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Special Reports
Document Services
E-Disclosure Customers Increase
By Jennifer Harmon
HOUSTON-Encomia, a provider of end-to-end e-mortgage technology, has witnessed
more than a 25% increase in its number of e-disclosure customers since March.
The company has added nine new customers for Encomia eDisclosures, a solution
designed to speed up the residential mortgage loan application process by enabling borrowers to review and sign
their upfront disclosures and loan applications online.
Encomia's eDisclosures enables brokers and lenders to create an electronic loan
document package in its loan origination system and post it online for signing in SMART Doc format, saving time
and money by eliminating considerable amounts of paper and overnight shipping costs. eDisclosures also makes the
lending process easier for borrowers. A link to the application and disclosures is sent to borrowers by e-mail,
allowing them to review and sign the documents when convenient.
"Much of the excellent feedback we're receiving from our e-mortgage customers
is being passed on from their borrowers," said Andrew Dubinsky, chief executive officer of Encomia. "This
technology enables them to easily sign upfront documents from the comfort of their own home."
A lot of lenders are in a position today where they do not want to change their
systems, because there is too much risk and it takes too much capital, said Mr. Dubinsky. "Over the last five
years, people have gotten very tired of upgrading to incrementally a better LOS and spending two to three years
and a multiple of what they expected to spend configuring something, and in the end, not be very happy with it,"
he said.
"Back in 2004 everybody had money and people were willing to throw down seven
to eight figures to do a major system upgrade. Today they're just not willing to do that. Lenders are looking at
smaller budgets and smaller staff. The loan volume doesn't support major initiatives either."
Encomia's product works a little differently than everyone else, adds Mr. Dubinsky.
"We come in and we convert their existing documents. Whatever they have, we convert that to the MISMO SMART
Doc. That gives us a tremendous advantage. All we are doing is plugging in to whatever system they already have.
If it's Calyx - great, or Encompass or Empower. We've probably worked with 10 different LOSs. We work with a number
of doc prep companies. That's not our issue. We're not trying to fix the LOS, doc prep system, or their forms.
We're trying to give them a capability that they can convert and plug in right now."
Lenders need short-term wins in today's market, Mr. Dubinsky stresses. The idea
of a three- to five-year procurement and configuration plan like an LOS or switching to a doc prep system is not
happening in this current environment. Clients hope to be up and running in two or three months. "Because
of that, we're seeing tremendous sales growth and we're up 15-fold from last year," he said. "We're seeing
a lot more small ball, projects that are stuff where people say 'get me an immediate ROI.' People need to show
a positive ROI, typically in the turn of a year. If you're going to spend some money, you need at the very least
to break even on that spend. It's a hand-to-mouth IT approach. Most core changes are multiyear paybacks. People
are just not in multiyear payback mode right now. They're really thinking preservation of capital and survival."
Mr. Dubinsky believes the business model of a few years ago where a broker would
bring a loan to a wholesaler and they wouldn't know where the borrower came from - is gone. "Today you are
dealing with a mortgage bank, someone with size. They are doing due diligence underwriting. Their brokers are licensed
in many cases. There is all sorts of fraud checking going on. It's not the wild and crazy days of what it was a
few years ago. It's much more business oriented. It's almost like you have to know someone to get a mortgage loan
today."
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