How mortgage lenders like NFM and Alcova transformed their loan origination processes with Argyle
If you’ve been working in mortgage lending, you know that the verification landscape has reached a turning point. While many lenders continue to wrestle with time-consuming, friction-filled manual processes and expensive legacy databases, a growing number of forward-thinking institutions have reimagined their approach and seen remarkable results—all by partnering with Argyle.
Over the past few years, we’ve helped hundreds of mortgage lenders modernize their verification workflows. Ultimately, their achievements tell a compelling story about what’s possible when teams prioritize operational efficiency, data accuracy, and borrower experience.
Here are seven standout case studies from our customer network that illustrate just how top mortgage lenders are realizing dramatic cost savings, shorter processing timelines, and operational improvements through our industry-leading platform.
1. NFM Lending sees up to 75% conversion rates
NFM Lending is one of the largest mortgage lenders in the U.S. They had largely automated their verification process before partnering with Argyle, receiving digital reports through third-party vendors. But their verification costs continued to rise—and their loan officers were often still required to collect and process essential documents by hand.
With Argyle’s Direct Payroll solution, NFM applicants can instantly connect their employer or payroll provider accounts via a secure link, enabling real-time access to income and employment data and documents. When direct connections aren’t available, NFM uses Argyle’s Doc Processing as a backup to automatically capture uploaded paystubs and W-2s—allowing them to convert even more borrowers. Each Argyle solution is GSE-approved, providing NFM with ongoing relief from representations and warranties.
“Argyle is at the top of our verification waterfall because they give us one-stop access to all of the income data and documents we need. Only after Argyle do we move on to other options, where prices might increase.” – Cindy Keith, Chief Strategy Officer at NFM Lending
2. ALCOVA Mortgage sees 88% cost savings
ALCOVA is a residential mortgage lender with dozens of branches across the U.S. As a tech-forward company, they were early to adopt AccountChek’s asset-based verifications to modernize their operations. But assets data offered limited insights into borrowers’ employment, and AccountChek’s solution ceased to be cost-effective as ALCOVA’s loan volume shifted from purchase to refinance transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When ALCOVA’s team learned Argyle is an authorized verification report supplier for Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter® (DU®) validation service, they were sold. Now, Argyle is seamlessly integrated into their verification waterfall, providing accurate, affordable data for more complex underwriting scenarios—including up-to-the-minute employment details and shift-by-shift-level earnings data.
“The cost savings are not insignificant. These are the kinds of savings we can pass on to our customers to provide a better experience in a market where affordability is always in question.” – Kelly Good, Director of Strategic Initiatives at ALCOVA Mortgage
3. LMCU eliminates three-week processing delays
Lake Michigan Credit Union (LMCU), one of Michigan’s leading mortgage providers, was facing rising verification costs and delays from traditional methods—including manual document collection and analysis, employer outreach efforts, and expensive one-off reports from databases like The Work Number (TWN). Their verification process often dragged on for days or even weeks, creating friction for members and inefficiencies for staff.
After partnering with Argyle, LMCU saw a marked change. Their loan officers can now complete verifications early in the origination flow, use the same payroll connection to run pre-close checks without additional fees, and retrieve up-to-date income and employment data and documentation straight from the source. That means faster close times, fewer touchpoints, and lower, more predictable costs.
“Competition is fierce among banks and credit unions. You have to differentiate yourself, and one of the key indicators is speed. Argyle’s cutting-edge technology allows us to improve our turnaround times, so we can close faster, with a better borrower experience and fewer gaps late in the process.” – Eric Schlagheck, Director of Mortgage Processing at LMCU
4. Delta Community integrates verifications into their LOS
Delta Community is a Georgia-based credit union that serves residents of 16 counties in the Atlanta area as well as employees of Delta Airlines, Chick-fil-A, RaceTrac, and UPS. They were facing issues with legacy verification providers that lacked access to important payroll records, imposed manual fallback tasks, and didn’t integrate with their loan origination system (LOS)—delaying the application process and making it hard for members to submit required documents.
By moving Argyle to the top of their verification waterfall, Delta Community now pulls income and employment data instantly from their members’ payroll accounts. They were operating with a strict timeline—but Argyle was able to roll out a custom implementation that met their specific standards and integrated smoothly with their existing LOS: Encompass® by ICE Mortgage Technology®.
“If we can’t verify income and employment easily, efficiently, and economically, that’s an issue. We needed to find a way to conduct VOIE that both played well with ICE’s Encompass LOS and also delivered a smooth home buying process for our members, all at a reasonable price.” – Kathy Weber, Vice President of Residential Lending at Delta Community Credit Union
Read Delta Community’s full story
5. American Pacific Mortgage sees over $1.5M in savings by moving Argyle to their POS
American Pacific Mortgage (APM) is a traditional distributed retail mortgage platform with branches across the U.S. Their branch managers and loan officers were facing rapidly escalating verification costs from legacy providers—expenses that significantly impacted their P&L without delivering proportional value. As a retail-first organization, the turning point came when their branches started requesting more cost-effective alternatives. APM knew they needed to find a verification solution that would work at scale while maintaining the quality their teams were accustomed to.
