption is going to be the key thing. And if you start thinking about the flywheel effect, right, as as more adoption takes place, that builds organic awareness. As more awareness happens, that drives more adoption. So that that those two legs of the stool start to drive its own little flywheel effect. And then the last A is alignment. And alignment means a lot, there’s I talked a little bit about the innovation investment fee. So your, as an IMB, your alignment to MISMO, your alignment to the industry happens through participation, both with your subject matter expert and your economic investment in the IIF. So that aligns us all together, to use a hashtag of our good friend Greg Sher, it’s a hashtag all of us movement here. Yeah, takes all of us. But the other alignment, and I gave that to the example of the MCD, is how a MISMO aligns all the all the critical players that are that could be impacted around a work stream, including regulators in this case. So if the regulators are at the table as these things are being created, the level of transparency gets lifted in terms of what the regulators are expecting from those they regulate, the IMBs, um, and that just creates a natural alignment around the these standards. And so that’s like the wrapper around this thing in terms of three A’s, where that just really gets the flywheel going. And I think that’s where people can really you know see the ROI on their small investment by by supporting MISMO.
[David]: Yeah, there’s so many compelling reasons to do that, especially I want to stress the one point that I was not aware of. You did not you didn’t have to be a member of MBA to be involved in MISMO. And the fact that the invoices that are sent out are at this point probably going to change, but at this point, they’re still it’s a voluntary, almost like a contribution to that. What is the if the soft cost the for people coming to are you doing more of these meetings virtually so people can part? It’s easier for smaller IMBs to participate.
[Brian]: For sure. The work groups they meet monthly, sometimes more, depending on what the problem, you know, what they’re working on. And for the most part, for the you know, for 90% of the year, they’re doing that all virtually, and then three times a year we hold these summits winter, spring, fall. Yeah, it’s like a James Taylor song almost. Um the yeah, we love the in-person workshops because three times a year those work groups can really come together and they get a lot done when they’re all in the same room, you know, kind of eyeball to eyeball. but they those even those in-person workshop or working groups are also streamed virtually. So, you know, you can be 100% virtual and participate in all of the workshops, um, or you can participate in a hybrid way with those in-persons. Attending a MISMO conference, you know, you got a flight and a hotel for a few nights and a registration, it might be two grand all in or something like that, the networking we find at these is like most conferences, is where the real value is.
[David]: Real the non-tangible value is absolutely, yeah.
[Brian]: And then what’s you know, what’s cool, like at our winter summit, we’re doing a separate uh well uh a follow-on workshop on this MCD. And you know, we’ve already got several state regulators that have committed to be in the room for these discussions.
[David] So it’s when is that? the winter committee?
[Brian] January 12th through the 15th in Amelia Island, Florida, right? It’s a two week place to go. Yeah, two weeks before the IMB in the same uh same time.
[David]: Yeah, that’s outstanding. If you could leave our listeners with one takeaway about MISMO, why should they engage and what would that look like?
[Brian]: I love that. I love that. I’m gonna start with a challenge. If you’re if you’re listening and you’re, I don’t care where you are in the mortgage ecosystem, right? Loan officer, processor, CEO, everything in between, I challenge you to take 30 minutes in a quiet space and think about where Mismo doesn’t touch a loan that you do today. Because you won’t be able to do it. And if you if you can think of it, if you can tell me a single loan that you’ve produced in your company, you know, in the last year that hasn’t touched, then then reach out to me. I’ll buy I’ll buy you a Starbucks because you’re not gonna find it. You’re not gonna find it, yeah. So that’s my challenge is to do a dot do a deep dive. And if you want to go a step higher, a step deeper as a CEO or somebody in the C-suite, instead of thinking about it, why don’t you do a survey to your company and ask your company how often in every role they’re touching and relying on MISMO standards, could be in in your tech providers, could be in your own process, but you’re I think you’re gonna be shocked, and then the last part of the challenge as a as a senior leader, as a CEO, imagine your business today if MISMO didn’t exist. That’s scary. Oh, that’s scary.
[David]: Yeah, that is scary. Yeah, that is really scary. Well, Brian, I’m again, congratulations on the role landing the opportunity. It is a huge one. I really believe your leadership is going to be sound. You’re a great communicator, you’re highly respected in the industry. And I think you’re gonna bring in a new crop of people into participants into MISMO. And so you and Amy and working together will be fun to see what comes out of that. The whole team, I want to meet the whole team. Hopefully, I’ll make it to the winter conference. Would love to do that. Folks, our guest has been Brian Vieaux, the new president of MISBO. And I’m just so delighted for him and most importantly, what his family’s over recently overcome with his daughter. So excited to have you here, and we continue to lift you up in our thoughts and prayers, not only for your daughter and your family, and but you in this new role. It’s such an important role in our industry. Kudos to the MBA uh for their leadership in all of this and guidance, but also for what you’re doing independent of the MBA.
[Brian]: Thank you so much, David.
Important Links
- MISMO website
- LinkedIn – Brian Vieaux
Brian Vieaux is currently the President & COO of FinLocker & will be the next President of MISMO. With over 30 years of executive experience, Brian has held leadership roles at some of the top lending institutions in the country. He’s a Certified Mortgage Banker and a recognized thought leader, especially when it comes to engaging and nurturing early-journey homebuyers. Brian is also passionate about leveraging digital financial tools to help loan officers grow their business by building deeper, more meaningful relationships with clients. Currently, he’s helping lenders execute strategies that combine embedded finance with continuous consumer engagement through FinLocker’s KeySteps app.
Brian is also a regular contributor on LinkedIn, co-author of the book Rethink Everything: You Know About Being a Next Gen Loan Officer, and a dedicated advocate for financial literacy.