Banks, investors and regulators are reevaluating mortgage lending technology through the connectivity lens driving the current evolution of software that connects origination with servicing.
Lenders and servicers are specifically requesting such solutions, VP and GM of Xerox Mortgage Services Nancy Alley told this publication. “There is heightened awareness in the mortgage community that we have to collaborate and have transparency throughout the value chain to get this right.”
Such awareness alongside the explicit demand for versatile platforms is spawning software updates and new product development.
Xerox recently restructured its signature lending platform to facilitate data exchanges between lenders, servicers, investors and third parties, including single point of contact communication with borrowers.
It adds to the list of mortgage automation software providers that are trying to close the gap between existing origination and servicing platforms.
The Xerox BlitzDocs eXtended Edition provides a portal that enables users to securely send sensitive loan information including loss mitigation packages to troubled borrowers.
The move appears to be part of wider trend among other major providers of mortgage technology solutions
Alley finds this type of integration is part of a wider industry trend and for two primary reasons.
First, the turmoil of recent years has proven that collaboration cannot end at origination, she says. “Historically there has been a disconnect after closing, with loan folders reverting back to paper documents and data being manually re-keyed into the servicing system,” that leaves much room for process improvements.
As a result the new mortgage servicing related rules and requirements cater to that need for process improvements. “At a high level, many of the new oversights relate back to transparency between parties and better control of documents,” she adds, and bringing those involved in loan servicing into the “electronic fold” helps improve communication, accountability, and visibility of the actions taken on a loan.
Electronic collaboration also offers a more efficient SPOC, she said.
Xerox’s BlitzDocs Servicing enables users to stay in compliance with the much-talked-about federal requirement that mortgage servicers provide SPOC, so borrowers have a consistent information source for all their mortgage documents for the duration of the loan.
SPOC in default loan servicing is required by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says Alley, so Xerox is offering servicers an automated “audit trail of all actions taken on a loan.”
The Norwalk, Conn.-based $23 billion global provider of business process and document management technology and services introduced BlitzDocs over a decade ago to help lenders “accelerate and improve the loan process for origination and post-closing.”
Xerox is expanding its BlitzDocs electronic loan folder capabilities to enable collaboration between the mortgage loan origination process and loan servicing.
Trading partners such as originators, servicers, borrowers, investors, subservicers, business process outsourcing providers and mortgage insurance companies can use BlitzDocs to exchange loan documents.
The platform provides a single point of reference for all mortgage loan documents, said Matthew Schuster, senior vice president of servicing operations at Fay Servicing, a special servicer that started using BlitzDocs during its pilot phase. It enables Fay to index, reconcile and review documents much faster the documents that are filed by sellers in bulk, he said.
Xerox plans to continue to add points of integration through new
BlitzDocs is designed as a SaaS solution that is compatible with other vendor platforms currently used by a network of sub-servicers, Alley said. “As we all know, there are still proprietary and closed systems in the mortgage industry,” but when a closed technology is being used, “the lender or servicer can leverage an eCollaboration platform to connect parties even if the end systems are proprietary.”
