“Underwriting has a scientific component – policies and rules are coded into systems and my staff have to adhere to them. However, there is also the art of underwriting. My staff make the promise to tell the story about the people behind each of our applications. And Blue Culture is the promise my underwriters make to do the right thing for our company, our applicants and our broker partners.”
Shayn Yoe, Senior Manager, Underwriting
Since 2020, Shayn Yoe has felt privileged to lead an exceptional team of underwriters as MCAP’s Senior Manager of Underwriting in Western Canada. A veteran of the mortgage industry, Shayn has over 20 years of experience in mortgage lending, many of which he spent in a variety of Sales leadership roles, first with other mortgage lenders and then with MCAP beginning in 2015. In fact, he initially joined MCAP to help build out the inside sales department for Western Canada. “My tenure in Sales provided me with insights into the local and unique needs of our western broker community,” says Shayn. “I credit these invaluable experiences with shaping me into the underwriting manager I am today.”
“MCAP Blue Culture is the promise my underwriters make to do the right thing for our company, our applicants and our broker partners.”
Shayn believes the key to a successful team is to have a shared vision about where they are going. And beyond that, his job as a leader is to “shine a light on the path to ensure we know the way.” The other important step he takes is to truly listen to his team. As a service-based company, he feels it is vital for his team to listen to and hear what will make a difference to their customers – and it’s a practice that begins with Shayn himself. After all, he describes his team as “professionals who spend each workday with their eyes and ears on our customers.”
While underwriting is a data-driven business, Shayn emphasizes the importance of perspective in his team’s work. “We look at a mortgage application in different ways and always consider there is a real human being on the other side of it,” he says. This is how Blue Culture manifests itself with his team. “Yes, underwriting has a scientific component – policies and rules are coded into systems and my staff have to adhere to them. However, there is also the art of underwriting. My staff make the promise to tell the story about the people behind each of our applications. And Blue Culture is the promise my underwriters make to do the right thing for our company, our applicants and our broker partners,” he says. “We hold a keen sense of perspective that we are dealing with real people – and once we start to humanize our applications, we start to make better informed decisions.”
“Having true, deep relationships with your customers is not only the way of the future, but it’s become vital for success.”
This approach of humanizing the underwriting process shows up particularly vividly when it comes to his team’s relationship with their broker partners. “Our brokers look to us not just for the “yes” or “no” on an application, they look to us for advice and guidance. We are most successful when we take the time to develop a deeper relationship with our broker partners,” says Shayn. Getting to know their partners as people – learning about their personal lives, how they started in the mortgage industry and even just chatting about their weekends – goes a long way to creating both trust and bonds that become stronger over time. “Having true, deep relationships with your customers is not only the way of the future, but it is vital,” he says. So, when it comes time to discuss a file, everyone feels comfortable having an open conversation. “We take the time to discuss why we feel a certain way about a file and give the brokers an opportunity to disagree with us or to talk about why we might want to look at it differently,” he says.
“What gets me up in the morning is knowing that I can help my staff become the next generation of underwriters.”
Over his 20-year career in the mortgage industry – and 8+ years with MCAP – Shayn has cultivated a leadership style that is founded on trust and collaboration – tenets of the Blue Culture approach that come naturally to him.
Leaning on this collaborative approach, Shayn believes his role is to help guide his team in their careers and empower them to succeed. “What gets me up in the morning is knowing that I can help my staff become the next generation of underwriters,” he says. And recognizing that the future of the mortgage industry is going to continue to change and mature over the decades to come, he knows what he and his team need to do. “Our future is going to be brighter if we leverage one another’s knowledge and strengths, and have the wisdom to listen to one another’s ideas.” When we do that, Shayn says, “I for one am excited to see what has yet to come.”
