Ellie Mae, the enterprise mortgage origination technology provider for mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers, community banks, credit unions and other mortgage lenders, has launched the second major release of Encompass360 for 2010, which includes 24 upgrades designed to make it easier for users to comply with lending regulations and improve business management, productivity and visibility.
According to MORTECH 2010, an annual syndicated survey of lenders’ use of mortgage technology conducted by MORTECH LLC, of Bend, Ore., regulatory compliance will be lenders’ greatest challenge in 2011. “Forty-five percent of surveyed lenders responded that the cost of complying with new regulations is their primary concern,” said Jeff Lebowitz, founder of MORTECH. “Compliance is at the top of the list of challenges, cited by twice as many lenders than those most concerned with the mortgage origination drought. This is a troubling drain on lender resources.”
Six of the Encompass360 enhancements focus on compliance, including:
►An ability to set up and store company and branch licensing information in Encompass360’s settings, which can then be referenced by the automated Encompass Compliance Service when running state-specific compliance tests;
►An ability to not only create a user-accessible master fee list, which helps control fees in loan templates and 2010 itemization, but also employ a compliance testing service without having to map manually entered fees as they are added to the system;
►Three risk-based pricing disclosures that will be required by Jan. 1, 2011;
►The selection of four privacy policy types that may be designated as the corporate policy on disclosures;
►An automated unsubscribe option that provides recipients of customer’s marketing emails the option to opt out of receiving future e-mails; and
►An ability to import appraisals in XML file format, as required by the GSEs, and to also import a certificate of independence from appraisers.
“Compliance is a two-fold concern for lenders—there is the issue of the fees and fines for compliance failures, but there is also a huge concern about buybacks,” said Jonathan Corr, chief strategy officer for Ellie Mae. “These enhancements help address those concerns with improved tools that promote total loan quality, which is ultimately the cornerstone of achieving fully compliant operations.”
Additional enhancements include upgrades to Encompass360’s product and pricing integrations, eDisclosure workflow, LoanCenter, WebCenter and other administrative features. Users can now send messages to other users any time changes have been made to documents or conditions and the system now designates not only the documents still awaiting signature, but also whether those documents need to be e-signed or manually signed.
With the latest release of Encompass360, administrators will also have far more control over system updates. Administrators can choose to manage how and when system updates are applied, both major upgrades and hot updates, empowering them to test each update on selected users prior to applying it to all users on the system.
The 2010 itemization screen has also been updated to reflect regulation changes, which include a new broker compensation field and removal of the term “YSP.” The list of ARM index codes on the Reg Z/Truth in Lending form has been updated, and improvements to lock confirmation visibility now allow secondary departments to determine the fields where lock request snapshots differ from current loan data, as well as to update lock requests.
“We take client feedback very seriously. These enhancements represent a direct response to our clients’ needs and were designed to help them achieve total loan quality for each and every transaction,” said Corr. “I think they’ll be pleased to find that the Fall Release of Encompass360 offers increased efficiency that not only helps transact higher quality loans, but also helps control the fixed costs of staying compliant, while achieving faster performance throughout the loan process, from logging in and opening files to moving between forms and fields on the borrower summary.”
For more information, visit www.EllieMae.com.
