2025 Year in Review
Hear from our President
Celebrating 35 Years of Innovation
Dear Clients and Friends,
As we step into a new year, I want to take a moment to express profound gratitude and reflect on the partnerships and people that make our work at Spillane Consulting Associates (SCA) so meaningful.
Our Valued Clients
To our clients—especially those of you with whom we have proudly partnered for more than a decade—thank you. Your trust, collaboration, and commitment are the foundation of our success. It is an honor to work alongside you, and your enduring relationships motivate us to continually strive for excellence. We view ourselves not just as consultants, but as an extension of your team, and we are deeply appreciative of your partnership.
A Landmark Year
This upcoming year is particularly special as it marks 35 years since SCA first opened its doors. Three and a half decades in the demanding and constantly evolving world of banking and mortgage lending is a milestone we share with you.
We believe our longevity is a direct result of our commitment to evolution. As the industry has shifted—between changes in staffing needs to streamlining operations—SCA has shifted our model to meet your precise needs:
Pivoting to Staffing: When our clients needed to fill critical vacancies, we established a robust staffing model to locate, train, and place highly qualified team members directly into your operations.
Strategic Downsizing: When the market required a more budget-conscious approach, we strategically adjusted our resources, ensuring we retained the "best of the best" consultants to act as on-demand, specialized resources, allowing us to collaboratively outline the most efficient path forward for your organization.
Recognizing Our Exceptional Team
The dedication of our consulting team is truly the engine of SCA. I want to extend my deepest appreciation to every member of our staff. They bring decades of collective expertise, collaborate seamlessly, and contribute to a cohesive, well-rounded thought process on every project. It is their tireless commitment to innovation and client success that translates directly into the value you receive.
Industry Recognition
I am also delighted to share that SCA has once again been named a Banker & Tradesman Best of Consultants for the ninth consecutive year. This award is a testament to the hard work of our team and the successful outcomes we achieve in partnership with you.
As we look ahead to our 35th year, we remain committed to providing the adaptive, strategic consulting services you have come to rely on. Thank you once again for being a part of the SCA story.
Sincerely,
John Spillane, President
Spillane Consulting Associates
Highlights of 2025 Growth
Hear from our Consultants
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In January of 2025 SCA Consultants engaged with a New England Bank in a complete revamping of its ICE Encompass Digital Lending Platform. This revamp was required as over several years the system had been over-customized to a point where regulatory issues were occurring, and the LOS did not function as the vendor had designed.
Working with the team at ICE the approach was to copy the existing Production environment into a Test, and over several months slowly and methodically remove the customization. This involved analyzing several thousand custom fields along with associated custom input forms and business rules. Once the system was thoroughly tested by SCA and the Client, the new environment was migrated to the Production Environment.
The “Go Live” date on such an undertaking will go one of two ways – hundreds of issues or a non-event. Apart from a few user pipeline view modifications there were no issues on Day 0. The regulatory issues were gone, the system was reverted to a workflow that would be familiar to Encompass users, and the client was extremely happy.
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The beauty of now being an industry consultant with 45 years of mortgage lending experience is the exposure and knowledge I have gained by working with so many lenders. There is nothing more rewarding than sitting down with another industry professional and jointly figuring out a solution to a challenge they are having. One of my most memorable engagements last year was collaborating with a client that needed to re-engineer some workflow in order to accommodate some new internal reporting requirements while avoiding dramatically increasing their fixed expenses. Together we were able to find the solution. Having the right relationship and network is critical in any business. So, I ask you, do you have the industry resources you need?
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This past year, our success in HMDA Review was defined by more than just compliance—it was built on trust. We pride ourselves on being true partners, fostering strong, enduring relationships with the professionals who run HMDA programs daily. Crucially, these connections often carry on even through organizational moves. The fact that many of our clients choose to maintain our partnership even after changing institutions is the most powerful validation of the value and trust we deliver, even more so than seeing the positive results of reduced HMDA/LAR error ratios, which we also work diligently to attain.
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My primary success this year was serving as a steady, reliable resource for a key client facing significant regulatory pressure to resolve historical servicing issues as part of an exam remediation action plan. By embedding myself to work alongside their team weekly (sometimes daily), we stabilized critical servicing functions and conducted ongoing training, leading to noticeable improvements in areas like new loan onboarding, critical loan maintenance, PMI and flood loan management, annual escrow analysis, and investor accounting. This deep support not only improved the customer experience but also elevated the client's internal team knowledge, shifting their focus from a reactive approach to one that achieves sustainable operational excellence and genuine adherence to regulatory requirements. The most rewarding part of this project has been fostering the success of each of the individuals on the team- seeing their skills and confidence grow and how that has translated to institutional wellness.
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As a former client of SCA I knew the incredible value received when you engage with SCA whether it is assisting with credit reviews, getting a second opinion on a regulatory interpretation, or gaining best practices for workflows and technology. Now that I am a consultant at SCA I have been able to witness and participate in supporting changes, sharing expertise, and providing new information/ideas to assist many financial institutions in their endeavors to improve workflows, create efficiency through automation, or be support when resources are constrained.
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We have successfully created a Peer Analysis Report for our TRID clients using our automated system, and all of our QC and Pre-Funding clients. This report will allow us to show our clients how they compare to other lenders in their saleable area. Focus on their strengths and where improvement can be made. Allowing our clients to see if additional training is needed or investigate areas of improvement. Creating this report has been a long time in the making. Thanks to SCA’s newest team member Hannah Cuff. Hannah was able to merge all the data we have collected during file reviews, and create an amazing breakdown I think this report will be a huge asset to our clients.
Adding Hannah to the SCA team has been exciting she brings a fresh ideas and most importantly a fresh perspective. Hannah is able to break down data and provided it on a easy to digest report. I am excited to see how she will be able to help us elevate our current reporting styles. She will provide useful information to us and our clients.
SCA QC/PF/Credit Review Staff have completed over 3,000 files between QC and PF including 87 Credit Reviews, and over 800 Appraisals reviewed for a total of 3,887 files reviewed for 2025.(pls note I used December 2024 to complete these numbers).
We have moved a significant amount of our clients to providing their QC files electronically. Doing this has benefited both our QC staff as well as our clients. Saving our clients time with pulling documents from their LOS systems to upload to our site. It has also eliminated about 10% of exceptions due to a missing documents not provided with the original upload which has saved our clients time and allow their staff to focus on other areas within their institution.
Most importantly our QC/PF/Appraisal/Credit review staff is amazing. They are the most hard working people I know. We are all very lucky to have such a supportive staff and working environment.
