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'A Mortgage is Just a Dollar with Specifications,' Says CEO Drawing Parallels to Nike's Manufacturing
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15 Aug 2025
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Industry veteran explains how standardization in mortgage-backed securities could revolutionize consumer lending, similar to global manufacturing standards
The mortgage industry could learn valuable lessons about standardization and transparency from global manufacturing giants like Nike, according to Abe Lee, CEO of mortgage technology company Visbl, who draws surprising parallels between sneaker production and mortgage lending.
The Manufacturing Model
“Let’s say we’ve got a company that manufactures tennis shoes, they’ve got them made in Mexico and Thailand and Vietnam,” Lee explains. “That shoe has to meet the exact same guidelines, no matter what place it’s made, that’s what we’re in. That’s the business we’re in. We just call those mortgage-backed securities.”
This standardization, Lee argues, creates opportunities for transparency and efficiency that the mortgage industry hasn’t fully embraced.
The Dollar Specification
“We’re basically selling the same product. There’s nothing more universal than $1,” Lee says. “We’re just selling the dollar to a certain specification, knowing that it has to meet certain guidelines and get out the other side.”
Just as Nike maintains consistent quality across its global manufacturing facilities, mortgage products must adhere to standardized specifications no matter where they originate. This includes uniform underwriting guidelines to ensure fair and consistent evaluations, standardized documentation requirements to streamline processing, rigorous quality controls to maintain reliability, and universal delivery specifications to guarantee that the final product meets industry expectations. Together, these measures help create a mortgage experience that is as predictable and trustworthy as any well-crafted consumer product.
The Distribution Channel
The parallel extends to distribution as well. “If Nike manufactured has a manufacturer make that shoe, and then it goes through the distribution channel. They can now distribute that either through the Nike store, through a Nike sales person, or they can offer that through the Foot Locker store,” Lee explains.
Similarly, standardized mortgage products can be distributed through a variety of channels while still maintaining consistent specifications. Whether originating from direct lenders, mortgage brokers, correspondent lenders, or traditional banking institutions, these products follow the same guidelines, documentation standards, and quality controls. This uniformity ensures that borrowers receive a consistent experience and product quality regardless of the point of sale, much like a branded product that delivers the same value no matter where it is purchased.
The Technology Solution
Visbl’s company has developed a platform that leverages this standardization to create transparent pricing: “The complex part of what we did was we took that dollar from different manufacturers or different originator sources, whether it’s a lender or a correspondent or a broker, allowed them to tie in their margins, connected the third party vendors to them, and then put it through the end of a giant calculator that spits it out for the consumer in a single number.”
The Scale Advantage
Like manufacturing, mortgage lending benefits from economies of scale. “Depending on how much you produce, how many of those products you make, we’re going to sell you those materials at a different price,” Lee notes. “You do a lot, you get them for cheaper. You do less, you got to pay a little bit more.”
The Future of Mortgage Standardization
Having launched nationwide in June with conventional, government, and jumbo products, Lee’s company aims to be in all 50 states by year-end. “We’re looking to just add on more and more banks and brokers and loan officers and third party vendors, like escrow, title, appraiser, everything that we need to do a transaction.”
This standardization could fundamentally change how mortgages are originated and distributed, making the process more efficient and transparent for all parties involved.
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