ICE Blinks on SDK Billing

For months, ICE Mortgage Technology insisted Jan. 1, 2027, was a hard stop 🛑 : Migrate from legacy SDK technology to API calls or start paying💰 to keep using SDK plug-ins. But behind the scenes, the software giant has quietly changed course, multiple sources tell The Mortgage Scoop.

In today’s edition, I’m sharing what ICE has been telling lender clients in recent weeks, & what it could mean for the industry's migration timeline. (Scroll all the way to the bottom 👇 for the full scoop — it's exclusively for paid subscribers.) Plus: some very interesting VantageScore tradelines, how long top LO Chris Gallo is expected to serve after pleading guilty to fraud, loanDepot’s return to wholesale, & more.

Here’s a 10% discount on a paid subscription.

loanDepot’s return to wholesale has arguably been overshadowed by beefs w/ two of the wholesale space’s most prominent non-del/broker shops — WestCap & NEXA. 

This week alone saw NEXA’s Mike Kortas 🛫 publish some pretty spicy🌶️ comments about loanDepot & a key court hearing in which Anthony Hsieh’s firm denied violating the LO Comp Rule (a ruling is expected  next week). 

Instead of rehashing that, let’s look more closely at LD’s revived wholesale business. Per RETR, loanDepot has originated roughly $5B in mortgages through the wholesale channel over the past 12 months. Nearly all of the volume comes from JVs w/ homebuilders. 

Of course, loanDepot only properly entered the broker space earlier this year. Sources said loanDepot hasn’t heavily recruited top AEs in wholesale & the volume w/ brokers to date would appear to bear that out. 

Per RETR, loanDepot has received a decent amount of volume from GoRascal ($33M over the past 12 months), but no other brokerage shop has done more than $11M in mortgages w/ loanDepot over the past 12 months (BSD Funding in Brooklyn & United American Mortgage Corp. have done $10.6M and $9.9M, respectively).

Chris Gallo pleaded guilty Wednesday in Newark federal court to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. This is the billion-dollar producer CrossCountry Mortgage handed a $2.1M sign-on bonus in fall '23, seven months before the feds arrested 👮him.

Everybody's going to lead w/ the 30-year max on the sentence, but you should ignore it. (FYI, I used to be a crime reporter in New Jersey.) The number that matters is the appeal waiver, which kicks in at 18 months or less. In Newark federal court, that's pegged to a stipulated guidelines range, & 12–18 months is what one typically sees for such an offense. Per court docs, prosecutors also agreed to dismiss the aggravated identity theft count, the one carrying a mandatory consecutive two years. Sentencing is Dec. 3; restitution is mandatory & separate.

One key caveat here is that the judge isn't bound by the stipulation & the PSR hasn't been written. But I’ve covered a lot of court cases in my career & I don’t expect Gallo to be sentenced to multiple years.

Which brings us to the clawback. Gallo's attorney got CCM's arbitration stayed in November, arguing his client needed to focus on the criminal case. CCM moved to intervene in December & made no secret of being annoyed about it.

That stay now has a shelf life of about four months. Expect the $2.1M fight to go live in Q1 '27 — w/ a felony conviction sitting in the record.

Since VantageScore was introduced a few months ago, I’ve received dozens of screengrabs showing some very interesting files. This VantageScore file is for first-time homebuyers in Ohio. Check out the tradelines for applicant 1.

The applicants are currently trying to get a GSE mortgage.

As I’ve detailed previously, some borrowers can show pretty massive spreads (100+ points) between Vantage & FICO. Just look below.

t will be interesting to see how this all shakes out over the next 12 months. Do you have borrowers w/ crazy spreads? Show me! [email protected]. Here’s

Mark your calendar for Jan. 1, 2027, the day ICE Mortgage Technology starts billing lenders for every SDK call hitting Encompass. Actually, scratch that.

Multiple lender sources tell The Scoop that ICE has quietly informed clients that it will not begin charging for SDK calls on 1/1/27, the date the company has repeated for months alongside the sunset. No new charge date has been given. ICE is working on a formal communication, per sources, but it's not yet public, so you're reading it here first 👀.

Tons more details 👇️ .