ICE posts strongest quarter for mortgage tech since 2022

Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and parent company of ICE Mortgage Technology, reported its strongest quarterly mortgage business performance in four years during the second quarter of 2026.

While reporting a profitable quarter, the company also announced the acquisition of MarketAxess Holdings Inc., an electronic trading platform for global institutional fixed income markets.

ICE Mortgage Technology generated $557 million in total revenue, up 5% from a year earlier, according to filings posted Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On a pro forma basis, inclusive of Black Knight, the performance represented “the strongest quarterly performance since the first half of 2022,” chief financial officer Warren Gardiner told analysts.

Mortgage technology operating expenses were $512 million in Q2, with operating income at $45 million and an operating margin of 8%. Most of the company’s revenues came from servicing software ($226 million) in the quarter, followed by origination technology ($197 million), data and analytics ($69 million), and closing solutions ($65 million).

According to company executives, roughly 90% of mortgages touch ICE’s network at some point. Many have multiple touch points as they are packaged into securities, servicing rights are sold and loans pass to the agencies.

“At every step, we know who should hold which permission and perform which task because access to data is deliberately segregated by role to protect the consumer,” ICE President Benjamin Jackson told analysts.

Jackson said that the government-sponsored enterprises have “come out with pretty strict guidance on how AI should or should not be used,” leading ICE to audit its processes internally. He added that ICE has also “hired an external auditor to go through and look at how we use AI.”

Jackson said the company continues to evolve its Aurora-powered servicing agents. In loan origination system Encompass, it added workflow agents to further automate service ordering, fee calculations, generate disclosures, engage with settlement service providers and manage change in circumstances as part of the loan manufacturing life cycle.

“We continue to win new logos and take share in a below-normal origination environment,” Jackson said. “Our servicing business processed 10.7 billion API and web services calls in the second quarter, up 39% year over year.

“As we look to drive more and more efficiencies for our clients and how they use our platforms, we will look for areas where we can monetize that.”

During the second quarter, consolidated net income attributable to ICE was $958 million, up from $865 million during the same period last year. When reporting earnings, the company announced the MarketAxess acquisition for $167 per share, representing an enterprise value of $5.7 billion.

Jeffrey Sprecher, founder, chair and CEO of ICE, said that the deal is “a step that will extend our track record of growth into one of the largest addressable markets in the world: the global fixed income market.”

“ICE was built on the conviction that opacity and inefficiency in markets are not permanent conditions,” he said. “We’re building a global fixed income network.”