Powering Today’s Lenders

Powering Today’s Lenders

Are You Missing Out?

By Daniel Liggett

Is your LOS doing everything it should for you? An LOS should address the entire loan origination process…and then some!

 

Lenders today are tasked with doing more with less.  More rules and regulations, changing investor guidelines, tighter underwriting standards, and the constant pressure to bring in more business, all while having less staff to accomplish stated goals.  It’s clear that the requirements of lenders have significantly expanded  in terms of the scope of tasks that need to be performed to be competitive and successful. These now include both lending and non-traditional tasks that are required.

 

First, it goes without saying that your LOS should be able to handle mortgage loans of all kinds from all of the traditional channels. But it should also be able to handle consumer lending products such as personal loans, auto loans, equity and lines of credit, and construction lending products as well. It should use the same database and take advantage of the same security, data validation and related tools to maximize efficiency and eliminate the need for your staff to learn multiple system and infrastructures.

 

Your LOS should also handle doc prep, secure messaging and doc delivery as well as the traditional tasks. Most importantly, your system must have in-depth integrations with business partners to help perform these tasks. Integrations allow you to offer clients faster service, decrease manual requirements and increase the quality of the information flowing in and out of your LOS. Simply put, the right LOS integration makes your operation better, stronger, and faster!

 

Lastly, your LOS must perform non-traditional tasks such as assisting with marketing and customer retention. Your LOS should help you attract new customers with fast and easy point-of-sale features, instant approval messages and instant loan status updates. It should also serve as a repository of data on current customers so that you can quickly and easily reach out to them with offers on other products, or re-finance opportunities, before your competition does.  Today your technology solution must reach beyond the traditional definition of an LOS and include:

 

>> Consumer facing web portal for quick, secure applications w/ real time status updates to the borrower

 

>> Dynamic point-of-sale functionality

 

>> Secure document delivery

 

>> Secure messaging

 

>> Processing

 

>> Underwriting

 

>> Closing

 

>> Document Preparation

 

>> Custom documents & letters

 

>> Mortgage processing

 

>> Consumer processing

 

>> HELOC processing

 

>> Construction Loan Processing

 

>> Integration with banks business partners

 

>> Ability to quickly and compliantly respond to rule changes

 

To effectively respond to the challenging lending environment that lenders are faced with today, lenders need to turn to technology to answer the call.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

Here’s How You Enhance Production

By Daniel Liggett

Origination volumes and predictions for future volumes continue to decline. More than ever mid-sized lenders face intense pressure to find ways to enhance production in today’s lending environment.

 

Mid-sized lenders are forced to produce greater results, and implementing automation that can handle both mortgage and consumer lending in one system could be the key to greater production. Leading LOSs should provide the ability to handle all mortgage products including Conventional, FHA, VA, ARM, USDA, Jumbo, Reverse, in addition to consumer loans.

 

A leading LOS needs to automate everything from pre-qualification to post closing and have full and complete reporting capabilities. It must process loans from multiple sources and offer multiple integrations to other third-party providers.

 

The ability for an LOS to ‘talk’ and share data with other systems in the growing business chain is critical. Top systems should have the ability to interface to a variety of LOSs, mortgage pipelines, secondary marketing and servicing systems to name a few. Seamless integration to flood, title, credit and related agencies is not only mandatory in most cases, but serves to save time and reduce rejected requests due to errors from re-keyed data. Leading systems should also be able pass data to and from customer-facing portals automatically to provide the high level of service demanded by today’s borrower.

 

Data entry mistakes can negatively impact a lending operation. The best systems offer comprehensive data validation options that virtually eliminate data entry errors and prevent bad data from ever getting in. Workflow control is also essential in an LOS because it saves time and helps maximize staff utilization and actually compel loans through the pipeline.

 

An LOS should be adaptable to the lender, and precise conformance to an existing or desired lending process is vital to the effectiveness of an LOS. The lender must be able to make modifications to their LOS and must be able to make them without the need for expensive programmers or dependence on the vendor.

