While M&A continues (the latest example being Berkshire Hathaway buying homebuilder Taylor Morrison for $8.5 billion!), I find myself in San Juan Capistrano at the Insellerate Experience Summit but keeping an eye out for returning swallows. Lenders are keeping an eye out for loans: Although lenders generally had a good April and May, pipelines for June fundings and beyond appear to be down significantly. Insellerate’s Summit is focused on AI and tech. Mortgage has spent decades layering technology onto a system that still costs too much, moves too slowly, and frustrates nearly everyone involved, says Figure CEO Michael Tannenbaum. In an exclusive Q&A for Chrisman Commentary, he explains why he believes most mortgage technology has failed to solve the industry’s core problems, how Figure is trying to rebuild parts of housing finance from the infrastructure level up, and why Wall Street increasingly views the company less like a lender and more like a financial network. The conversation also touches on AI hype, blockchain skepticism, the psychology of running a newly public company, and why mortgage may be entering its most important transition since the rise of securitization itself. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s ‘casts are sponsored by Experian and the Experian Verify Hub. The platform brings manual submissions in-house and consolidates post-submission activities into a single environment, aiming to provide more streamlined access, faster insights, and a more cohesive user experience. Today’s has an interview with Movement Mortgage’s COO Lyra Waggoner on breaking into mortgage banking, what it actually takes to run a lender day-to-day, and thinking differently about building careers, culture, and long-term success.)