The owner of NEXA Lending has found a compliant way to give the company's mortgage originators a financial incentive aligned with the long-term value of the mortgage servicing rights they create.

It will also provide its loan officers with business intelligence about those MSRs.

Mike Kortas is in the process of acquiring an undisclosed mortgage servicer. The company will not be associated with NEXA, but remain a stand-alone entity.

However, NEXA loan officers will also become employees of the business, to assist in servicing the loans, Kortas said in an interview.

It's something he has been dreaming he can offer to his loan officers for a long time.

"We're the only company that can legally do it the way it's being structured and set up," Kortas said. "We've already talked to a lot of our wholesale lenders; I've been asking wholesale lenders for this type of thing for years."

Until now, he was unable to get their cooperation. Finally, he is able to force their hands to accomplish this, he continued.

Kortas is not looking to circumvent any rules, but do this in a legal and compliant fashion.

The program could roll-out as early as July.

The structured model will allow eligible loan originators to have a portion of recurring revenue streams; these are connected to loan performance and subject to regulatory compliance.

The beauty of this set up is that loan officers will now have access to all of the loan performance data they have been kept away from, Kortas said.

"Anytime the customer asks for a payoff, anytime the customer asks for a valuation, anytime the customer needs assistance on something, they will know what's going on as an employee of the servicing company and to assist," he explained. "Obviously benefit them in other ways as well."

While some companies have acquired mortgage servicing rights for lead generation purposes, Kortas said this was not his motivation here. If anything, he makes a habit of not watching what other companies in the industry do on purpose because it could taint his own way of thinking.

"Look, my loan officers deserve to have access to the servicing data that allows them to stay in communication with their customers directly," Kortas declared. "I'm no longer going to let my loan officers get sold out."

This is not the first time NEXA has looked to be different when it comes to compensation. In the summer of 2024, it brought a 100% commission product, NEXA100, to the market.

NEXA will remain a mortgage broker, and a non-delegated correspondent originator, Kortas said.

The company added this program is supported by a proprietary technology ecosystem which will be a centralized interface for access and reporting.

This initiative is a software play, Kortas said. It will have dedicated access to the loan information at its sub-servicers via APIs.

NEXA is also building artificial intelligence technology inside bevri.ai (which is teaming with Tidalwave to offer agentic AI to mortgage brokers) as part of its partnership with that company.

It must be noted participation structures can vary for each originator based on their licensing, their jurisdiction and investor guidelines.

NEXA is planning a phased roll-out, with the initial focus internally. The program is likely to be enhanced with additional features added after the initial roll-out as the platform matures and user feedback is incorporated.