Rural Development Guaranteed Loans Processing



Customer Overview The USDA - Rural Development Guaranteed Loans department provides loan guarantees for mortgage loans made to borrowers in rural areas. Commercial lenders make the mortgage loans and USDA helps borrowers or reimburses lenders if borrowers are not able to meet their loan obligations.
Needs The Guaranteed Loans department needed to automate the processing of loan transactions. USDA processors were manually processing each transaction received from a lender or borrower. Paper documents were manually routed to processors. Processors hand-keyed all data into a local database. Folders were routed for review and approval via hand delivery or through the postal service. Processing of transactions was time-consuming and cumbersome.
Solution

QFlow implemented a customized electronic document imaging and workflow application. The application automates the following business processes: Loan Modification, Special Forbearance, Property Disposition Plan, Deed in Lieu, Short Sale, Debt Settlement, Loss Claim and Future Recovery.

Paper loan forms are scanned, emails are imported and faxes are assembled by operators. The documents are OCRed and then processed by a content classification and data extraction system. The system determines the document type and extracts the data.

Based on the document type, the system automatically creates the correct transaction folder, adds the document and routes it for processing. The system populates the folder data fields with the extracted data so the processor doesn't need to key it. On the folder each data field has an indicator of the confidence level of the extracted data so fields can be easily verified and corrected if necessary.

Documents received for transactions that are already in process are automatically added to the existing work folder and the processor is alerted that the new document was added. Once a decision is made to approve or deny the requested course of action, the folder is routed electronically for review and approval. Processors enter their time spent each transaction. Managers can analyze time spent by processor, and by transaction with comparisons to average transaction times. The system was implemented in August 2008.
Benefits Documents are electronically stored and routed so they don't need to be hand-carried or mailed for processing. Processors don't need to manually key data from received forms. Processors can view a complete transaction file for each borrower including loan origination documents captured by a separate imaging application. Supervisors can better manage the workload by viewing current processor work queues and assigning or re-assigning loan transactions as needed. Productivity analysis screens allow managers to easily view performance metrics for processors. The web-based application can be accessed locally and at distributed USDA locations.
Services Provided QFlow consultants designed, developed and implemented the application. QFlow has continued to provide application enhancements, upgrades, system maintenance and technical support services.
Technical − IBM FileNet Image Services;
− Kofax Ascent Capture and INDICIUS;
− SQL Server database; and
− Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.