E-Loans Improve Post-Close Data.

TROY, MI -- Joining the ranks of Navy Federal Credit Union, AmTrust Bank, 1st Advantage, First Houston Mortgage and few other leading-edge lenders, Flagstar Bank has gone live with e-mortgages. Separating them from the others, Flagstar will actually use the e-mortgage process to automate the better portion of post-closing by controlling the data to mitigate buybacks and ensure a clean mortgage each and every time.

"Our goal was to change the process as little as possible," said Brian Boike, first vice president and process improvement manager at Flagstar. "We'll start small to get some initial benefits and move out from there."

Mr. Boike estimated that 120 loans a month are eligible for e-closing. However, he believes that number will substantially increase as the industry moves back to conventional loan products. Flagstar defines an eligible e-mortgage as one that is sellable on the secondary market.

To assist Flagstar in this effort they deployed the Fiserv eLending platform, which closely collaborated with the other parties to put together a successful e-mortgage chain. "A lot of shops are looking at how they can do e-closings now," said Kim Weaver, vice president, product management, e-lending services at Fiserv. "Lenders are no longer just looking at this to launch a pilot and do one or two e-mortgages, they're looking at this as a fundamental business process change.

"Everyone agrees that this is inevitable and a competitive differentiator. Those ...