ATLOS integrates a more user friendly design that provides quick and easy access to everything mortgage originators, mortgage processors, and mortgage underwriters need to process mortgage loans more effectively.  We have added drag and drop to many of the admin pages.

We have streamlined the data entry process, and now give users more information on the Dashboard page.  We have improved everything within the software.

For years, ATLOS has offered the most cost-effective Document Management Solution for loan processing, underwriting and compliance. For 2 years our technology has been directly integrated within Calyx Point!

And now it’s even easier and more affordable for Calyx Point users to go paperless with ATLOS. Our new pricing model and revamped user interface make ATLOS a must-have software solution for mortgage companies that pride themselves on closing loans quickly and efficiently.

As the mortgage industry continues to contract, it is critical for mortgage companies to increase efficiencies and reduce waste. At the lowest industry prices, ATLOS users pay around $5 to store a 400 page electronic loan file for 3 years. The average cost to produce and store a paper loan file is $42; this cost doesn’t even include administrative costs, risks, and other overhead. ATLOS customers often realize an 80% cost savings per loan file. Think about this for a second — If you originate 10 loans per month, you could potentially save over $4,400 dollars per year! The more loans you process with ATLOS, the more you can save.

Our Calyx integration makes it easier than ever to take advantage of the cost savings with ATLOS. There are never any setup fees or hardware to purchase. We can help your mortgage company go paperless and start saving in less than 24 hours. Visit www.atlos.com to start saving now.

By now, everyone’s a bit tired of hearing about the collapse of the mortgage industry. But if anything, it has reminded us that our present-day marketplace has evolved into an interconnected one, a marketplace without borders and one not restricted by traditional ‘brick and mortar’ operations. Fueling this evolution, is the advancement of technology, the proliferation of the internet, and the progression of international trade and finance legislation. While in some areas of the country the outlook for the mortgage industry is a bit brighter; In general, mortgage companies are being forced to close down their operations in record numbers. With home values declining, underwriting guidelines tightening, and fewer loan programs available in which to place borrowers, there is simply not enough refinance and purchase business available. Mortgage companies must reduce overhead, in order to remain profitable.

One of the best ways of reducing overhead is to outsource mortgage processing. Five years ago, we would not even be having this conversation, as processing duties were primarily handled in house. Immediate access to loan information was the primary deterrent to processing mortgage loans outside of a mortgage company’s physical location. There were certainly qualified loan processors that could work remotely, but not a feasible streamlined method to share and collaborate on loan information. However, thanks to the internet and technologies like hosted document management software, farming out processing duties is now possible. And you can expect a level of quality that is as good as, or better than, your in-house loan processing. Mortgage processing can now be outsourced all over the country. There are several things to look for when choosing a processing company with whom to partner, but before you pick one, you need to know the primary duties a processor should perform as part of their service.

What exactly does a loan processor do? For the most part, the processor is responsible for collecting loan information from parties that may include the loan originator, the borrower, and third party service providers. The processor moves that loan information to the individual making the underwriting decision on the entire mortgage transaction. There are many other tasks for which a processor is responsible, but in its simplest form, loan processing is the organization, and movement of loan data. Most good loan processors have the ability to organize loan information, organize their daily duties, and possess excellent communication skills.

Typically, a loan transaction starts, with a loan originator taking an application on a borrower, qualifying the borrower for the best loan program available, and then selling the loan program to the borrower. Often times a loan originator will collect initial signed loan disclosures, income documents, photo identification, purchase agreements, and other various documents that may be needed to thoroughly qualify a borrower. Once these things are completed, the loan processor takes over the loan transaction by managing and monitoring its progress from loan submission to closing. This usually involves, but isn’t limited to the following items:

• Review the loan file for any deficiencies that may be required for initial loan submission.
• Running Automated Underwriting when applicable.
• Making the initial loan submission to an underwriter.
• Ordering third party services such as Appraisal and Title.
• Review the appraisal to insure the value, comps, and adjustments are in line.
• Review the title to insure all liens, judgments, taxes, etc. are rectifiable.
• Ordering all verification documents such as VOE, VOD, and VOM/R.
• Updating Insurance Information to reflect the lender’s mortgagee clause.
• Ordering payoff information on existing mortgages.
• Once the loan is approved, the processor will collect and clear any additional conditions requested by the underwriter
• Once the loan conditions are cleared the processor schedules a closing date.
• Request signed closing documents to include in the loan officers file for compliance.

