Open Mortgage and the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America (NAMMBA) announced today a partnership to bring positive change to the housing needs of underserved communities and develop a more diverse mortgage work force.

“We’re extremely excited to partner with Open Mortgage,” said NAMMBA Founder/CEO Tony Thompson, CMB. “Like us, Open Mortgage has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, and a leadership team that is committed to representing all the communities in which it does business.

“Cooperation and collaboration are key to bringing more young people, women, and minorities into this industry and leads to fresher ideas and ways of doing business,” said Thompson.

Through this partnership, Open Mortgage will become a member of NAMMBA and roll out a comprehensive strategy to engage Open’s employees via access to focused training, new hire programs and leadership development, and position the mortgage lender to support the communities in which it currently conducts business, creating economic opportunity that focuses on business development and meeting the housing needs of multicultural communities.

Additionally, Open Mortgage expects to achieve its Social Impact Lender Accreditation (ASIL) certification in 2023, further demonstrating the organization’s commitment to multicultural and social impact in the mortgage marketplace through research and data analysis.

“The mission of Open Mortgage is to empower; whether that be empowering our borrowers, our communities or team members,” said Tana Gordon, Chief Operating Officer at Open Mortgage. “Through our partnership with NAMMBA, we are excited to further champion and empower the diverse communities that deserve a much larger role and voice in the mortgage industry.”

According to NAMMBA, over the next five years, 75 percent of all first-time home buyers will be women, millennials or people of color. Although there is concern across the industry about a stagnant or shrinking housing market, purchase mortgage opportunity is not only growing, it’s changing. According to the NAMMBA Family of Companies iEmergent September Originations Report, based on 2020 HMDA data, the three largest diverse borrower groups (Asians, African-Americans, and Hispanics) generated more than $356 billion of purchase opportunity in 2020, which amounts to 24.95 percent of all purchase dollar opportunities.

Additionally, as part of the partnership, Open Mortgage’s SVP of Marketing Adam O’Daniel will join NAMMBA Connect on Sept. 15 in Orlando, Florida to participate as a speaker on multicultural marketing and how Open Mortgage approached and implemented a successful multicultural marketing playbook to support their sales team purchase origination strategy.

About Open Mortgage:

Open Mortgage is a multi-channel mortgage lender that empowers the dream of homeownership for thousands of families each year. Open Mortgage has more than 75 branches and is licensed to lend in 46 states, and maintains operations centers in Austin, TX, and Atlanta, GA. To learn more about Open Mortgage, visit openmortgage.com. To learn more about employment opportunities for loan originators, visit joinopenmortgage.com.

About NAMMBA

The National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America is a purpose-driven organization dedicated to the inclusion of minorities and women in the mortgage industry who are advocates for sustainable homeownership in local communities. To fulfill its mission, NAMMBA provides programs and initiatives to introduce minorities and women into the mortgage industry, including recruiting, advisory, networking and training for enterprises and individual professionals. For more information, visit: nammba.org.