It may sound like common sense but clear communication can go a long way when dealing with wrongful foreclosures.
Servicers today are already overwhelmed with distressed loans and validating additional information is almost impossible. Having case management technology with solid communication features can help.
All the parties involved in default management need to know certain information related to their role at specific stages of the process. The ideal platform should provide a unified, controlled view of loan information based on the role of the user. This reduces having data transferred, re-entered or being reviewed at several different places and/or on several systems. All it takes is a small human oversight or error to have grave mistakes incur, such as a bank foreclosing on the wrong property.
Let’s consider the following scenario: If an employee is entering a house number manually, it is easy to transpose a digit and cause a liability for the company. As an example, 95162 could be entered as 95612, and that can take you to a totally different house or 123 Side Lane vs. 123 Side Ave. or 123 Side St. Eliminating the need to rekey the information reduces the possibilities of such incidences occurring. Having easy mechanisms to share information among disparate systems (internal/external) or even having ability to review information in one place can play a vital role in the quality of service provided by employees. This is where the technologies with open architecture play a vital role.
Basically, open architecture means giving systems the ability to communicate through any available mode of communication with the complete flexibility on formatting of the information. For example, comma separated values, .CSV files, flat files, XML transactions, EDI files, etc. Technology that supports open architecture enables quick and easy information exchange. This not only improves the quality of information but also brings a much needed efficiency boost to the entire process.
An integral part of open architecture is its built-in error reconciliation and reprocessing corrected information with proper logging. An automated review of exceptions and process summary logs greatly increase the speed of system updates in a virtually error-free environment.
Additionally, human review of manually entered information can complement the information uploaded via automation. Having validation mechanisms in place at the time information is entered can go a long way to reducing the time and effort necessary in verifying information. Spending five minutes at the beginning of the process eliminates the need to continue reviewing the same information at every internal checkpoint. Technology can aid this process by blocking actions unless authorized/assigned users validate the information. Further, technology can help communicate the results of the review at the information field level. Technology can ensure that required reviews are performed and integrate this into the process audit.
Having a detailed audit log of every step in the process ensures that users are performing the review in a timely and proper manner and that they are held accountable for the review.
Enabling all parties to have access to information through the same controlled platform also ensures that correct information is sent to the appropriate parties, such as a property inspection company, foreclosure trustee or valuation vendor. And because of the number of parties involved in the process, there needs to be a strong foundation that enforces adherence to business practices and processes. One of those procedural steps is initiating a foreclosure on any property. In this instance, there must be a business process in place to ensure that the address is validated or that ordering the appropriate title has been executed. These are integral components of starting the foreclosure process and having the process completely automated through configurable business processes is paramount.
Configuring the business process must be simple—not requiring a technology expert, and being done by business subject matter experts in most cases.
One of the most important aspects of a platform is that it offers real-time communication among all participants whether working on one system or various systems. For example, if someone notices an error on the address, they can send a secured message to the contractor—who would receive an alert on his/her mobile device. Processes must be automated to eliminate unnecessary actions. Wasted time means wasted productivity, and in today’s environment we need to be as proactive and productive as possible.
Sanjeev Dahiwadkar is president and CEO of IndiSoft LLC, Columbia, Md.
