00:00One of the things I loved about Poly was that they didn't want to just put me into a cookie
00:04-cutter template.
00:05We operate different than a lot of lenders, and we needed a company that allowed us to do that.
00:23My name is Diego Martinez. I am a capital markets analyst for City National Bank of Florida.
00:28Right now, we're trying to expand to Orlando, Tampa, different markets, just to continue to grow in the Florida market.
00:37But we're primarily focused in South Florida.
00:43It's a very difficult market. There's a lot of volatility. There's a lot of uncertainty.
00:47And we're winning by taking advantage of the time we have now to really stay focused on our goals,
00:55to be aligned with the bank's strategy for growth.
00:59It's important for City National Bank, as well as for us in residential lending,
01:02to be disciplined in what we're doing, right?
01:06Risk management, margin management, pipeline management.
01:09So it's important for us to be consistent in what we're doing.
01:13We understand that not every market is the same.
01:17As we continue to expand to the different areas of Florida, we understand that there's different needs.
01:22We have an open-door policy with capital markets, so we really talk to our loan officers.
01:27We listen to them. We appreciate all the feedback we can get because that helps us bring in the products
01:33that they need,
01:34bring in the products that our customers need.
01:39In this industry, partnerships are extremely important.
01:42We're very culture-focused.
01:44Having the right partner, whether it's the loan origination system, the point-of-sale system, our pricing engine.
01:51We need to be aligned with everything that we do.
01:53So for us, partnerships are extremely important, probably just aligned with our beliefs.
01:58City National Bank's kind of core message is we're large enough to give you what you want,
02:05but small enough to have access to the decision-makers.
02:09That's one of the things that I love about our bank is that we have access to all the decision
02:14-makers.
02:14If we need to do something, we don't have to cut through layers of red tape.
02:19And that's the same way I feel Poly operates.
02:23So Poly, you need something, they're there.
02:26You open a ticket, they respond right away.
02:29You need access to Adam, he'll answer an email.
02:32He'll answer a phone call.
02:34They're definitely changing the way that our industry sees product and pricing, hedging, trading.
02:40And for us, that was very important.
02:45It really comes down to margin management.
02:49How we're managing margin based on the markets that we're trying to tackle.
02:52It's important to understand that we don't want to win every deal,
02:56but we also want to stay competitive in the marketplace, right?
02:59We want to be relevant.
03:00We don't want to be the lender that everybody comes to just because we're the cheapest.
03:04We're very customer service focused.
03:06And that translates to not just capital markets, right?
03:08Because in capital markets, we understand that we touch that loan from beginning all the way to end, right?
03:15From the moment that that loan comes in the door to the moment that loan gets sold in the secondary
03:19market.
03:19For us, kind of aligning with processing, underwriting, sales, compliance.
03:25Those are the things that we understand are important, just so we understand the entire life cycle of the loan.
03:32One of the things I loved about Poly was that they didn't want to just put me into a cookie
03:37cutter template, right?
03:38We operate different than a lot of lenders, and we needed a company that allowed us to do that.
03:44We have a portfolio product that's very dedicated to our bank.
03:48We have several customizations.
03:51We have our own guidelines.
03:52Being able to work those products into the pricing engine, create customizable fields, customizable rules that also interact with our
04:02loan origination system,
04:04and not having it be a project, right?
04:08It's something that I can do on my end.
04:11I can code without being an IT guru, and it's something that really helps us be quick.
04:20This market moves fast, and having to change something, change a guideline, change a rule, change eligibility, change pricing,
04:27we need to be able to do those things quickly, and not being able to do that was really tough
04:33for us.
04:34But when we talked to Poly, it was just, you know, quick.
04:37And they really worked with me to understand their platform and really be able to operate without having to schedule
04:4420 calls, etc.
04:49For us, growth is very important.
04:51So we really got to stay disciplined and continue to move towards that goal without rushing, right?
04:58It's not a race.
04:59It's really honing in on the things that we're doing well and expanding on those, understanding where we can improve,
05:06and, you know, taking advantage of, you know, some of the things that we've learned over the past few years
05:11and implementing those as we continue to grow the Florida market.
05:15What sets us apart is culture.
05:17We don't operate in silos.
05:20Everybody collaborates, and we take advantage of it.
05:23We listen to each other.
05:24We support each other, and that's how the bank operates, right?
05:27It's not just residential.
05:28It's a cross-city national bank.
05:30What sets us apart is that we have the ability to operate as an independent mortgage company.
05:35We also have the backing of a full-service bank.
05:37In a market where everybody's competing for the same loan, where, you know, margin compression is a true issue, right?
05:45In our marketplace, we don't just want to sell you a mortgage.
05:49We want to sell you an experience.
