AU Making B&C Lenders More Efficient and Profitable While low interest rates are widely credited with spurring the refinance wave that helped push mortgage volume to new heights last year, experts say the role of technology shouldn’t be overlooked. “If that level had hit in 1993, it just wouldn’t have gotten done,” said Doug Duncan, the Mortgage Bankers’ Association of America’s chief economist, of the record $2.6 trillion in estimated mortgage originations that hit the