Lancaster Pollard Relies on FICS^®' Commercial Servicer^® Software to Automate Loan Servicing Through Years of Tremendous Portfolio Growth

The Challenge: Providing Quality Service in the Ever-Changing Mortgage Landscape

Founded in 1988, Columbus, Ohio-based Lancaster Pollard helps health care, senior living and housing providers expand and improve their services by providing a full range of investment banking, mortgage banking, private equity, balance sheet financing, M&A and investment advisory services, with regional banking offices in Atlanta, Austin, Kansas City, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. In 2001, as the company began planning to expand its CRE servicing business, Lancaster Pollard began looking into software that would enable it to manage its portfolio and scale with its growth. Lancaster Pollard needed a reliable system that would help it report timely and accurate information to investors and maintain compliance through frequent changes in the industry.

After looking into several options, Lancaster Pollard made the decision to implement FICS^®’ Commercial Servicer^® software to equip the company with a system to automate and handle its CRE loan servicing needs. One of the most impressive aspects to company executives is how Commercial Servicer has been able to scale with the lender’s growth.

“Since implementing Commercial Servicer in 2001, we have grown from a portfolio of 20 loans to 900 loans,” said Shelly Harvey, senior vice president and director of Servicing. “Demands on the system have changed and servicing has become more complex, but FICS has been more than able to handle the growth and change at every turn.”

The firm uses Commercial Servicer to track the entire history of each loan, produce billing statements and report directly to its investors, including Ginnie Mae and Fannie Mae.

Lancaster Pollard Continues Relationship with FICS to Further Servicing Success

Over the years, Lancaster Pollard has added new solutions to further provide value to its customer base. One of the most successful additions is Loanstat^®, an online banking system that provides borrowers and investors with full access to commercial mortgage loan data, documents and online payments for borrowers. LoanStat has enabled Lancaster Pollard to reduce mailing statements to clients via electronic documents and improved customer experience by providing 24/7 access to loan information.

“The majority of our clients prefer e-documents and are able to quickly access this information through the online portal,” said Harvey.  “Since most statements are now retrieved online, we’ve greatly reduced our paper costs, which has freed up funds to help us better serve our customers. LoanStat has been extremely valuable and created increased efficiency in our organization as a whole.”

Continued Progression 14 Years Later

One of the keys to the long-term partnership between Lancaster Pollard and FICS is the ongoing support and training. FICS provides continuous customer support, offers detailed webinars and reviews product progress on-site to ensure efficient operations for the organization.

“When we first implemented Commercial Servicer, I was very new to the industry and had to do a lot of the set up on my own,” said Harvey. “I spent hours on the phone with customer support representatives who were more than willing to ensure everything was set up the way we needed throughout the entire process.”

Since then, Lancaster Pollard has expanded from a department of one person to four teams that utilize Commercial Servicer for investor reporting, investor accounting, client relationships and tax and insurance purposes.

Another factor to the long partnership is FICS’ commitment to compliance. Harvey added that with every new regulatory change related to the system, FICS always had the software updated well in advance of the deadline and offered educational resources to help comply.

“We aim to continuously use Commercial Servicer to its maximum capacity,” said Harvey. “We’ve been able to rely on FICS for 14 years, and they’ve never let us down. They’ve been ahead of every compliance change, and we’ve never missed a deadline or a submission to investors due to software failure. We couldn’t imagine working with anyone else.”

About Lancaster Pollard Mortgage Company

Lancaster Pollard Mortgage Company’s professionals originate, underwrite and service mortgage loans insured or guaranteed by governmental agencies and sponsored enterprises, including the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Fannie Mae. Lancaster Pollard Mortgage Company is a Fannie Mae-approved lender and a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-approved LEAN and Multifamily Accelerated Process (MAP) lender. For more information, visit www.lancasterpollard.com.  

About FICS

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Financial Industry Computer Systems, Inc. (FICS), specializes in providing flexible, comprehensive residential and commercial technology solutions to the mortgage industry.  FICS' systems are designed to operate on Microsoft^® Windows^® platforms with the most recent solutions written using .NET Framework that include a rich Windows^® Presentation Foundation user interface and multi-tiered shareable services.  The company also provides innovative document management and web-based capabilities into its full suite of products.  Additional information about FICS is available via the company's website at www.FICS.com.