 

The leading LOSs typically employ flexible “business rules” that allow the lender to tailor the system to streamline processes, create efficiencies and manage risk. The added value lies in the ability to modify these business rules as lending requirements change. This feature alone can add years of life onto the LOS. Business rules can transform a lending operation from being reactive and maintenance-oriented to being proactive and growth-driven.

 

The LOS should streamline cross-selling and bundling efforts and help identify additional revenue streams while consolidating business intelligence for future marketing initiatives. These features will also reduce costs of ongoing support when implemented for multiple product lines due to the fact that there is only one lending platform to learn.

 

Mid-sized lenders can significantly enhance production by implementing LOS automation that includes both mortgage and consumer into one platform.

Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

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Recent Natural Disasters Expose The Benefits of the Hosted LOS

By Daniel Liggett

“Neighborhood by neighborhood, the lights are kicking back on,” according Huffington Post.

 

Utilities reported significant progress Tuesday on widespread power outages that followed Hurricane Irene. About 73 percent of the weekend’s 9.4 million outages have been restored, according to an Associated Press tally.

 

Thousands of repair crews are still working through a tangle of uprooted trees and floodwaters in 13 states that were raked by Irene over the weekend. The storm ripped out power lines, flooded electrical substations and crushed critical circuits that each bring power to thousands of people.

 

Natural disasters continue to grab the headlines; hurricanes, earth quakes, wildfires and extreme temperatures have contributed to significant damage including widespread power outages throughout the United States.  This has interrupted day-to-day life as we know it has placed serve pressure on businesses to maintain continuity in the face of these disasters.

 

If your location is vulnerable, your information and your ability to run your business does not have to be.  In the mortgage origination industry, a loan origination system (LOS) is critical to lending.  If that LOS does not have power, your business comes to a standstill.  Unless, of course, your LOS is hosted.

 

Hosted systems, by nature, keep program and data files in a different secure location from your organization.  Typically, hosted systems use offsite data centers that have been built to withstand these types of disasters.

 

Data centers have:

 

>> Secure offsite data storage with back-ups of their own (another center in another location as backup)

 

>> Backup systems include gas generators for electric, etc.

 

>> Security systems against data theft as well.

 

>> Provide better security than individual organizations can at less cost due to economies of scale

 

Can get you back up and running quickly?

 

Can run on any PC anywhere, so if your corporate location is unusable for an extended period, you can startup alternative sites almost instantly.

 

Overall costs for a hosted LOS can be less than conventional deployment. No IT management or infrastructure costs (hardware, software updates, security, IT personnel)

 

A hosted LOS deployment model is where applications are remotely hosted by the application or service provider and made available to customers on demand, over the Internet. Enterprises can take advantage of the hosted model to reduce the IT costs associated with traditional on-premise applications like hardware, management, upgrades, etc. On demand licensing can help customers reduce their up-front expenses for IT purchases.

 

Hosted LOS vendors may host the application on their own private server farm or deploy it on a cloud computing infrastructure service provided by a third party provider. The use of a hosted LOS approach helps lenders maintain business continuity during disasters.

Today’s competitive marketplace is challenging enough, without losing business due to power outages and disasters.  You don’t have to stop doing business.  At the end of the day, hosted LOSs are often more secure than traditional LOS software implementations. This provides a delivery model that allows lenders to grow as they go, which is a very appealing option in today’s constantly changing lending environment.

Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

Loan Quality: Your LOS Could Be The Difference

By Daniel Liggett

In today’s market, quality and compliance are major concerns for lenders.  They need to comply with a flood of new regulations, avoid potential fines and minimize buyback risk while ensuring loan quality. Lenders understand that investors will not purchase loans that do not meet their strict quality requirements. Lenders are facing these challenges with fewer staff and in an extremely competitive marketplace.

