Figure is bringing the mortgage market on chain – Business News
Go Figure.
Getting a mortgage has historically meant navigating one of the slowest, most paper-heavy processes in American finance — a maze of paperwork, middlemen and repeated guide checks that may take months to finish.
But Figure, a fintech firm primarily based in New York that went public in September, is rerouting the complete system by shifting it on-chain, making the course of each sooner and cheaper.
Origination can occur in 5 days — as a substitute of the typical 45 — and prices roughly $1,000 as a substitute of the common $12,000.
Michael Tannenbaum is the CEO of Figure. The fintech firm has originated practically $18 billion in mortgages and different real-world property since launch in 2018. Brian Zak/NY Post
“This is blockchain actually lowering costs and helping people,” CEO Michael Tannenbaum, 38, informed NYNext. “This is the future of capital markets.”
In Washington and on Wall Street, momentum is growing to maneuver antiquated financial infrastructure on-chain, the place possession is clear, standardized and immediately transferable. Few corporations are doing that work at scale, however Figure — which has originated practically $18 billion in mortgages and different real-world property since launch in 2018 — is one of them.
Michael Tannenbaum rings the Nasdaq opening bell as Figure makes its public debut in September 2025. Just six months prior, he got here aboard as CEO. REUTERS
Figure now accounts for roughly 75% of all loans being originated and recorded on the blockchain, a younger however fast-growing phase of the market often called tokenization. More than 200 establishments — together with JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Sixth Street, Jefferies, Guaranteed Rate and CrossCountry Mortgage — now use Figure’s infrastructure to originate, register and commerce loans; these merchandise are rated Triple-A by each S&P and Moody’s.
In the conventional mortgage system, each establishment has its own kinds, workflows and necessities. Each time a loan is purchased or offered, the course of successfully begins from scratch.
Figure eliminates the mishegoss by standardizing the whole lot. Instead of bespoke paperwork, each loan is created with the similar information and documentation.
Figure’s online software streamlines the mortgage course of, permitting debtors to finish key steps and get funded in as little as 5 days. Figure
The company leverages AI to learn complicated trust and LLC paperwork, extract the related information and write it on-chain in a tamper-proof digital report. Key particulars grow to be immediately seen and verifiable to any permitted purchaser, eradicating the back-and-forth that usually drags out approvals.
Because each loan follows the similar digital construction, Figure can route them by means of a market of its own creation.
Tannenbaum joined NYNext to inform Will Zimmerman about how the firm leverages blockchain technology to decrease mortgage prices. “This is the future of capital markets,” Tannenbaum stated. Brian Zak/NY Post
“Almost like what the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq have done for equities, we’ve created standardization in this market for trading equities,” Tannenbaum stated. “That didn’t exist prior to Figure.”
The public market has voted confidence, too. When Figure IPO’d this fall on the NASDAQ stock exchange, its shares had been priced at about $25 however opened nearer to $36 — the place they proceed to commerce at the moment.
In its first earnings report, posted in November, Figure recorded $156 million in internet income and practically $2.5 billion in consumer-loan market quantity for the quarter. Its year-over-year internet income growth was more than 200%.
“The tailwinds from this administration have been helpful,” Tannenbaum stated of new laws akin to the proposed Genius Act for stablecoins, which alerts Washington’s growing perception in the blockchain as a respectable, long-term piece of financial market infrastructure.
“A year ago, if you talked about blockchain in a board meeting, you’d be laughed out of the room,” he continued. “Now, if you aren’t talking about it, there’s a serious problem.”
That institutional embrace has downstream results for Wall Street and peculiar debtors alike.
Figure’s digital pre-qualification screen offers debtors fast readability on how a lot they’ll borrow and what loan construction suits their wants.
Using a new Figure device, Intellidebt, debtors can repay high-interest credit card debt immediately, changing charges in the 20t o 30% vary with home-equity charges that sometimes sit between 7% and 9%.
Because Figure’s system is automated and standardized, owners can entry that equity in a matter of days. Tannenbaum stated these clients are seeing their credit scores boosted by as many as 30 factors in the course of.
From left, Figure’s co-founder June Ou, CEO Michael Tannenbaum and co-founder Mike Cagney pose for footage exterior the Nasdaq building after ringing the opening bell to have a good time the company’s IPO in September. REUTERS
When he stepped into the CEO function in April 2024, Tannenbaum introduced with him more than a decade of expertise at SoFi and Brex — in addition to questions he had been wrestling with since his time as a scholar at Columbia during the financial disaster.
“One of the reasons I was so drawn to Figure is because I think blockchain technology can help with these issues we saw in 2008 around loan ownership,” he stated. “The dislocation was the opportunity.”
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Home equity, although, is simply the starting. The similar infrastructure that streamlines mortgages and equity loans is already getting used to originate and commerce different kinds of credit, from auto loans to small-business financing. Student-loan purposes, too, are in testing.
“We see the entire capital market, private credit and beyond, as addressable with our technology,” Tannenbaum stated. “It’s a $180 billion market — we’re just getting started.”
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