Shant Banosian, one of the top producing mortgage loan officers by dollar volume for over the past decade, has been promoted to president of Rate Mortgage.
This business was the last of the ones owned by Rate Cos. (
Victor Ciardelli remains as president and CEO of the parent business and will work with the presidents of all 15 companies under its umbrella, including 10 mortgage companies, two artificial intelligence companies, a title company, an insurance company and the personal lending group.
"There is no one in the industry that I would rather partner with than Shant," Ciardelli said in a press release. "He is a transformative leader whose relentless drive, strategic mindset, and commitment to excellence have set a new standard in the mortgage industry."
Banosian's most recent title was executive vice president of sales at Rate, based in the Boston area.
He has been at the head, if not near the top, of leading originator lists
Last year he produced over $1 billion in mortgages, likely again landing him at the top of
Even with his new executive duties, Banosian will remain an active originator in the Boston area, he said in an interview.
"Over the course of the last 20 years, I've built out an amazing team of amazing people that helped me every single day, and we'll continue to operate the team, hopefully maintain one of the most successful mortgage teams in the United States," Banosian said.
At the same time, he will help run Rate Mortgage's strategy plus coach, mentor and improve people's skills.
What he has built in his business is a team that is more than just him.
"You don't do a billion dollars and have the whole thing reliant on just me," said Banosian. "I built a really amazing structure, platform, systems and processes for people."
Having that in place allows Banosian to focus on his new responsibilities in addition to being able to serve his clients and partners.
As president of Rate Mortgage, Banosian said he brings to the table an identification with today's loan officer because he is one of them.
"I understand the obstacles and challenges they have with growing their business, with scaling their business, with working with clients, with trying to add new partners, with trying to add value to partners, [while] running their day to day organizations," he said.
"I'm going to share my entire playbook, all my experiences, all my successes, all my failures, with the team here in hopes that they can transfer it into their own business."
That includes helping them grow their teams, have more work-life balance, have more of an impact in their community, along with growing their audience and their influence in the business and in the industry.
"I am being given the opportunity at what is already an amazing company," Banosian said. He will spend the next 29 days, getting to know the team members and listening to them to learn what they need help with, with the ultimate goal of making Rate the No. 1 mortgage company in the country.
"There is not a better loan professional on the planet to lead Rate Mortgage to its next level of dominance," Ciardelli said. "He is a leader and a teacher all in one and will build the best team of loan officers in the industry."
