New American Funding earns 2026 Mortgage Servicing Excellence award. September 2, 2026 New American Funding has been named a recipient of the 2026 Mortgage Servicing Excellence Awards by Mortgage Point magazine. Now in its second year, the recognition honors mortgage servicers for performance, integrity, and client-first excellence across the industry. New American Funding, an independent mortgage lender based in Santa Ana, California, serves more than 281,000 customers with a servicing portfolio valued at $73 billion. The company combines the scale of a national lender with the personalized support of a trusted community partner. The recognition highlights New American Funding's commitment to innovative servicing solutions, rigorous compliance practices, and personalized borrower support.

New American Funding partners with Kastle to deploy AI agents. NAF says the platform will handle end-to-end customer interactions and add a self-service channel while supporting compliance Article Summary. New American Funding partnered with Kastle to expand enterprise AI use with voice agents that handle end-to-end customer interactions and 24/7 self-service. The companies say the deployment is designed to reduce hold times, scale contact volumes and support compliance through built-in procedures. AI Summary New American Funding announced on Thursday that it is partnering with Kastle as the independent mortgage lender expands its use of artificial intelligence across the enterprise. Kastle's voice AI technology will handle end-to-end customer interactions, reduce hold times and provide a 24/7 self-service channel. The AI agents are designed to allow New American Funding to handle more calls while freeing operations teams to focus on complex customer situations. "Kastle AI enables us to serve each customer with greater speed and consistency throughout the life of their loan," Christy Bunce, president of New American Funding, said in a statement. "As a pioneer in AI enablement for our borrowers and employees, we chose Kastle for its ability to tailor AI agents to our needs, with the flexibility to test and refine each solution before it goes live." The partnership is also aimed at maintaining compliance and consistent service as customer contact volumes increase. Kastle's AI agents are built for consumer lending workflows and use what the company calls Safe Execution Procedures (SEPs) to complete complex, multistep mortgage transactions consistently. Its Compliance Engine incorporates regulatory requirements into the execution layer, which Kastle said is designed to provide consistent service across customer interactions regardless of the time of day. Others in the industry have deployed Kastle agents, including Carrington Mortgage Services. Similar initiatives exist outside of Kastle. In February, Longbridge Financial launched AI-powered voice agents developed by an outside technology partner to handle routine reverse mortgage servicing tasks. "New American Funding understands that the winners in this next chapter will be the lenders who deeply embrace AI without compromising on compliance or control to better support their customers," Rishi Choudhary, co-founder and CEO of Kastle, said in a statement. "We're proud to be the partner they're building that future with."

New American Funding adds top Texas los Shane Masterman and Christian Johnson. New American Funding (NAF) announced Thursday that it has added originators Shane Masterman and Christian Johnson to its Dallas-Fort Worth operations as the pair launch Cantera Home Lending within the independent mortgage lender. Masterman and Johnson have originated more than $2 billion in residential mortgages over their careers and bring nearly 50 years of combined industry experience, according to the company. Per the inaugural HousingWire Mortgage Rankings, Masterman produced a total volume of $69.14 million across 83 loans in 2025, while Johnson produced a total volume of $55.36 million across 110 loans. The Cantera Home Lending team will operate on New American Funding's lending platform while offering a range of mortgage products that include conventional, Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), jumbo, portfolio, construction, renovation, reverse and specialty loans. "I'm excited to welcome Shane Masterman and Christian Johnson to New American Funding. As two of the top 1% of mortgage originators in the nation and among the most respected originators in North Texas, Shane and Christian have built exceptional businesses by putting their customers and referral partners first," Pat Bolan, chief production officer at NAF, said in a statement. Per the company's release, Johnson - who has more than 25 years of mortgage industry experience - specializes in financing for first-time homebuyers, move-up buyers, luxury homeowners and real estate investors. Masterman, who has more than 24 years of experience, focuses on jumbo, conventional, FHA, VA and complex mortgage financing for luxury homebuyers and investors. "New American Funding is a company that is deeply focused on the business of mortgages and on the families behind every transaction," Masterman said. "Their commitment to growing together, investing in industry-leading technology and products, and supporting their team at every level aligns completely with what Christian and I have always believed: that a mortgage is not just a financial transaction but a pathway to homeownership and long-term wealth building." Johnson said he and Masterman were struck by the "quality" of people at the company. "Everyone we have encountered is genuinely focused on tailored service, flawless execution, and collaboration, all in service of helping people secure a home they can call their own," he said in a statement. "That kind of culture is rare, and it told us everything we needed to know when choosing them as the partner for our team and our clients." This article was written by Sarah Wolak and generated with the assistance of HousingWire Automation, then reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication.