Automated mortgage application handling means better member service

The ReadSoft effect on: Virginia Credit Union
Process: Customer driven processes
Segment: Bank/Finance
Country: US

Virginia Credit Union (VACU) is a not-for-profit financial cooperative offering banking services including savings and checking accounts, loans, and mortgages, as well as financial education resources for its 190,000 members.

The problem

As most credit unions, VACU receives a lot of incoming correspondence. This correspondence has to be sorted and routed to the correct people for processing. Increasingly, VACU and its members rely on electronic documents instead of paper which affects how documents are handled. To increase efficiency and accommodate a paperless environment, VACU investigated modernizing the document handling process, starting with mortgage applications. They set up a project with ReadSoft‘s CLASSIFY and INDEX software, and the electronic workflow system eFlow from NMS Imaging.

The solution

Incoming mortgage application documents are scanned or imported while CLASSIFY and INDEX "read" the documents (interpreting and extracting the data). The software is then able to classify the documents into different groups. At VACU, the mortgage applications are automatically classified into 140 different document types. The previous solution had only 5 high-level groups.

CLASSIFY and INDEX also extracts key information such as name, member number, branch number etc., which can be used for searching and retrieving the documents later on or for updating the mortgage origination system.

The eFlow electronic workflow system then routes the documents to the right person in the organization for processing and triggers automated actions based on the document’s receipt.

Cara Gwinn is Assistant Vice President of Records Management at VACU and was responsible for the project. "During the implementation of this project, we experienced some challenges and we originally underestimated the number of document types there were to be processed. But with good support from NMS Imaging and ReadSoft, we kept on going and were determined that this was the future for us. Now no one can imagine going back to the old way of working," says Gwinn.

The results

"One of the main advantages of this new system is that we have been able to improve our member service, and the staff handling the mortgage applications can do their jobs more easily and efficiently," says Gwinn. "Before, it could take weeks before the documents reached our servicing group after the loan closed. Now everyone involved can view the documents the same day they arrive."

Becky Lewis is Supervisor of Records Management at VACU’s Imaging Lab, which is the starting point for the process. She also is impressed by the solution. "The touch time for handling each application in the Imaging Lab has improved substantially. Before CLASSIFY and INDEX, it took us about 30 seconds to process a document. Now we only verify the captured data with a click of the mouse. This has lowered the touch time by 60%."

Another advantage is that VACU now can adjust easily to changing market demands. For example, in the spring of 2009, the number of mortgage applications suddenly increased tenfold. "Thanks to CLASSIFY and INDEX and eFlow, we were able to handle this increase with the same number of employees," says Lewis.

The future

Two years after the implementation, the solution is supporting the mortgage handling process at VACU, and the credit union is now implementing a similar process for consumer lending documents. "The document volume is growing while also becoming increasingly paperless. Our goal is to assist and support the consumer lending staff, just as we have been able to do with mortgages," says Gwinn.