Document imaging and data processing firm Kofax has launched new consumer-facing technology designed to make it easier for borrowers to submit their financial information for a mortgage application.
The new Mortgage Agility service lets borrowers submit electronic documents online by uploading them to lenders' websites and is designed to save time over traditional paper-based processes.
Borrowers can use the technology to submit the types of documents "that they would have had to bring to the office anyway," said David Hultquist, a vice president for marketing at Irvine, Calif.-based Kofax, in a phone interview Monday.
The application builds on Kofax's recent launch of
The product release represents a new focus on the borrower-facing experience at Kofax. "To date, most of our installations in mortgage lenders have been in back-office practices, collecting documents in bulk for the closing process," said Hultquist.
The software integrates with lenders' websites, providing an interface for document and data collection alongside other mortgage application tools. The Kofax software then extracts data from the submitted files and imports into lenders' origination systems.
Waterstone Mortgage in Milwaukee has worked with Kofax for the past year, providing feedback and suggestions on the new Agility technology.
The software, which connects to back-office systems for loan origination, "eliminates multiple human touches" in the application process, Waterstone President and CEO Eric Egenhoefer said in a phone interview.
"If the system can read a W-2," he said, then "nobody else should have to look at it."
Additionally, the software allows lenders to create business rules for alerting employees of irregularities in an application. For example, the software could flag a document that shows an applicant's bank account or income statement does not meet minimum requirements.
The software "facilitates asking the right questions to get the right documentation," Egenhoefer said.
Waterstone will pilot the technology at two of its branches this fall, and Egenhoefer said the lender plans to roll it out to the rest of its branches by the beginning of next year.