Turning this laborious process over to a qualified processor frees up valuable time for the Loan originator to go out and develop new business. Outsourcing this service will allow Sales Managers to do what they do best, and that is, manage and develop their Loan Officers. Why manage two job functions, when you can concentrate on the one that generates income, while delegating the processing to a specialized company? Outsourcing loan processing will cut a mortgage companies overhead, by reducing guaranteed salaries and benefits, and also help it become more productive by streamlining their daily operations.

So what will these immediate cost-savings look like to the owner of the mortgage company? The benefits of Outsourced Processing are exponential, but it all starts with the elimination of guaranteed base salaries. More specifically, an experienced, qualified processor can usually command around $40,000 per year in total compensation (with benefits) and bonuses usually add to this amount. In a good month, your in-house processor may be able to process 20 to 25 loans. What about those months when business is slower and the processor only processes 5 loans? The bonus may change, but the base salary and benefits payout does not. By outsourcing and paying on an as-needed contractual basis per funded loan, instead of a guaranteed base salary, benefits and bonuses, you can save thousands every year. Typically with outsourced processing, you only pay on processed loans that fund, meaning you eliminate losing money for loan processing. Even if a mortgage company employs in-house processors that have a steady processing pipeline, there still may be a need to work with an outsourced processor. An in-house processor like any processor has a maximum capacity. There are a maximum number of loans that any processor can effectively process in any given month. Once an in-house processor has reached their capacity, you need to have an option for all additional loans. Whether it is 1, 5, or 10 additional loans, they still have to be processed. Who’s going to process those extra loans? You’ve got a few options: you can hire another processor and hope that business maintains, or picks up quickly enough to cover that new salary and benefits; you can take time out of your busy schedule, away from managing daily operations and developing new business, in order to pick up the slack; or you can outsource the processing, which keeps you concentrating on new business and keeps you from having to commit to more overhead in salaries and benefits.

Just because you’re giving the workload to someone outside of your physical office doesn’t mean you’re giving up control of the process. Thanks to advancements in technology and the proliferation of the internet, mortgage companies are still able to oversee their entire loan pipeline and get up-to-the-minute statuses on every loan in-process at any given time. Choosing the right outsourced loan processing company means finding a company that employs experienced processors, who have access to these types of technologies. Having the right web-based technology allows for true collaboration on all loan files, giving all parties involved anywhere, anytime access to all pertinent loan information directly from a computer. Outsourced processing companies should have the ability to maintain a completely paperless loan file, in a secure hosted environment, that can be accessed any time, through a website. Today’s processing and document management software allow outsourced processing companies the ability to maintain a completely paperless mortgage loan file, in a secure hosted environment, that can be accessed any time, through a website. These software technologies allow for tracking of documents in and out of the system, changes in loan data, changes in loan statuses, and much more.

The global economy has created an environment that demands increased competition. With this competition comes increased value. Borrowers can shop around for the best deals on rate, program, etc., and so can Loan Officers. With the internet, mortgage companies are no longer restricted to only do business locally. They can shop for the best processors all over the country. A mortgage broker in California or New York can have their loan processed digitally in Louisiana or Florida, and vice versa.

So, times have changed and they’ll continue to change. But thankfully, they are good changes. Outsource Loan Processing is not the future; it’s the here and now. The right processing company, using the right technology, can drive the efficiencies that allow mortgage companies to more easily respond to the ebb and flow of our industry. And like everything else, this economic downturn will pass and we’ll emerge leaner, more efficient and more dynamic, better able to compete in the global economy, and ready for the next real estate heyday.

