SEATTLE, Wash., May 14, 2026 (PRESSRELEASECC.COM NEWSWIRE) — NewFed Mortgage Corp., a full-service residential mortgage lender operating across more than 20 states, today announced the companywide rollout of Friday Harbor’s AI pre-underwriting platform following a successful pilot program that demonstrated measurable gains in fulfillment productivity and underwriting throughput. Since implementing Friday Harbor, NewFed processors handle 36% more files per month while underwriters review 35% more loans. Those productivity gains enabled the company to fund nearly $170 million more in loan volume in 2025 than in 2024 without expanding its fulfillment team.
Image caption: NewFed Mortgage leverages Friday Harbor to boost fulfillment productivity by 35%.
“Removing low-value, repetitive work is what allows people to focus on the decisions that actually matter,” said Rob Jewett, chief operating officer at NewFed Mortgage. “I have seen so much technology in this industry, and to me, this is the single best piece of tech I’ve ever worked with.”
Friday Harbor reviews loan files as they’re being built, catching missing documentation and income discrepancies before they become underwriting conditions. By applying investor requirements and lender-specific overlays during file assembly rather than at the underwriting desk, the platform helps teams correct issues when they’re still manageable instead of costly.
“When Rob and I first met, he was looking to grow NewFed’s capacity for a predicted increase in volume without over-hiring or draining his people,” said Friday Harbor Founder and CEO Theo Ellis. “Friday Harbor removes the burden of sit-and-stare tasks by flagging potential issues, so teams can focus on the work that actually requires judgment instead of just hunting for missing documents.”
The operational impact has extended across multiple areas of NewFed’s business. Application-to-funded cycle times compressed from 32 days to 26 days. Funded-to-purchase timelines dropped from 23 days to 18 days, moving capital off the balance sheet faster after closing. Friday Harbor has also proven valuable for training, helping new processors learn from actual loan files rather than relying solely on classroom scenarios.
NewFed uses Friday Harbor through its integration with the Encompass® loan origination system from ICE Mortgage Technology, allowing loan data, documents and conditions to remain synchronized throughout the origination process. As an early design partner, NewFed worked closely with Friday Harbor to help shape the platform around real-world fulfillment workflows, operational realities and production-scale lending environments. That collaboration helped Friday Harbor refine how the platform surfaces underwriting issues earlier, supports fulfillment staff productivity and fits into existing lender operations without disrupting established processes.
To learn more about how NewFed and Friday Harbor are working together, download the case study: https://fridayharbor.ai/fh-newfed-case-study-2026-02-25.pdf
About Friday Harbor
Friday Harbor is an AI-powered platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time. The company combines deep fintech expertise with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to remove complexity, slash origination costs and deliver a better borrower experience. For more information, visit https://fridayharbor.ai/.
Tags: #mortgagetech #AI #fintech @newfedmtg
News Source: Friday Harbor
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