Peter Moody (left) & Ericka Schwarm (right)
Equiant

Peter Moody is chief business development officer and Ericka Schwarm is director of business development at Equiant, a Chandler, Arizona-based company that provides accounts receivable servicing technology solutions. A 13-year veteran of the company, Moody began as a relationship manager focused primarily on timeshare developers and lenders. Schwarm began in the industry in 2011, focusing on the servicing and financing of portfolios, and joined the Equiant team as director of client development in 2017.

Tell us about your professional experiences in the industry – what is your area of expertise, and why has your company decided to designate you as ARDA VIPs?

Moody: As a loan servicing company, our responsibility is to help manage and support portfolios, and provide servicing software for our developers and our lenders to manage their portfolios. We have two focuses in the industry: One is on lender relationships, ensuring that there’s a strong third-party relationship structure between the developer and the lender; and then, obviously, on the developer side, giving them the tools to be successful. As far as why I became a VIP, it’s due to the relationships that I was able to forge with the decision makers, C-level developers and lenders, while attending conferences, that were always critical for Equiant’s success. It was not only a business development aspect, but also client retention; being able to see your top clients across-the-board inside of three, four days was very critical. The VIP was for access, originally, but even more so building on the relationships that I have inside of the industry.

Schwarm: As director of client development, I am responsible for being the liaison between Equiant and its client relationships, as well as to focus on sales and portfolio growth. Equiant has designated me as an ARDA VIP because I collaborate with many existing clients as well as other professionals in the industry to ensure that we continue to meet and exceed expectations with our company’s solutions. 

Tell us about the culture at Equiant and how/why it serves the industry and your clients. What do you do differently from others in your space?

Moody: Something we work very hard on is our customer relationships. The relationships that we have are built on, obviously, accurate information and accurate reporting, but also a lot of trust. We have a number of team members on our side that our clients will go to when they’re trying to structure a new deal. And they’re looking at historical performance on their data. It goes back to being able to trust that what we tell them is going to make them successful with either a new lender or a new line of business, or a new product, etc. Equiant’s culture has always been built on our relationships, both with our developers and our lenders, and it will continue that way. While we may give up a little revenue on the highest cost of a product, we gain in that relationship. So I would consider ourselves the most client-centric servicer in the industry. If we’re using a football analogy, we’re a player’s coach, with operational controls. That’s truly what we stand by here at Equiant. And it’s top-down.

Schwarm: Equiant is extremely relationship-focused, not just on our priceless client, lender and partner relationships but also our internal team member relationships. A critical component in these successful relationships is efficient communication. This communication is something that we constantly hear sets us apart from others in our space. We at Equiant take great pride in knowing that we make ourselves very reachable at any time. We have relationships with individuals where we call, text, email, WhatsApp, Viber, video-chat, even FaceTime to meet the critical needs of the business at all hours of the day. In addition, we don’t offer cookie-cutter solutions. We carefully listen to every client to configure our solutions to meet their critical business needs.

What do you hope to gain and/or contribute to VIP Membership? Why has your ARDA membership been valuable, and what have been your favorite ARDA events to date?

Moody: My favorite event we attend is Fall Conference, which is, from my standpoint, the decision-makers. It’s a great atmosphere in the capital, being able to bring different legislators to the table and discuss our industry. For the most part our industry is not as regulated as other industries that we touch, and so we’re able to lean on some of our experiences, on what may or may not be coming with our existing industry. Obviously, D.C. is a great food city, so that helps, too. As far as what we gain, we gain a lot of knowledge from our data, and we leverage them as a resource, especially on the annual reports that we’re able to give to investors and our lenders. We hope to contribute to ARDA on portfolio, and data, and just overall leadership. We would love to contribute more data if we’re asked about it. But overall, we love our membership, and we love what we gain out of it.

Schwarm: I truly enjoy speaking about what we do with regard to our fintech solutions. I often find in speaking with others in the industry that I hear, “Oh, wow, I didn’t know something like that even existed!” No one really wakes up in the morning and says, “I think I need to look at changing and enhancing my servicing processes today.” It’s important for individuals in our industry to know what’s available to them so that they may make the best-informed decision of what fintech solutions fit their needs the best. ARDA’s annual reports have been a valuable, resourceful tool for our business, in speaking with our clients. My favorite ARDA event to date just happened: I attended my first ARDA Fall Conference. Aside from it being in a wonderful location at our nation’s capital, it was remarkable in having decision-makers as attendees, and legislators speak on many relevant topics in our industry.

What recent developments at your organization should other ARDA members be aware of? 

Moody: Equiant is growing, despite potentially, the economy going into a downturn. Equiant has been able to enhance our technology platform, provide more software options to both our developers and our lenders. Our reporting platform has expanded, with more tools. It’s about constant enhancement, constant creativity on our side, listening to our clients or lenders, what they need, what they want. We’ve been able to tap into multiple other asset classes that have been able to help us provide new tools and new resources to the timeshare industry. Those are the daily, and the annual, types of enhancements that we’re providing. So not only has Equiant grown our revenue 20% year-over-year, the last five years now, we’ve been able to double the size of our team and provide more resources and more intellectual knowledge to our clients. 

Schwarm: Equiant is sincerely grateful for the relationships we’ve maintained over the years, in addition to new relationships that continue to flourish. Our Equiant team is 100% dedicated to this industry, and we make enhancements every week to become more efficient for our client, lender, and partner relationships. 

What is your favorite place to travel, and why?

Moody: My favorite place we’ve been is Lanai, one of the Hawaiian Islands, the real small one, across from Maui. It’s very beautiful and very relaxing with the family. As far as everyday family travel, when we want to get away for a short trip, it’s generally Sedona, where we own a timeshare at Arroyo Roble. Sedona is obviously beautiful, but also it’s two hours away from us, and it’s a quick jaunt, up the hill from the valley. And it never gets old.

Schwarm: I love the outdoors, so any place that allows me to disconnect, to enjoy the mountains or the waters, is perfect for me. I’ve lived in San Diego for 21 years now but am an Arizona native. Lake Havasu in Arizona checks that box for a getaway any time. Wait… disconnect, who am I kidding?! I love what I do too much to disconnect, so maybe it’s just a temporary out-of-office to squeeze in some work-hard, play-hard time!