In additional to new legislation being introduced to further regulate the mortgage industry, brokers are also faced with lenders that are looking to insulate themselves from losses related to mortgage fraud and compliance.

Most lenders today require the originating company to sign contracts stating that they will buy back loans if fraud is discovered. Some brokers have tried to mitigate their risk by requiring each of their branch managers or even the loan originators themselves to also sign contracts which would include them in the liability should any of their team be found to have been involved in a fraudulent mortgage transaction. The problem here is that a huge percentage of independent mortgage brokers do not have the capacity to buy back fraudulent loans. If the lender requires a loan be bought back and the originating broker does not have the capacity to do so, then the responsibility falls back on the principle broker. The contracts with their individual originators don’t mean much if the originator has no capacity to buy back the loan. The prospect of having to buy back loans is not desirable to any company regardless of their size. For most mortgage brokerages having to buy back a single loan can drive them out of business completely.

Even if the broker is capable of buying back a bad loan, the stigma in a hypersensitive industry of having mortgage fraud associated with your company can be devastating. The broker would most certainly be dropped from the lender that discovered the fraud. In addition warehouse lines become more difficult to find for the company and Government licenses such as FHA may become jeopardized. As the broker business loses important lender and funding resources due to an instance of loan fraud, they will also shed invaluable originators who will move on to other company that can provide the same services they were used to receiving. One bad apple can easily ruin business for everyone involved in a mortgage company which is why dealing with potential fraud and compliance issues is such a primary concern to mortgage brokers with multiple branches.

Dealing with fraud

Mortgage companies with multiple branch operations have been forced to find ways to address the risk of fraud upfront. Doing pre-closing or post-closing loan audits each present issues to overcome. The branch can be pressured by time, loan originators, and even lenders if attempting to do a pre-closing audit. These pressures may cause a less than thorough review to take place. Doing any post loan closing audit is not nearly as important because if fraud is found at this point is already too late to do anything proactive about it. Since loan origination and often processing in a branch environment is often going to be done remotely from the main office of the main branch operations, how do they enforce quality control on their loan officers working independently?

The answer that many mortgage brokers are looking at is to pre-screen loan files before the individual officers are allowed to submit a file to the lender. Other companies require that loan originators use internal processors on all loans as a way of further securing the data and ensuring best practices are being met. The best way for these companies to remain compliant and reduce their exposure to potential fraud is to implement technology that will allow them to have automated real time access to their data regardless of how many individual originators and branches they may have.

Document management software allows the company to have a centralized automated source where their loan officers can register their loan; processors can perform quality control and process the loans, and eventually after the loan closes the file can be digitally archived for compliance. Stop points can be setup to implement greater control over the all loan files in every branch.

Automated document management software can generate fraud alerts. An example fraud alert would be a notification if the system detected duplicate files that could present occupancy issues. Also stop points can be implemented at points such as at loan registration. The company can set requirements that the loan must have quality control performed on it prior to being cleared for submission to a lender. This would allow internal processors to review the file for completeness and compliance and then change the status to allow submission. Document management software is able to auto notify all involved parties on a loan transaction of status changes for conditions, tasks, and alerts for rate locks or closing dates.

Branch Managers and Executives within the company should each be able to have overviews as needed of the entire pipeline. Branch managers need to be able to view their branches loans in progress, view the status of the files, see the comments on each file, view file conditions, and assign their loan officers permission to be able to view their individual pipelines within the system.

By implementing some document management software the company is able to view and access every single loan in progress for their business remotely through secure connections at all times. This type of technology not only streamlines the workflow for the daily operations but also protects the company from common fraud risks that can be easily caught in an automated document management system. The added benefit of having all loan documents stored electronically means that should the company ever be audited, all of the files for every branch can be accessed remotely instantaneously.

