Borrowers are now able to upload digital bank statements, shaving days off the loan process
June 5, 2018 – Middletown, Rhode Island – Embrace Home Loans, a growing, digitally-focused mortgage lender, announced that its borrowers can now rapidly verify assets through a digital experience, eliminating the need for borrowers to print, copy and email paper bank statements, thereby reducing the process to secure a mortgage by up to a week or more.
The innovation is a result of a software integration between Finicity, a leading provider of real-time financial data aggregation and insights, and Embrace’s loan origination system. When borrowers apply for a mortgage online, they can simply give Embrace permission to generate a verification of assets report using data direct from their bank. This process is more secure than sending printed documents or electronic documents via fax or email. The new capability also enables Embrace to take advantage of Fannie Mae’s Day 1 Certainty program, as Finicity is an approved report provider. This program provides lenders faster documented loan approvals.
“This is a dramatically improved experience for Embrace and for our customers,” said Embrace Home Loans CEO Dennis Hardiman. “With Finicity’s help, we’ve removed one of the biggest sources of friction in the mortgage process, which is documenting the borrower’s assets and income. It’s a landmark development in our journey toward becoming a fully digital mortgage lender.”
“More and more, customers expect services that they can access online via their phones or PCs, and it must be easy to understand and use,” said Steve Smith, Finicity’s CEO. “Embrace gets this, allowing us to work together to accelerate the mortgage process for borrowers while enabling them to retain total control over their financial information. We are excited to integrate with a digital innovator like Embrace.”
Because Embrace is working directly with Finicity instead of going through a third-party vendor, the integration between the two companies is more flexible than similar arrangements. For example, Embrace is able to collect complete bank statements, which it can use to help assess a borrower’s income and cash flow. This is particularly helpful for self-employed borrowers, who often have difficulties verifying income because they are paid irregularly. For loan approval purposes, self-employed borrowers can now use cash flow data in their bank statements instead of tax forms.
“Ensuring a borrower’s assets and income in just minutes not only lets us streamline approvals, we’re also removing hurdles for non-conventional loan borrowers as well,” Hardiman said. “After years of watching frustrated borrowers wrestle with requesting, copying and scanning paper bank statements, we’re now seeing loans sail through our system. In a word, it’s breathtaking. And our customers couldn’t be happier.”
About Finicity
Finicity enables a financial data-sharing ecosystem that is secure, inclusive and innovative. Through its real-time financial data aggregation and insights platform, Finicity provides solutions for financial management, payments and credit decisioning, while also leading the development and promotion of industry standards. The company has developed more than 16,000 bank integrations, with the vast majority through connections that provide access to formatted bank data, improving information access and accuracy. Finicity was awarded API World’s 2016 Finance API of the Year and is a 2018 HousingWire Tech100 winner. To stay up to date on all Finicity company and product announcements, visit the website at www.finicity.com.
About Embrace Home Loans
Founded in 1983, Embrace Home Loans has remained a prominent leader in the industry, having afforded borrowers and financial institutions an exceptional mortgage experience. Licensed in 46 states and D.C., Embrace has been recognized seven times as one of the Best Medium-sized Companies to Work for in America by Fortune and five times as one of the Fastest Growing Companies in America by Inc. The company has also been recognized twelve times as one of the Best Places to Work in Rhode Island, as the Most Community Involved Company in Rhode Island, and the Leadership Excellence Award by Providence Business News. For more information, please visit www.embracehomeloans.com.