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Every year, the Commercial Record analyzes mortgage data to identify the state’s top loan originators. In a tough market, what helped them beat their competitors? One bank’s experience offers clues.
Liberty Bank had loan originators occupy spots two through five when measuring the state’s loan originators by total number of loans originated in Connecticut in 2025, according to data from The Warren Group, the publisher of The Commercial Record.
“What stood out more than anything in 2025 is just the intense competition” among buyers, said Mathhew Cammarota, Liberty Bank’s head of retail lending. “You talk to so many customers who you get pre-approved, you work hard to get them all set, and then they lose out on a deal. You hear some customers that bid above asking price and they still lose out. Many customers, it may take them five or 10 experiences doing that.”
One of Liberty’s top loan originators was Fabiana Lopes-Marshall. She originated 212 loans in 2025 and credited her success to the diverse product offering and the level of customer service that the bank offers.
Lopes-Marshall came to Liberty after working at larger institutions such as Citibank and Bank of America.
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“A lot of people now are interested in the fact that you can actually talk to someone,” she said. “They don’t like the automated underwriting process that a lot of other banks have and I think that that helped us a lot. I get a lot of support. I can talk to people, I can support my clients with direct information. I can just walk into my team and get the information I need. People appreciate that.”
Lopes-Marshall’s birth country of Brazil comes in handy, she said: On an average day, she might be speaking three languages with her customers. Trying to exceed customer expectations like this, she said, is a key part of her and Liberty’s effort to stand out from larger competitors in this low-inventory environment.
It looks like it’s paying off: A large number of referrals have helped her already hit her internal goals for 2026, Lopes-Marshall said.
Optimization Review Planned
Liberty Bank is constantly looking at how to improve the processes it lays out for its loan originators according to Cammarota.
“We went through a pretty big transformation about three or four years ago, and every year we look at ways to further improve it,” he said. “Whether it’s making the online application easier, taking some tasks away, just making some tasks more seamless for the borrower and for the loan officer.”
The bank is currently going through a loan optimization overview. The process sees their loan originator provider having discussions with the bank about the system and how to best utilize it.
Liberty has also continued to make capital improvements, so the process is seamless for customers and loan originators. Additionally, the bank has an innovation council tasked with creating new ideas and investigating possible technical improvements the institution can make.
“We try to give a voice to the people using the system every day, and that’s what we plan on doing with this optimization overview,” Cammarota said. “That is planned to begin again in a month or two. We’re going to bring in the users from loan officers to processors, underwriters, closers, post-closing servicing [and ask them]: How do you use the system? What are some of the biggest pain points, and what can we do to make it better?”
The continual optimization and improvements also extend to Liberty Bank’s employees. Lopes-Marshall noted how there are always training opportunities available and the loan origination team is always looking to help one another.
“We always have meetings,” she said. “It’s not just giving us the loan originators the task and letting us just work by ourselves. No, there is support from our management, my supervisor, my team. A lot of people in my team have a lot of experience, and everybody shares that.”
Lopes-Marshall added that this collaborative approach helps her as she doesn’t fell like she is under as much pressure as she was at other banks.
“I don’t feel the pressure,” she said. “I feel like I have support from all aspects. From the origination, from the processing, from the underwriting, from the closers. We are all a team. We all share information, and that’s very important.”