Fraud detection and compliance have always been issues that must be faced within the mortgage industry. By implementing low cost document management software a mortgage company is able to greatly reduce the risk of mortgage fraud and compliance issues within their business. Finding ways to increase productivity and add increased security to the operation while saving money is exactly what successful mortgage owners are looking for in the current environment. Being proactive in weeding out fraud and potential compliance problems through

Any mortgage software that incorporates automated document management solution should allow brokers to review and manage their entire pipeline quickly, easily and securely at all times. This includes allowing brokers to:

• Web-Based and Hosted in a secure redundant location
• Check the Loan and Condition statuses
• Easily Upload and View Loan Documents
• Automatic digital conversion and indexing
• Receive Automated Email Notifications
• Re-Assign and Modify Documents
• Send documents via secure email or webfax
• Automatic logging of all events in the software

This technology should not only streamline daily workflow but also protect brokers from common fraud risks before loans close.

What is Gramm-Leach-Bliley?

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (commonly called GLB or GLBA) is also known as the Financial Modernization Act of 1999. The GLB Act includes provisions to protect all consumers’ personal financial information held by financial institutions.

How are Email Records Involved?

Today, the vast majority of organizations use email to communicate internally and as a vehicle for the exchange of documents and correspondence between businesses and consumers. Since personal financial information can be transmitted by and retained in electronic formats, it is critical to ensure that the management of such records complies with GLB.

What Organization are Impacted?

The GLB Act applies to “financial institutions” – businesses that offer financial products or services to individuals to be used primarily for their personal, family, or household purposes. Financial institutions include, for example, banks, securities firms and insurance companies; such entities are covered by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). Businesses that provide many other types of financial products and services to consumers fall under jurisdiction of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) for the purposes of enforcing GLB. These non-traditional “financial institutions” include, but are not limited to, state-registered investment advisors, professional tax preparers, auto dealers engaged in financing or leasing, electronic funds transfer networks, mortgage brokers, credit counselors, real estate settlement companies, retailers that issue credit cards to consumers, consumer debt-collecting firms, payday lenders and check-cashing businesses.

What are the Penalties for Non-Compliance with Gramm-Leach-Bliley?

Violation of GLBA may result in a civil action brought by the U.S. Attorney General. The penalties include those for the financial institution of up to $100,000 for each violation. In addition, “the officers and directors of the financial institution shall be subject to, and shall be personally liable for, a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 for each such violation”. Criminal penalties may include up to 5 years in prison.

What are the Requirements of Gramm-Leach-Bliley?

Safeguards Rule

This rule requires financial institutions to have reasonable policies and procedures to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer information (for both current and former customers). The plan must include denoting at least one employee to manage the safeguards, doing a risk analysis on current processes, developing and monitoring a program to secure the information, and making adjustments to the security plan as needed.

ATLOS automatically secures all documents sent from the mortgage loan software, and tracks access to those documents.  This functionality is critical to meeting GLBA compliance.

• The average U.S. executive wastes six weeks per 12 year retrieving misplaced paper information from desks or files. At a yearly salary of $75,000, this could translate to 12.3 % of whole earnings.
• 90% of all paper documents handled each day are merely shuffled.
• It costs $125 in labor to trace down a misplaced paper document or $250 to recreate it.
• Over 800 million paper pages are created from laptop printouts per day, enough to fill a file drawer 225 miles long.
• Despite visions of a paperless workplace, 80-90% of all info within the average office is still maintained on paper.
• 80% of filed papers are by no means referenced again. 50% of all filed materials are duplicates or the information has already expired.
• Experience continues to indicate that 30%-40% of all recorded paper info can be instantly deleted from digital techniques or paperless software systems.
• In every survey taken over the past 20 years, managing paperwork falls in the prime ten time-losing activities.
• Simply introducing electronic mail into a workplace increases paper printing by 40%.
• Work groups lose 15% of all paperwork they handle and spend 30% of their time trying to find misplaced paper documents. 7.5% of all paper documents are misplaced and never retrieved.

