FICS^®' Document Services Interface Provides Customers Flexibility to Select Document Services Providers that Support MISMO^® for TRID

DALLAS, Oct. 22, 2015 — As financial institutions across the country work to manage the recent changes to mortgage disclosure forms mandated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Financial Industry Computer Systems (FICS^®) made major changes to its loan origination software, Loan Producer^®, to ensure that its customers would be able to comply with the new Integrated Disclosures regulations.

One of these major changes was the creation of the Document Services Interface, which allows users of FICS’ Loan Producer software to select any document service provider that complies with the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO^®) 3.3 file specifications. This file format, which is the only MISMO version that includes the necessary Truth-in-Lending/Real Estate Settlement Integrated Disclosure (TRID) fields for lenders, provides the channel for exporting the loan application data from the loan origination software into the document service provider’s system for document generation and other services provided by the vendor. 

FICS also took into consideration that not all loan types fell under the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure changes. Applications received prior to Oct. 3 still required the use of the GFE, HUD-1, and Truth-in-Lending forms. To lessen confusion for customers, system changes incorporated new data windows and logic for a clear separation of the previous disclosures and regulation requirements and the new Integrated Disclosure requirements.

In addition to the updates to its software, the new interface, and long hours of testing, FICS also expanded customer service capabilities to assist its lenders in the transition. Liz Conrado, vice president of Residential Lending at Westminster, Calif.-based LBS Financial Credit Union, credits FICS’ Loan Producer customer support team for helping her and her staff get through the change to the new Integrated Disclosures.

“Each time we called or emailed with a question or an issue someone at FICS was always willing to go the extra mile to help us. In fact, if the issue turned out to be something that our document vendor needed to address, an FICS employee would contact our document vendor to explain the issue. We really appreciate this. FICS’ intervention would result in us getting a quicker resolution than if we would have tried to explain the issue ourselves,” Conrado said. “We know there have been problems related to TRID, but I really feel that FICS has worked tirelessly to correct the problems and to openly communicate with us and other customers to fix these issues.”

Conrado added, “We have done a tremendous amount of testing, and we’re excited that we have been able to send the Loan Estimate without any issues. Currently, we’re testing the Closing Document, and it looks good, thanks to FICS!”

Heidi Campbell, operations project manager at Think Mutual Bank in Rochester, Minn., added that transitioning to TRID has been stressful. Although there have been problems, she feels that FICS has been great with its customer service and resolving problems as they happen.

 “I view this as a collaboration between Think Mutual and FICS – not us versus them,” Campbell said. “We created an ongoing issues log to track problems, which we sent to FICS. One particular FICS employee has been extremely diligent with resolving our issues one-by-one, regardless of how time-consuming and tedious the process is. This really feels like a partnership between us and FICS.”

Susan Graham, president of FICS, explained, “The rollout of a major regulatory change – one that impacts technology and the loan workflow process – often comes with some challenges. FICS spent the past year working with our customers, document service providers and our own products to prepare as much as possible for the roll-out of TRID. It’s a testament to the quality of our support staff that our lenders are able to work through any issues that have come up. We realize that it will take some time for everyone to fully adjust to the new rules and for it to become second nature. Until this time, as I’m sure is the case with other companies, FICS is here to work through any issues with the customers and document service providers.”  

Bonnie Downing, mortgage operations manager at Northeast Credit Union in Portsmouth, N.H., admits that switching to the TRID regulations has not gone as smoothly as she hoped, but the responsiveness and willingness to find answers demonstrated by FICS’ customer support has definitely made a difference.

“Implementing the TRID changes has been a challenge; however, FICS employees have gone above and beyond,” Downing said. “Each time we have called FICS with an issue, someone patiently helped us resolve the issue whether the issue resided with the FICS system or the document service provider.”

About FICS
Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Financial Industry Computer Systems, Inc. (FICS), specializes in providing flexible, comprehensive residential and commercial software solutions to the mortgage industry. FICS' software systems are designed to operate on Microsoft^® Windows^® platforms using Microsoft^® .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 in its full suite of products. Additional information about FICS is available at www.FICS.com.

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