A pioneer in the private-label mortgage-backed securities market has turned his focus to applying blockchain principles to the home-lending industry.
Blockchain is
a system where the invested players in a particular market jointly maintain a digital ledger of a history of transactions for an asset.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are examples of assets that utilize the public and chronological digital records to determine ownership history.
Now, Ranieri
Solutions is exploring opportunities for blockchain to be utilized to systemically improve all aspects of the mortgage industry.
Rainieri Solutions was founded by Lewis S. Ranieri, who is the “father of the securitized mortgage market”
and who was one of the early characters in the book and movie The Big Short.
Ranieri’s Ranieri Partners is the parent of
Shellpoint Partners LLC — which is being acquired by New Residential Investment Corp. Shellpoint is parent to New Penn Financial LLC.
Partnering with Ranieri in the blockchain endeavor is Symbiont, which says it is a market-leading blockchain and smart contract company.
The partnership pairs
Ranieri’s deep knowledge of the mortgage market with Symbiont’s expertise in deploying enterprise blockchain networks, according to the companies.
“The mortgage market, despite significant efforts, continues to lag behind from a technological standpoint creating inefficiencies that impact mortgage loans throughout their life cycle,” Ranieri said in the news release. “By partnering with Symbiont, a proven blockchain pioneer, Ranieri Solutions believes that together we can implement this transformative technology to bring necessary efficiencies, transparency, and security to the mortgage markets.”
Symbiont Chief Executive Officer Mark Smith noted in the announcement that when Symbiont was founded, he dreamed of developing a decentralized technology solution that could solve the root problems of the financial crisis.
Interestingly, some credit Ranieri with creating the financial instrument — MBS — that enabled the financial crisis.