As you can see despite the efforts of many companies that attempt to “go green” and reduce their carbon footprint, we are still mainly a paper based society. Many industries such as the mortgage industry still require hard copy paper documents which cause inefficiencies, a bigger footprint, and ultimately more costs.

By migrating to a hosted mortgage document management solution you will be able to streamline your operation, reduce your footprint, and reduce your costs. A hosted web based document management solution also allows users to have a centralized repository for all critical data that will be easily retrieved from anywhere with internet access.

With a hosted document management solution you won’t have to worry about losing documents, physical degradation of documents, misfiling documents, or using up potentially expensive real estate that could be put to better use. Now that companies like ATLOS are able to provide document management using the SaaS (Software as a service) method there is no upfront expense in switching your entire operations to a paperless environment. It’s now possible to be paperless within 24 hours of making the commitment to a hosted solution that will make you paperless.

The average consumer has become increasingly partial to buzz words such as “going green” and “paperless company”. By utilizing a document management solution you will be able to reap the rewards of marketing to your consumers using those very buzzwords that they will react to.

http://www.calyxsoftware.com/news/newsletters/10-09.html

Are you interested in going paperless?

ATLOS is a web-based document management software with a direct integration with Calyx Point. Creating a paperless loan file with ATLOS means your customer documents are always available anytime, anywhere via the Internet. ATLOS is designed to streamline the collection, digital conversion, indexing, and management of customer documents used for loan processing, underwriting, compliance, closing, and servicing.

Are you concerned about the security of your customer’s documents?

Are you concerned about the security of your customers’ documents? We host all of your customers’ documents within multiple Tier IV data centers, which provide the highest level of security and redundancy. ATLOS encrypts all documents that are stored on our servers. We allow you to automate all access to your customers’ documents. Going paperless with ATLOS means your customers’ documents are always secured, backed up, and recoverable in the event of a disaster.

Are you interested in saving time and money using our mortgage software?

ATLOS allows users to securely email or fax documents directly from Point and tracks receipt (GLBA, SOX and HIPAA compliant). We increase transparency by automatically maintaining an event log file, which tracks all actions, and by sending automated email notifications.

• Eliminate the cost of producing and storing paper mortgage loan files
• Eliminate costly delivery fees
• Increase mortgage processing speed and transparency
• Reduce risk due to errors and fraud

ATLOS is a turn-key solution requiring no hardware to purchase, no downloads or updates to install, and no IT support needed.

In reality there are many ways that mortgage software developers such as ATLOS secure the data that is transmitted electronically through the web. Our experience is heavily based in the mortgage industry. We are intimately familiar with the special care that must be taken to secure borrower data from any possible theft. In order to protect themselves from any concern about their client’s data becoming compromised, it is of course a primary concern for a mortgage brokerage, lender, and even a processing company to secure all of the data they are responsible for.

Loan software that is utilizing all of the latest security protocols will not only be able to decrease the man hours and paper expenses of your business, but it will also protect all of your client’s personal and mortgage related information.

Our web based mortgage software utilizes AES 128 bit encryption as well as single use passkeys that are discarded after each user session. We want to ensure that the data we host for our client’s is using state of the art encryption and recover methods. Aside from just encrypting the live data, we also encrypt all data we store where it stays encrypted until it’s needed again in the event of a system recover.

With regard to disaster recovery we utilize both staging and replication methods. By staging the servers and preparing them for a quick implementation we can save valuable time that would have previously been lost. Another method we often employ is replication. This method replicates an active server onto a 2nd active server. Any changes done on the live server will automatically replicate to the 2nd server. This means that if your first server goes now you have a 2nd active server completely ready to go. By having duplicated active server you are able to limit your down time to nearly zero. If one of your servers is compromised the other one will automatically pickup the workload. Since they have been sharing data there is no data loss and no recover time.

It’s also important to ensure your mortgage data is being stored remotely on a secondary backup server that is separate from the first one. This redundancy ensures you are thoroughly protected from losing any data, even in the face of natural disasters like tornadoes or hurricanes.

