New Capabilities Underway for Black Knight's Empower Loan Origination System to Support Home Equity Loans and Lines of Credit
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
- Lenders will be able to originate home equity products and mortgage loans on one system to better support compliance, mitigate risk, reduce costs and improve the customer experience
- Empower includes the core functionality to support lenders' compliance efforts with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule for both mortgage and closed-end home equity loans
- Empower system will continue to support lenders' retail, wholesale and consumer-direct channels for first mortgages
Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: BKFS) announced today that it will be making strategic investments in its LoanSphere Empower loan origination system (LOS) to provide robust support for home equity loans (HELOAN) and home equity lines of credit (HELOC). The new capabilities, which will be delivered during the second quarter of 2016, will enable lenders to originate mortgage and home equity products on one system, helping them improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs, mitigate risk and improve customer service. Empower -- which is used by six of the top 20 lenders in the U.S. -- supports retail, wholesale and consumer-direct lending channels, and delivers the functionality to electronically capture and process data for every facet of the loan origination process.
The Empower application can be hosted by Black Knight at its secure, state-of-the-art data center or self-hosted by a lender. Empower also offers a consumer-facing portal.
As part of its upgrades to Empower, Black Knight Origination Technologies will add a proven decision rules engine, used within other Black Knight technologies, to automate the underwriting decisioning process based on the collected borrower data. This decisioning engine will enable lenders to manage and execute rules against pre-defined criteria to reduce errors and inconsistencies. Black Knight will also deliver additional functionality to support:
- Front-end data capture, including the ability to ingest data from other applications
- Price adjustments and eligibility criteria that can be applied as a result of loan decisioning, based on credit score, and lender-specific variables and calculations
- Accelerated approval processes, based on the automated rules from the decisioning engine results and other data criteria
- Customized home equity loan documentation
"Using Empower to originate home equity products provides lenders with a multitude of benefits," said Jerry Halbrook, president of Black Knight's Origination Technologies division. "Lenders will be able to simplify their HELOAN compliance efforts and improve risk management, as well enhance their borrowers' experience by streamlining the process to convert loans, which will ultimately reduce their average cost per loan."
Empower currently includes the core functionality necessary to support lenders' compliance efforts with the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule, so lenders that originate HELOANS on Empower no longer need to update multiple systems and can benefit from increased efficiencies. Although TRID does not apply to HELOCS, lenders that originate all of their home equity products and mortgage loans on one system can gain greater insight into loan opportunities and risks, as well as benefit from other strategic advantages, such as reducing the costs, resources and risk associated with supporting and maintaining disparate systems.
"As home equity volumes continue to increase, more lenders will consider the benefits of originating both first and second mortgages on a single platform. Black Knight's Empower LOS will offer all of the features and functionality required to originate home equity products and provide support for HELOAN compliance with TRID," said Halbrook. "When a client also uses Black Knight's MSP servicing system, both first mortgages and home equity loans originated on Empower can be seamlessly transferred to the servicing system for greater efficiency and reduced errors."
About LoanSphere
LoanSphere is Black Knight's premier, end-to-end platform of integrated technology, data and analytics supporting the entire mortgage and home equity loan lifecycle -- from origination to servicing to default. The platform delivers business process automation, workflow, rules and integrated data throughout the loan process, providing a better user experience, cost savings and support for changing regulatory requirements. By integrating lending functions and data, Black Knight's LoanSphere helps lenders and servicers reduce risk, improve efficiency and drive financial performance.
About Black Knight Financial Services, Inc.
Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: BKFS), a Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) company, is the mortgage and finance industries' leading provider of integrated technology, data and analytics solutions that facilitate and automate many of the business processes across the mortgage lifecycle.
Black Knight Financial Services is committed to being the premier business partner that lenders and servicers rely on to achieve their strategic goals, realize greater success and better serve their customers by delivering best-in-class technology, services and insight with a relentless commitment to excellence, innovation, integrity and leadership. For more information on Black Knight Financial Services, please visit www.bkfs.com.
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150712/235391LOGO
SOURCE Black Knight Financial Services, Inc.
Share this article