FormFree® today announced Chief Technology Officer Brian Francis has been named a 2020 HW Vanguard award winner, an honor given to 50 top executives leading the housing and mortgage finance industries. HW Vanguard honorees are chosen by HousingWire’s editorial board based on their accomplishments in the last 12 months for their companies and the industry sector they represent.

As CTO of FormFree, Francis oversees the design and development of the firm’s groundbreaking automated asset, employment and income verification products. He recently spearheaded the development of AccountCheck Plus, which builds on FormFree’s original AccountChek® automated asset verification system by bundling borrower asset, employment and income verifications into one easy report. The system gives lenders the detailed analysis they need to assess a borrower’s ability to pay within minutes.

“Brian has continued to refine and expand FormFree’s offerings over the last decade, always with an eye on improving the experience for our lender clients and their borrowers,” said FormFree Founder and CEO Brent Chandler. “His focus on creating technologies that bring noticeable, measurable efficiencies to the mortgage space has helped our clients reduce time to close by up to 20 days.”

Since joining the company 10 years ago, Francis has led FormFree to achieve a number of industry “firsts,” including being Fannie Mae’s first designated asset verification vendor; the first provider to introduce a single report combining income, asset and employment verification data; and the first to use artificial intelligence to generate digital Verification of Asset and Deposit reports in less than five minutes.

In the last year alone, he has helped FormFree introduce paystub collection and verification to AccountChek Plus; file a patent for proprietary employer data extraction and verification technology; and develop technology so lenders can intelligently pre-fill parts of the Universal Residential Loan Application. Due to Francis’ leadership in increasing technology integrations and reseller partnerships, FormFree services are now available for more than 90% of mortgage transactions nationwide.

“One of the highest achievements in the housing industry, the Vanguard award honors the top executives – and they certainly earned it,” said HousingWire Magazine Editor Kelsey Ramírez. “In the program’s most competitive year yet, 50 winners rose to the top, boasting their outstanding achievements in innovation and leadership. With these leaders at the helm, the future of housing is bright.”

The full list of 2020 HW Vanguard Award honorees can be viewed in the October/November edition of HW Magazine.