Loan officers are struggling with the speed and frequency at which these rules and regulations are changing and diligently looking for guidance on how to implement effective solutions that address these concerns. They are looking for automation that addresses investor loan quality requirements and the flood of new rules and regulations.

Want better loans? Then start with your LOS. The typical system of record for the majority of your loan data is your LOS. To assure investors that your loans are of high quality and saleable, lenders must look for ways to improve the loan process within their LOS. Lenders need to accept that bad data = bad loans = buybacks = loss of profit. Inefficiencies within your lending process cause errors, and increase costs.

To stay competitive in today’s market, lenders can no longer afford to deal with inefficient and outdated LOS technology. The stakes are simply too high. Regulatory penalties and costly buybacks will significantly cut into profits and overall sustainability of the lending organization.

A powerful LOS, especially one that delivers automated data validation, can improve loan quality. These systems can provide data edit checks and hard stops within the system to prevent bad data from being introduced into the loan process. Advanced business rules can address and enforce regulatory changes and new investor guidelines, while streamlining the lending process to improve loan quality.

In addition, tight integration of the LOS with other key third party service providers is critical in improving data and loan quality. Two-way auto data integration avoids rekeying of information, eliminates omission errors and reduces the time and cost of data entry mistakes. Lenders simply cannot accept simple interfaces that do not address or eliminate these challenges.

If you want to improve loan quality, avoid costly fines and minimize buyback risk then one of the first places you need to look is your LOS. Advanced LOS offerings that utilize the latest technology solutions and also constantly monitor regulatory changes can deliver the type of solution that you need.

Loan quality can no longer be wishful thinking if you hope to prosper in the lending environment of the future.

Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

Document Prep Or Document Compliance? There Is A Difference

By Daniel Liggett

Today’s lending environment creates significant loan document challenges for lenders including constantly changing rules and regulations and the costly ramifications for non-compliance including fees, penalties and the possibility of buy-backs. Simple document preparation is no longer the answer when lenders are trying to handle complex and constantly changing requirements.

 

The days of relying solely on a forms library are long gone. The same goes for mass producing static documents. Relying on these outdated practices is too big a risk that lenders simply cannot afford to take.

 

To effectively respond to these present market conditions, it is critical to have the security of compliance guaranteed by the combination of mortgage banking attorneys, advanced technology and tight integration with your loan origination system.

 

The LOS is typically the system of record.  Leading LOS solutions need to deliver dynamic business rules that allow for data edit checks and data validation to enhance document compliance. When you combine powerful business rules technology with leading document compliance solutions that are fully integrated into the LOS, lenders can be assured that the documents are compliant and done right the first time.

 

Fully integrating leading LOS solutions with comprehensive document compliance solutions provides lenders with the ability to further their compliance initiatives. It also gives them the tools they need to increase loan production, speed up loan turnaround times and significantly mitigate risk.

 

Using the integrated solutions, lenders reduce loan turnaround times and increase accuracy due to the automated import and export capabilities which facilitates the exchange of data between systems.  In addition, a comprehensive document compliance solution delivers a staff of mortgage banking attorneys to lenders. This valuable resource provides the support and regulatory monitoring necessary to ensure loans are meeting the latest regulatory demands.

 

Being able to access a comprehensive document compliance solution from within the LOS provides the technology and one-on-one support that helps lenders remain ahead of the industry changes. This delivers end-to-end compliance support that allows lenders to conveniently access guaranteed compliant mortgage documents customized to their specific lending programs.

 

As one can see, when it comes to guaranteed document compliance there is a difference between simple doc prep and comprehensive document compliance solutions.  In today’s changing market, lenders need to ask themselves if simple doc prep is worth the risk.

Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

Greater Security Offered By A Hosted LOS?

