Doc Firm Says Automation Can Help Reduce Buybacks.

With buybacks on the rise, lenders are actively looking for new strategies to mitigate their risk. Automated data management may be the answer.

"I like to stress data management," said Ruth Thompson, CEO at Desert Document Services, a part of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. "It's about business rules really. We have a polished toolset and subject matter experts to take in the requirements to create quality data management and business rules.

"What has happened is lenders put loans together that made sense at a certain point in time but investors are looking for buybacks today so they're applying today's rules to old loan products. As a result, a lot of our clients are asking for reps and warrants. This made me think of high-cost issues and I looked to partner with a specialist.

"A lot of our competitors throw their own high-cost tool together instead of partnering with an expert so they can offer a better price. What's happening is the clients of those vendors are getting a lot of buybacks and the vendors are now looking to the experts anyway," noted Ms. Thompson.

"Our lenders are telling us that they need access to that expertise. The complexity of what we do is such that if you don't have the content management tools to track changes, you can create problems. You have to have a good method of taking in the requirement, quality controlling it, testing it, creating the rule and deploying it."

Specifically, Desert ...