Credit union execs: “Park a bot” on all of the document processing needed to close loans

Automation for closing residential loans is defined as using the latest digital automation technology (such as robotic process automation or RPA, or artificial intelligence or AI) to speed throughput of document processing, while reducing human-induced errors and improving member experience.  

As you know, every residential loan closing represents a veritable mountain of paperwork. This “package” includes everything from the Uniform Residential Loan Application or URLA to three years of tax returns, and tons more.  

Today, at your credit union, you’re relying on your overworked Loan Operations team to handle all of this work. But, at its core—and detailed and vital as it certainly is—it’s just paperwork. It equates to making sure that every single document required for the closing is in the proper place, pre-close. If just one is missing or in error, things will go south very quickly.  

At a typical credit union, this work—of processing all the documents between the loan origination system or LOS and the document-management system—takes a ton of hours every year. (We’ll tell you exactly how much, in just a moment.)  

That’s why the best way to tackle this assignment is to offload it to a bot, specifically one dedicated especially to this purpose, from The Lab. We’re North America’s credit union-automation authority. We’ve built bots for everything from flood-compliance reporting to loan exception tracking and clearing, which you can read about in the linked articles.  

In this article, we’re going to walk you through the steps that a real residential pre-closing bot takes as it does its work. We’ve even created an informative (and fun) little two-minute video, showing the bot at work, which you can view right here:

The bot in this example (which The Lab created for a respected regional credit union) begins by logging in to the loan origination system or LOS, just like a person would. It even has its own username, password, and permissions regarding what it can (and can’t) access, in order to maintain the highest possible security.  

Note that bots from The Lab are system-agnostic. This means that, whatever LOS your credit union uses, the bot can use it, too. In the example video, the bot is using Finastra Fusion. But it could be any loan origination system, such as:  

• DecisionLender
• Centrex
• Turnkey Lender
• Floify
• MeridianLink
• SimpleNexus
• Others! 

Once the bot logs in, it first pulls up all the loans in the pipeline. It then clicks on the “Borrower Summary” in the LOS.  

And while you may think that credit union-automation bots simply mimic what humans can do, that’s not always the case. For example, when the bot brings up the “Borrower Summary,” it memorizes the entire thing, instantly. No human can do that; for the bot, it’s easy.

Next, the bot switches to the credit union’s document-management system; this is where it will need to populate the folders for each of the loans in the pipeline.   

To repeat: Credit union bots from The Lab are platform-agnostic, so it doesn’t matter which document-management system you use. If your people use it, the bot can, too. The bot in this video is using AccuSystems, but it could just as easily use one from DocPath, Accusoft, Vertafore, or any of hundreds of others.   

Incidentally, the platform-agnostic nature of credit union bots extends beyond the LOS and the document-management system. It applies to the core, whether it’s from, say, FIS, Fiserv, or Jack Henry. And it applies to every ancillary system, from Excel to Outlook to Acrobat and more.   

Once it’s in the document-management system, this residential pre-close document bot really gets to work. It creates a new loan in the system. It populates all the fields for the new loan. It updates the record.   

And using the information it had memorized from the LOS, it types in the loan’s guarantor. It updates the collateral information. It attaches the borrower’s tax return (pulling the PDF from the credit union’s shared drive) and repeats this process for all three years of required tax returns.   

It’s not done. Far from it. Because this bot finds, and attaches, literally dozens of required documents, including:  

• Uniform Residential Loan Application
• Appraisal Checklist
• Monthly Statement
• Confirmation Letters
• Credit Report
• Tons more 

Once the bot completes all the required paperwork, it shifts to the next loan in the pipeline. And it repeats all of the steps it just did for the first loan.  

Unlike a person, the bot never slows down. It doesn’t get tired. It doesn’t take breaks. And it doesn’t make mistakes or typos. It simply does what it’s programmed to do.  

Once it’s finished the entire queue, the bot then creates an email and sends it to the team, listing every loan that’s ready for closing! (And the bot also calls out any “exceptions” it couldn’t process, due to, say, missing information, that will require human intervention and follow-up.)  

It takes a highly trained person an hour to prepare all of these documents for a single loan. The bot does it—faster and more accurately—in just minutes. In fact, this one bot alone will save the average credit union 360 hours of detailed labor a year, every year.

Credit Union executives are turning to The Lab to accelerate automation/AI readiness, lay the groundwork for strategic end-to-end process/product innovation, and implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA) “bots” to automate dozens of processes. With as few as three RPA bots from The Lab, you, too, can begin implementing on your company-wide strategic innovation roadmap—and start seeing hard-dollar benefits within weeks.

The best way to appreciate the speed and game-changing power of the automation suites installed by The Lab is to see it for yourself. Schedule a free, no-obligation 30-minute screen-sharing demo with The Lab, and you’ll see RPA bots in action. You’ll learn how we do all this from our U.S. offices in Houston, with nothing outsourced or offshored, and get all your questions answered by our friendly experts. Hedge your company against employee turnover, eliminate errors, and put your organization on a roadmap to accelerate your automation and AI initiatives.

Simply call (201) 526-1200 or email info@thelabconsulting.com to book your demo today!