By Daniel Liggett

Software as a Service (SaaS) or Hosted LOS is rapidly emerging as a leading delivery model for meeting the needs of lenders. However, many lenders are still uncomfortable with this deployment model due to lack of visibility about the way their data is stored and secured. According to the Forrester study, The State of Enterprise Software, security concerns are the most commonly cited reason why enterprises are hesitant about implementing a SaaS LOS.

 

Overview of SaaS

 

SaaS is a software deployment model where applications are remotely hosted by the application or service provider and made available to customers on demand, over the Internet. Enterprises can take advantage of the SaaS model to reduce the IT costs associated with traditional on-premise applications like hardware, management, upgrades, etc. On demand licensing can help customers reduce their up-front expenses for IT purchases.

 

Hosted LOS vendors may host the application on their own private server farm or deploy it on a cloud computing infrastructure service provided by a third party provider. The use of a hosted LOS approach helps lenders reduce the investment in their technology infrastructure services and enables them to concentrate on providing better services to their borrowers.

 

For many lenders, security is often one of the determining factors when implementing a hosted LOS. The hosted LOS is often more secure than traditional software implementations.  Reasons for it being more secure include:

 

>> Software upgrades are done better by host (specific expertise)

 

>> Hosted solutions often have greater knowledge of solution and technology (specific concentration)

 

>> Secure backups reduce downtime/data loss or theft

 

>> No onsite data to be lost or stolen

 

>> Reduced costs associated with physical security/disaster security

 

>> Economies of scale

 

The SaaS model only requires one type of security configuration, whatever the location of the user. This is not the case with a business running its own servers which must administer several levels of security depending on whether the user connects from home office (direct access), a subsidiary office (Virtual Private Network, Citrix, Terminal Services, etc.) or remotely from anywhere else. Such a configuration can lead to added complications involving extra costs and sometimes security failures. The SaaS model provides a unified level of security and is also free of any complications regarding remote access to applications.

 

It’s not uncommon for PCs to be damaged, or even for laptops to be stolen. The loss of data stored on a machine can be a disaster, both for the loan officer and the lender. With the SaaS model, the work station is no longer used for storage and instead the data is automatically saved on multiple servers for redundancy, with a high level of security.

At the end of the day, hosted LOSs are often more secure than traditional LOS software implementations. This provides a delivery model that allows lenders to grow as they go, which is a very appealing option in today’s constantly changing lending environment.

Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

Online Lending: Key To Future Success

By Daniel Liggett
Today’s borrowers are “tech savvy” and no longer satisfied with static web pages asking them to fill out a form and wait for someone to call them back. They demand customized product recommendations; competitive rates; live chat; detailed closing costs; and a fast, secure and easy-to-use application process with instant decisioning. They are looking for a customer experience that matches their lifestyle, delivering critical lending information where and when they need it.

A dynamic consumer-facing web presence enables you to build that online customer experience just the way you want to, meeting the ever changing needs of your borrowers. A comprehensive and cost-effective state-of-the-art web portal solution allows you to deliver that experience to increase market share while differentiating yourself in the marketplace. This enhanced customer experience is vital to closing more loans.

Through a winning online presence, you engage and interact with your clients on a personal level. By creating your very own online storefront, you can create an online experience for your clients that will differentiate you in the marketplace. You are now able to service your clients 24/7, allowing borrowers to reach out to you when it is convenient for them while allowing you to close more loans. You need to provide them with:

>> Easy-to-use online applications

>> Intuitive navigation that streamlines the interview process

>> Customized product recommendations

>> Competitive rates

>> Detailed closing costs

>> Instant decisioning from your LOS

>> Loan status updates seamlessly from your LOS

>> A safe and secure environment

But it doesn’t end there. The real power of online lending solutions comes from seamless integration with your LOS. Data taken directly from your online application auto populates into your LOS. This provides:

>> Seamless data flow eliminating costly rekeying of data

>> Improved data-integrity and loan quality

>> Significantly improved turnaround time and responsiveness to potential borrowers

>> Assurance that all critical lending data resides within system of record

>> Your management with full transparency of all lending channels

Lenders are able to deliver a streamlined application methodology that automatically processes an application fee, pulls credit, LP and populates directly into their LOS and provides the borrower with an instant decision. This automation workflow eliminates several steps and creates greater efficiency in the lending process. By providing an instant decision, a lender has fulfilled the borrower’s requirements and allowed them to stop shopping. This can increase pull-through rates by more than 60 percent.