ATLOS document management software was built to ensure security of our client data on every level. In addition to the many features and benefits of using hosted software as a service for your mortgage work flow, you can rest assured that your data is secured.

What types of distress are causing pressure on small to midsize brokerages you may ask? How about:

• Reduced loan products to sell
• Restricted credit with tighter approval guidelines
• Higher net worth requirements for brokers
• Tighter regulations
• Restricted income from fees
• A tarnished reputation from the news media

These and other factors are putting the small brokerages between a rock and a hard place. Many brokers are now gone from the business that had the mentality that they could weather the storm doing business as usual. They mistakenly thought that business would return to “normal” after six months of people being sidetracked by the media. This was not the case and those brokers are now in another profession.

The type of broker that is going to survive and even thrive in the future of the mortgage market is going to be a streamlined and well educated one. Staying ahead of industry trends, rates, and future legislation that can affect their business or more importantly their customers. In addition to stepping up their customer service and business knowledge, it’s going to require a commitment to embracing mortgage software technology that will keep their business streamlined and focused on compliance.

Mortgage technology is able to help in a number of ways for small to midsized mortgage brokers:

• Cutting unneeded costs
• Streamlining business work flow
• Automating compliance
• Decreasing Fraud
• Saving man hours

Loan software and other mortgage technology is a relatively low cost solution for mortgage operations thanks to the loan software as a service model that has become standard for these types of software programs. For a small monthly fee brokers gain access to very powerful loan software tools that will enable them to take their business to the next level. Lenders are already implementing paperless mortgage loan technology and for brokers to keep up with their retail counterparts, it will require learning about and embracing mortgage software technology into their everyday business work flow.

One thing that the successful brokerage recognizes is that out of adversity comes opportunity. With less competition in their local markets, lower housing prices, and a semi stabilized mortgage industry, aggressive companies will be able to scoop up much greater shares than they would ever have been able to do in the mortgage heyday.

When you factor in additional features such as live web conferencing, video conferencing, and chat, the advantages of a centralized web based mortgage platform becomes readily apparent. ATLOS is able to assist brokers in understanding how to integrate mortgage technologies into their business so that they can recognize great profit margins.

ATLOS is serving the niche document management market for mortgage companies. As with any niche business many of your competitors will turn out to be very generic in nature and not cater to the specific needs of the niche market being served. This too is the case with ATLOS and mortgage software for the mortgage industry.

Generic document management companies do not have the training, background, or expertise to cater to the needs of the mortgage industry. ATLOS is comprised of people with at least 2 years of experience in the mortgage industry. This allows us to have an in depth knowledge of what makes up a mortgage loan file. Mortgage files have many compliance related factors that must be taken into consideration. In addition loans are made up of very sensitive data that must be handled with discretion. It’s important that the employees of any company handling sensitive loan data such as this be held to a higher standard. Being in the mortgage industry means that the individual has mostly likely obtained state licensing, taken continuing education or other training classes, had background checks performed, etc.

It’s important that the workforce of any niche software provider have a deep understanding of the industry they are attempting to serve. ATLOS has this experience and has been able to translate that experience into a streamlined solution that is actually useful to the mortgage community. Document management in itself is not terribly exciting to companies. When you talk about the time savings that the work flow of web based mortgage software like ATLOS can generate, this is when people begin to really take notice.

Laying out the work flow of the life in a mortgage file is something that ATLOS has done well. Developing a solution that can help processors, brokers, underwriters, managers, and even outside third parties stay informed and accessible adds value to the document management provided. The ability to easily create new files, to upload documents, manipulate those documents, deliver those documents, perform tasks to an open file and eventually close and archive that file is a specific work flow that is geared for the mortgage industry in particular. Having a vendor that understands your business will help you sleep better at night. Knowing that you have a partner that is able to fill in the gaps where you need help. Document management for the mortgage industry is growing and ATLOS is leading the path.