After vetting Argyle’s consumer-permissioned verifications, APM launched a pilot with their most innovative branches through an Encompass® LOS integration. Feedback was positive, but branches noted that requiring processors to trigger verifications downstream added friction while missing opportunities for conversion. APM made a bold move and decided to test Argyle directly within their point of sale system, nCino Mortgage. Less than three weeks into that pilot, APM deployed Argyle POS verifications across their company to impressive results.
“It was a bold move, but once we turned Argyle on in nCino by default, orders absolutely hockey-sticked—and so did the results.” – Chris Sutherland, Director of Production Strategy at American Pacific Mortgage
6. AmeriSave receives rep and warrant relief for more loans
AmeriSave is a top direct mortgage lender with around $130B in annual production. They were getting squeezed by sharp rises in verification costs without getting matching improvements in speed, compliance, or borrower experience. They needed a cost-effective solution that could enhance their data quality, integrate cleanly with their existing systems, and reduce their risk exposure under GSEs.
Argyle delivered with complete verification reports at a much lower price point—along with the GSE authorization benefits AmeriSave needed to reduce their repurchase risk. Even better, Argyle’s custom integration with AmeriSave’s proprietary POS and automated underwriting system went live in just three weeks, enabling pre-check processes to route verifications more efficiently.
“About one-fifth of loan files that contain an Argyle verification report are deemed eligible for rep and warrant relief, which is much higher than we’ve seen from other verification providers.” – Magesh Sarma, Chief Information and Strategy Officer at AmeriSave
7. Acopia cuts reliance on costly legacy reports in half
Acopia is focused on making home loans simple, but they were relying heavily on TWN for verification reports—which often provided incomplete information and added expenses without adding value. Acopia needed a way to cut costs while boosting the quality of their verifications.
By automating verifications from end to end, Argyle’s solution has given Acopia the confidence they need to shift away from legacy databases, so they can order fewer one-off TWN reports and eliminate the related fees, delays, and manual fallback flows.
“Argyle helps us halve the number of reports we order from The Work Number and saves us nearly $6K a month on verifications, which goes straight to our bottom line.” – Steve Flatt, VP of Operations at Acopia
8. FourLeaf unifies fragmented workflows into a single solution
FourLeaf was stuck between two imperfect options—paying for reports from an expensive verification database or putting the onus on members to track down and send required documents. The cost either way was high, either in dollars or in friction.
Argyle’s comprehensive verification solution—which offers direct payroll connections, direct banking connections, and automated document processing through a single platform—allows them to convert more borrowers automatically without the high price tags or manual document chase.
“Before Argyle, we had two options: verify members’ income and employment through an expensive legacy vendor or require members to manually provide various income-related documents. With Argyle, we get the best of both worlds—fast, friendly verifications, without the excessive price tag.” – Kathleen Flanagan, Senior Manager of Home Equity Operations at FourLeaf
The key component: a smart verification waterfall
The most successful mortgage lenders in our community have moved beyond treating all verification methods on an equal plane. Instead, they’re implementing intelligent verification waterfalls that put high-quality, cost-effective verification methods up top.
This waterfall approach typically follows a fixed sequence:
- Direct-source payroll connections, which leverage real-time connections to a borrower’s employer or payroll provider account(s), pulling detailed income and employment data straight from the system of record
- Direct-source banking connections, which connect to a borrower’s bank account(s) to verify their assets and any supplemental income streams
- Document processing, which automatically collect and standardize information from uploaded financial documents like paystubs, W-2s, and 1099s, especially when supported by built-in OCR processors
Only after these automated solutions will they fall back on traditional verification methods like databases or manual reviews, eliminating the friction, cost, and delays of a legacy approach.
Strategic verification waterfalls prevent application processes from stalling out whenever a single method fails—ensuring borrowers are instantly and automatically routed to the next-best method until they are verified successfully. In an ideal scenario, direct payroll connections sit at the top of the waterfall due to their superior performance, including higher conversion and completion rates, faster results, and greater cost savings compared to other methods.
Learn more about the importance of a comprehensive verification waterfall.
The results speak for themselves
These eight success stories are just the beginning, and they represent much more than individual company accomplishments. They demonstrate a fundamental shift in mortgage lending operations and a broader evolution toward data-driven, direct-source lending practices that will change the industry as we know it for the better.
Ready to see your own results?
Reach out to Argyle’s team to learn more about our industry-leading verification solution for mortgage lending—which combines direct-source payroll connections, direct-source banking data, and OCR-powered document processing into a single, comprehensive platform.