A powerful online presence that fully integrates with your LOS can drive more business while maintaining corporate control and compliance from one central location.  It is one of the keys to the future success of lending.

Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

The Path To Embracing Data

By Daniel Liggett
As our industry tries to rebuild, words such as “confidence,” “trust” and “transparency” come up a lot. We’re told that these are the ingredients needed to rebuild the mortgage space. Why? Because uneasy investors have exited the mortgage market and are currently sitting on the sidelines. How do we get them back? The overriding answer is to move toward a more data-driven process that is consistent, transparent and compliant.This conclusion isn’t anything new as I’m sure that you’ve heard it said repeatedly.
In fact, there are facets of moving toward a more data-driven process that you should know about before embarking on this journey. For example, Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) is a specification for allowing users to share and access data across multiple-content Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems. Why should you care? Actually, there are a lot of real-world business benefits that you may not be aware of.
An ECM can help increase efficiencies in the areas of paperless lending, streamlining document management processes and incorporating imaging capabilities.
By choosing a CMIS compliant vendor, you will avoid the burden of having to manage multiple systems while taking a giant step to save time, money and taking control of your documents.
CMIS will enable greater interoperability of ECM systems. CMIS uses Web services and Web 2.0 interfaces to enable rich information to be shared across Internet protocols in vendor-neutral formats among document systems, publishers and repositories within one enterprise and between companies.
Second, CMIS provides a data model and web services for defining ECM capabilities, such as query, at the repository level. This allows developers to create custom applications for CMIS-compliant content management systems without having to understand each specific system. Prior to CMIS, companies had to build or purchase custom application connectors in order to migrate content from one system to another or use existing (but limited) content sharing standards.
Third, CMIS dramatically reduces the IT burden around multi-vendor, multi-repository content management environments. Companies no longer need to maintain custom code and one-off integrations in order to share information across their various ECM systems. CMIS also enables independent software vendors to create specialized applications that are capable of running over a variety of content management systems.
Fourth, CMIS makes it possible for business units to deploy systems independently and focus on application needs rather than on infrastructure considerations. With CMIS, integrating content between two or more repositories is faster, simpler and more cost-effective.
Fifth, CMIS has the potential to be a game-changing standard, not only through its promise to facilitate affordable content management, but also as an enabler of whole new classes of high-value, information-rich applications that have not been feasible to date.
Lastly, CMIS was developed by an industry group consisting of several large ECM system vendors, including Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP. Other ECM vendors that support the CMIS standard include Alfresco, Nuxeo, EMC, Open Text, and Knowledge Tree. CMIS became an official Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) specification on May 1, 2010.
Here’s why CMIS is important and not just another standard:
>> Interoperability between vendors
>> CMIS is the SQL for Content Management
>> CMIS is already widely adopted
>> No more lock-in to one ECM vendor
>> With CMIS the ECM infrastructure will become a commodity
>> CMIS based applications will become the differentiator
>> CMS will help create a 360° view of your customer
Now that you know a little bit about CMIS, ask your vendor what they know about it. If they don’t know anything about it or say they’ll get back to you, maybe you’re with the wrong vendor.
This is one of the many facets of our industry that can make a huge difference in the present and future capabilities of your offering in the mortgage market. It will take more of similar practices to lure investors back, but CMIS is a great start.
Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

