Looking for the right product for that special borrower? Ellie Mae launched a new service dubbed Dynamic Loan Screening that matches originators' loan applications with the products and services of lenders, investors and settlement service providers.
While best-fit engines have come and gone in this industry, they've always been popular. Brokers would love to compare loan products from a variety of lenders side by side in an eBay-like fashion. In fact, platforms like BrokerOneSource were very successful in accomplishing this, but few have stood the test of time because lenders don't like their products compared to other lenders side by side in an auction fashion.
At the MBA Secondary Show in New York Ellie Mae released Dynamic Loan Screening as a solution to this problem. Integrated within Encompass, Dynamic Loan Screening automatically identifies matches against borrower data to products, services, promotions and special discounts of participating lenders, investors and settlement service providers as an originator enters borrower data into the 1003 form within Encompass. When a match is automatically identified, such as a CRA loan or loan that qualifies for a special discount from a settlement service provider, the originator clicks the indicator to see the details of the incentive.
Dynamic Loan Screening can be utilized by all participants in a loan transaction and is currently utilized by companies like American Brokers Conduit and First American Corp. "We have been using Ellie Mae's Dynamic Loan Screening for OneRate, a single fee title and escrow refinance program," explained Michelle Eberhart, vice president national director, cross-sell division at First American Title Corp. "Dynamic Loan Screening has provided us the opportunity to screen for appropriate opportunities and significantly increase the use of OneRate in the California market. It has been highly successful for First American."
Dynamic Loan Screening can also screen for compliance and fraud as well as prepayment and early delinquency risks. Lenders, investors and service providers can target and acquire the exact type of loans they're seeking in a timely, cost-effective way, and originators learn about products and services that could be advantageous for their borrowers.
Once the mortgage originator accepts the offer, Encompass automatically uploads the file data to the lender and routes the originator into the lender's systems for registration, locking and other loan activities. The lender controls the criteria that are screened against the originator's data to attract the highest value loans that are most desirable to the lender, and the appropriate approval conditions can be electronically transmitted back to the originator's file in Encompass. Guidelines and offers are transmitted directly to the originator's loan origination system, so the system is secure, compliant and can be continuously updated.
"This is about finding the best product for the borrower," said Jonathan Corr, chief strategy officer at Ellie Mae. "For example, lenders have to fund so many loans a month in under privileged areas to meet their quota so they scramble to see if there are credible borrowers that fill their need. In some cases originators have a very desirable loan for a given lender and they don't know it.
"We wanted to take that friction out of the process. Traditionally account executives provide pricing, product and try to match everything up at the right time. The challenge for lenders is getting the word out about their needs when they don't have a huge marketing budget. This tool gets that information directly to the broker via a pop-up box and makes the match seamless.
"We're in a unique position in that our network has been so massive that we can offer value to both brokers and lenders with this service," concluded Mr. Corr. "This is truly as disruptive technology that will benefit this industry."
