Online system for fulfiling loan applications from loan originators

• US 20030233316A1
• Filed: 06/14/2002
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ICE Mortgage Technology, Inc. (Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ellie Mae Incorporated (Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.)
• Inventors: Khanpour, Babak, Wu, Ting-Hu, Hu, Limin
• Granted Patent: US 7,444,302 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A loan submission and processing system is described. A processing and submission client/server system transmits relevant loan information from a borrower to one or more lender computer systems through pre-defined file templates, which are utilized during loan origination. An automatic data flow process from the origination screen populates the relevant fields in any other related loan forms and word processing documents. Different forms are supported for different types of loans. The loan originator computer system includes a loan origination software program integrated with a web-browser based interface system. The interface system couples the loan origination software program to one or more partner computers. The partners comprise loan underwriters, lenders, and settlement service vendors. The interface system provides dynamic formatting and data transmission for different connections depending on the transaction type and target partner. In a web-based implementation, the interface system populates data directly from the loan origination software program to the appropriate web pages of the target partners.

Claims

1. A loan application interface system for coupling a loan originator computer to one or more partner computers running financial services software programs, the system comprising:

a loan origination software program resident on the loan originator computer;

a web browser application resident on the loan originator computer;

a formatting process integrated in the web browser application and configured to re-format and publish loan application information provided by the loan origination software program into a format compatible with a financial service software program of a target partner computer of the one or more partner computers;

a transmission process integrated in the web browser application and configured to transmit reformatted loan application information to the target partner computer.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more partner computers comprises at least one of the following, a lender computer, an underwriter company computer, and a settlement service vendor computer.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the target partner computer executes a web browser client process.

4. The system of claim 3 further comprising a server process operable to serve to the formatting process one or more modules for processing the loan application information.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the one or more modules comprises a program downloaded from the server process to a desktop process executing the formatting process of the loan originator computer.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the one or more modules comprises an instruction script downloaded from the server process for local execution by the web browser application.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the instruction script comprises a Visual Basic script.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein the formatting process is downloaded to the desktop process for local execution by the web browser application.

9. The system of claim 5 wherein the data is validated by the desktop process prior to transmission to the target partner computer.

10. The system of claim 3 wherein the loan information data is transmitted to the target partner computer by a transmission method selected from the group consisting of synchronous transmission, polling-based transmission, and asynchronous transmission.

11. The system of claim 5 further comprising a log routine executed by the desktop process, and configured to store results of the transmission operation in a memory functionally coupled to the web browser application.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising a data input module executed by the desktop process configured to receive return information from the target partner computer and display the return information in a format compatible with the web browser application.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the return information is merged with the loan application information and stored by the loan origination software program.

14. A method for processing and submitting loan application data over a computer network coupling a loan originator computer to one or more lender computers, the method comprising the steps of:

providing, on the loan originator computer, at least one file template comprising a number of user input fields, through a graphical user interface accessible on a user computer, each file template corresponding to a document within a loan application;

accepting user specified data for one or more of the user input fields;

automatically entering the user specified data into corresponding user input fields in any other file template that includes such corresponding user input fields;

calculating, on the loan originator computer, data entries for input fields on the one or more file templates that depend on data from one or more other input fields; and

transmitting from the loan originator computer, the file template containing the user specified data to a lender computer of the one or more lender computers.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the loan application comprises an on-line version of a loan application package available from a lender.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the graphical user interface comprises a web browser interface resident on the loan originator computer and integrated with a loan origination program executed by the loan originator computer for processing the loan application.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of storing the user specified data in a memory coupled to the loan originator computer.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the file template is selected from the group of document types consisting of word processing documents, commercially formatted loan application documents, government specified loan application documents and spreadsheet program documents.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the loan application is selected from the group consisting of federal housing authority loan, veterans administration loan, and conventional mortgage loan.

20. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of:

determining, on the loan originator computer, a type of loan the user is interested in obtaining to establish a desired loan;

performing, on the loan originator computer, a pre-qualification analysis of the user in relation to the desired loan; and

providing, on the loan originator computer, to the user a list of one or more lenders who can provide the desired loan through the graphical user interface.

21. The method of claim 17 further comprising the steps of:

establishing an account for the user upon transmission of the at least one file is template containing the user specified data to a lender computers of the one or more lender computers;

storing the user information in the memory coupled to the server computer; and

using the stored user information to compile a profile for the user.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising the step of automatically entering user specified data into corresponding user input fields in any subsequent file templates provided to the user based on the profile for the user stored in the memory.

23. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of:

tracking, on the loan originator computer, the one or more completed file templates through the network coupling the loan originator client computer to the one or more lender computers;

providing a means to check the status of an existing loan application; and

logging the loan application transaction in the memory coupled to the server computer.

24. The method of claim 15 wherein the network comprises the Internet, and wherein the at least one file template is a loan application consisting of content generated by a standardized markup language, and further wherein the user computer accesses the loan originator computer through a web browser process.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the markup language comprises hypertext markup language.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the markup language comprises extensible markup language.