The True Value Of Web Services

By Daniel Liggett
Web Services make all the capabilities and information of your Loan Origination System available to the outside world via the internet. Web services can come in many different forms, but a few examples can include:
Data entered by a potential borrower on a lender’s consumer-facing webpage to create a loan app is transferred directly into the LOS and populates the loan application without re-keying.
A broker wants to determine the loan programs that best fit a borrower. By entering only a few pieces of information into a secure webpage, all of the loan programs for which the client is eligible (and is not) are displayed, as well as plain language explanations of the reasons for each.
Wanting to check the status of a loan, a borrower logs into the web portal and sees how the loan is progressing. LOS’s that provide web services can deliver immediate, up-to-the-minute status report.
Property valuations are quickly obtained as Web Services, which provide the information to geocoding interfaces and instantly update a loan record.
In short, LOS’s that provide Web Services transcend their role as a loan processing system. It now becomes a flexible, expandable, secure service that can be used with other authorized vendors and systems. Requests can be initiated around the clock and provide immediate information without tying up valuable lender resources.
Business Rules
Web Services are made possible because of the business rules upon which an advanced LOS is based. These flexible rules allow lenders to customize The LOS to their business and lending requirements. These business rules essentially tell the LOS what to do, and what information to make available in the form of web services.
For example, after completing work on a loan, an appraiser generates key pieces of information, including a final report, with a mouse click. The LOS then immediately updates the appropriate loan record including recalculating LTVs and other ratios and then emails the processor, loan officer, and others in the logical workflow group informing them that the appraisal is complete. The written report is automatically attached to the LOS’s internal document image repository.
This chain of events is dictated by business rules. Dynamic LOS’s unique approach of storing business rules in the database, rather than chiseling them into the programming code, makes it possible to maintain short, easily understood rules that can be written once, and used again and again. By chaining simple rules into more sophisticated ones, the LOS knows how to react to any situation that can be described.
Secure
All data passing through Web Services is completely secure. Advanced LOSs enforce valid credentials at all times and generate only the information that is authorized to approved third parties and only under conditions that meet the stated business rules.
As an additional layer of protection, each transaction is logged and stored. The LOS tracks who did what and when they did it.
Expandable
Web Services are designed to easily interface with other third-party platforms. Web Services responds to the entire spectrum of MISMO-formatted data transactions. Using a tool kit, additional services and transactions can be set up in the system. Web Services also support vendors with non-standard, proprietary transaction sets.
Low Maintenance
When done correctly, Web Services are low maintenance, and there is little to monitor or manage aside from adding new vendors or services.
High Value
Web Services are a logical extension of the customization lenders employ. They add great value with very little additional effort and can perform a variety of tasks. They offer a fast, secure and cost-effective method of enhancing a lending operation by saving time and money.
Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

