TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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6 | TH E M R EP O RT MTECH mortgage staff. OpenClose's team of mortgage specialists manage all guidelines and pricing for Ascend. OpenClose's LenderAssist program is designed to flex and scale with the business, prevent - ing expansion challenges. "Attaining a home loan can be an intimidating, complex experi- ence for many consumers, but Ascend's focus on service and use of technology makes it very easy for members to do business with them," JP Kelly, President of OpenClose said. "LenderAssist and DecisionAssist have contrib - uted to Ascend's already high service levels by helping add sim- plicity, transparency, and excel- lence in service to members." Ocwen is a Fannie Mae STAR Performer THE AWARD RECOGNIZES TOP- PERFORMING SERVICERS IN THREE AREAS. O cwen Financial Cor- poration was named a Fannie Mae Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards (STAR) Performer for 2017. The STAR Program recognition is for top performing servicers within one or more of three STAR Per - former categories: general servic- ing, solution delivery, and timeline management. For the 2017 STAR Program year, Ocwen received a STAR Performer for general servicing, solution delivery, and timeline management. "We are extremely proud to receive the STAR award from Fannie Mae across all three cat- egories," Scott Anderson, EVP and Chief Servicing Officer of Ocwen said. "This recognition is another proof point of our team members' high standards, accountability, and commitment to service excellence, as well as the company's focus on continuous improvement in our systems and processes." The STAR Program is based on a continuous improvement model designed to consistently "raise the bar." STAR Performers are identified using operational assessment results based on Servicer Capability Model ratings across each critical functional area, including a review of relevant people strategies, processes, and applicable metrics. According to Fannie Mae, the STAR Program is a performance management and recognition program based on a consistently applied framework to clearly de - fine industry standards and lead- ing practices. The program seeks to align servicer performance with Fannie Mae's goals, provide a consistent methodology for measuring servicer performance, reduce Fannie Mae's credit losses by setting targets/expectations, understand and communicate leading practices across the servic - ing community, and identify and recognize its highest performing servicers. Ellie Mae Updates its Digital Solution THE SOLUTION INCLUDES COMPLIANCE UPDATES AND A TPO CONNECT FUNCTIONALITY. E llie Mae, a cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance indus- try, has launched a new major release of its Encompass digital mortgage solution. Ellie Mae says the release of Encompass 18.2 would help lenders of all sizes originate more loans, lower origination costs, and shorten the time to close with compli - ance, efficiency, and quality. Specifically, the new release includes compliance updates related to Know Before You Owe (KBYO) and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), as well as Construction Workflow and Correspondent Trades. Ellie Mae also announced plans for new innovative Encompass TPO Connect functionality. "Our mission is to provide com - plete digital mortgage technology to help our customers succeed by enabling them to close more loans by increasing efficiencies, reduce the time to close by offering intelli- gent automation, and reducing the cost to originate," Jonathan Corr, President, and CEO, Ellie Mae said. "With the 18.2 major release of Encompass, we are provid- ing expanded support and new capabilities to improve efficiency, transparency, and workflow automation while offering the quality and compliance synony- mous with the Ellie Mae name. Additionally, by offering an array of new functionality to Encompass TPO Connect, we're helping our third-party originators to be more productive while growing their businesses." The KBYO mortgage disclosure upgrades include updates to the loan estimate and closing disclo- sure for treatment of gift funds, closing cost expiration after Intent to Proceed and other workflows to incorporate these technical clarifications. The Construction Loan Workflow consists of updates to cash to close calculations on the loan estimate and closing disclosure input forms to align with KBYO clarifications and guidance for construction and construction-to- permanent transactions, representing a significant improvement in work - flow and efficiency for construction loans originated on the platform. Through the extensions for Correspondent Trades, corre- spondent lenders can request, and investors can initiate trade expira- tion date extensions for multiple loans within a trade, removing the friction and manual communica- tion process between lenders and investors that is often required to extend loan expiration dates. Auction.com Partners with Think Realty Radio THE ONLINE REAL ESTATE MARKETPLACE WILL SPONSOR THINK REALTY'S RADIO SHOW ON THURSDAYS. A uction.com will sponsor the Thursday show of Think Realty Radio, a national radio show airing daily on Wall Street Radio. The Think Realty Radio show debuted on Wall Street Radio on January 1, 2018, and is hosted by real estate investor, educator, radio personality, Think Realty coach, and regular Forbes contributor Abhi Golhar. The show airs at 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and "Our mission is to provide complete digital mortgage technology to help our customers succeed by enabling them to close more loans by increasing efficiencies, reduce the time to close by offering intelligent automation, and reducing the cost to originate." —Jonathan Corr, President and CEO, Ellie Mae