SaaS Levels The Playing Field

By Daniel Liggett
A Service-as-a-System or SaaS LOS offering can level the playing field by providing lenders of all sizes with the power and functionality that was once only available to the largest national lenders. At a time when lenders are being inundated with managing and implementing new rules and regulations, their technology infrastructure costs and administration can escalate out of control.
Today’s lenders need to maximize technology while reducing costs. A hosted LOS, deployed over the Internet, requires a modest up-front investment and provides manageable ongoing costs. The hosted environment assures lenders that the system can grow as their business grows and provide benefits previously afforded to only large lending operations.
Leading SaaS LOSs can have a dramatic impact on the service level lenders provide their borrowers. This is largely because process efficiencies often result in improved customer service. Updates, prices, rate changes and the like can be rolled out simultaneously and instantaneously, providing loan officers at multiple locations with the latest product offerings.
A SaaS LOS should offer the ability to be customized to the lender’s requirements without the need for vendor involvement. This goes for any LOS, but especially a hosted one. Lenders who can quickly adapt to ever-changing market, product and pricing conditions possess competitive advantages previously afforded only to large lenders with deep resources.
A quality SaaS deployed LOS will guarantee lenders that their systems are in regulatory compliance. In today’s lending climate, regulations, clarifications and adjustments are a frequent occurrence. This feature alone represents a potential huge cost savings. The burden to monitor regulations and perform the required fixes can be a large, sometimes underestimated, drain on a lender’s resources.
The SaaS (hosted) deployment model levels the playing field by delivering advanced functionality in a cost-effective format. The LOS provider hosts and administers it on behalf of the lender, managing, maintaining and performing upgrades on the software and hardware. This significantly reduces the lenders IT infrastructure burden in terms of time, resources and ultimately, money.
Hosted deployment also fulfills redundancy, recovery and other business continuity requirements. All backup processes, on-site and off-site, are managed by the vendor, who also attends to ongoing data security. Hosting also permits the lender’s staff to use the LOS from any location authorized by the lender.
The reduction or elimination of expenditures for hardware and software plus IT staff salaries result in a lower cost of ownership for lenders. Another advantage to consider is the notion that the infrastructure and security levels maintained by SaaS providers are of higher quality than all but the extremely well-capitalized lending institutions, and are available at a fraction of the cost.
Since Hosted LOS vendors charge a flat fee per month, lenders pay only for what they use. They are free to use as much or as little as is required. And the scalability of SaaS systems means incremental or large increase in demand for product are evenly priced. Lenders can plan for and react to changing market conditions faster and more affordably than with traditionally deployed LOSs.
A hosted LOS offers today’s lenders countless advantages in terms of both time and money. It also allows them to compete on a level with the largest of lenders with much greater resources.
Today’s leading SaaS LOSs can level the playing field while delivering significant cost savings to the lender.
Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

Mortgage And Consumer Lending In One System

By Daniel Liggett
Today, as lenders are forced to produce greater results from their automation it is critical to implement an LOS that can handle both mortgage and consumer lending all in one system. Leading LOS’s should provide the ability to handle all mortgage products including conventional, FHA, VA, ARM, Jumbo, Reverse, in addition to consumer loans. The LOS should streamline cross-selling and bundling efforts and help identify additional revenue streams and consolidate business intelligence for future marketing initiatives. These features will also reduce costs of ongoing support when implemented for multiple product lines because there’s only one lending system to master.
Securely Handle All Phases of Lending
A leading LOS needs to automate everything from pre-qualification to post closing and have full and complete reporting capabilities. It must process loans from multiple sources and offer multiple integrations to other third-party providers. Security is of high importance when choosing an LOS. The ability to control access to the system by individual, by group and by process is vital, as are audit controls that record who did what and when. Data entry mistakes can negatively impact a lending operation. The best systems offer comprehensive data validation options that virtually eliminate data entry errors and prevent bad data from ever getting in. Workflow control is also essential in an LOS because it saves time and helps maximize staff utilization and actually compel loans through the pipeline.
Fully Customizable Without Programming
An LOS should be adaptable to the lender, and precise conformance to an existing or desired lending process is vital to the effectiveness of an LOS. The lender must be able to make modifications to their LOS and must be able to make them without the need for expensive programmers or dependence on the vendor. The leading LOS’s typically employ flexible “business rules” that allow the lender to tailor the system to streamline processes, create efficiencies and manage risk. The added value lies in the ability to modify these business rules as lending requirements change. This feature alone can add years of life onto the LOS. Business rules can transform a lending operation from being reactive and maintenance-oriented entity to being proactive and growth-driven one.
Field-Based Logic
At the heart of leading LOS’s is the flexibility of its field-based logic. Fields are used to create input data, output items, all calculations, auditing conditions, etc. This logic is the framework of the business rules that are used to customize the system to any desired method of originating and processing loans and it allows for unlimited use of the same data. The ‘enter data once – use it anywhere’ concept that field-based logic offers saves time and serves to enhance data quality because it eliminates the need to re-key data.
Interface Friendly
The ability for an LOS to ‘talk’ and share data with other systems in the growing business chain is critical. Top systems should have the ability to interface to a variety of LOSs, mortgage pipelines, secondary marketing and servicing systems to name a few. Seamless integration to flood, title, credit and related agencies is not only mandatory in most cases, but serves to save time and reduce rejected requests due to errors from re-keyed data. Leading systems should also be able pass data to and from customer-facing portals automatically to provide the high level of service demanded by today’s borrower.
In today’s market having a robust LOS that handles both mortgage and consumer loans while delivering the ability to change and grow is no longer a luxury but a necessity.
Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.

Don’t Ignore The Future Of LOS Computing

By Daniel Liggett
A top concern for many lenders today is the cost of technology, both upfront and ongoing. Lenders interested in reducing the total cost of ownership should explore hosted solutions. Hosted Loan Origination System (LOS) solutions can provide all the functionality of traditional LOS applications. They allow access over the Internet and reduce internal IT requirements, all for a low monthly fee. Loan officers, processors, even back-office staff need nothing more than a PC and an Internet connection to have the best of both worlds: a fully-robust “desktop” application with the ease-of-deployment of a Web application. Leading hosted LOS solutions are secure, fast and offer lenders many advantages in front-end mortgage technology.
Why Deploy a Hosted LOS?
A hosted LOS represents an important breakthrough in deployment, because it delivers the full flexibility and power of a client-based LOS via the Internet. An Internet-based LOS preserves the capabilities such as the ability to make changes via business rules. This flexibility is vital and provides lenders with a distinct advantage in the speed in which they can react to the changing lending climate. A Hosted LOS also has the ability to process any type of loan, including consumer loans, from the same system.
A centrally managed Hosted LOS provides instant access to staff from virtually anywhere, requiring only a PC and an internet connection to take an app, lock a loan or generate docs. Price, rates, and related updates from the home office are near instantaneous, giving loan officers a jump on the competition.
Hosted systems also offer a significant reduction in internal IT related costs. The need for servers, software and the trained personnel to maintain them is eliminated. Hosted systems use off-site technology to deliver fast, secure service with virtually no downtime. The ability to outsource the many tasks related to system maintenance alone is very desirable and significantly contributes to a lenders return on investment in a very short period of time.
By subscribing to a Hosted LOS, lenders incur a manageable monthly fee allowing them to easily budget for their lending technology. Historic costs associated with software, access, upgrades, servers, backups and support are all included.
How Does a Hosted LOS Work?
Desktop applications pose a deployment challenge because the application software has to be installed on every PC. Despite this requirement, lenders historically accepted this burden for the superior performance and ease-of-use that desktop applications provide. But now, thanks to “virtualization” technology, desktop applications no longer need to actually reside on a PC.
In house or third-party hosting services provides the servers, databases and Web portal (which allows for full-function Internet access). Users simply click on a specific URL, log in and start working. They also handle the security, data backup, redundancies, and software upgrades to provide service without interruption.
Benefits of a Hosted LOS
A Hosted LOS provides all of the functionality and flexibility without the usability and/or deployment hassles associated with other systems. It can be customized just like traditional solutions. Screens, forms, reports, loan programs, workflow, data validation, etc. can be fully tailored to specific requirements. Loan officers are only a login away from all the tools necessary to perform all the steps involved in mortgage and consumer lending, from prequalification to post closing.
Plus, with hosted, there’s no in-house computing infrastructure required, just a PC with Internet access. Smaller lenders have now leveled the playing field in terms of their ability to compete in terms of technology by employing a Hosted LOS.
Hosted LOS Technology offers lenders significant savings in many areas and provides them with many competitive advantages that today’s lending climate dictates.
Daniel Liggett serves as Director of Client Services for Associated Software Consultants’ PowerLender Loan Origination & Processing System. He has more than 20 years experience in mortgage lending and loan automation systems. Danny oversees the configuration, training, support and project management efforts for loan origination and secondary marketing at ASC and serves as a development and marketing advisor.
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