RISMEDIA, Feb. 28, 2008-Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (FIS) announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched a new Web-based reporting application for mortgage servicers called Veterans Affairs’ Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI). FIS developed VALERI in collaboration with VA.
VALERI is built upon the FIS Desktop, a highly efficient workflow, imaging, expense and communication management system that provides real-time connectivity among lenders, service providers, vendors and portfolio investors.
VALERI, according to the company, enables mortgage servicers to report “significant events,” through either the servicing system or the servicer’s Web portal user-interface within VALERI, eliminating many manual processes, as well as paper, facsimile, e-mail and verbal reporting for both the servicer and VA. Significant events are milestones that must be reported in order to maintain compliance with VA’s regulations. Examples of these events are when VA-guaranteed loans – or the servicing rights to those loans – are sold, when a loan modification is complete or when a repayment plan is approved.
“The VALERI application service was designed to support the largest regulatory revision in the history of VA’s home loan program,” said Dick Fyne, deputy director of VA’s Loan Guaranty Service. “This new technology will help improve services provided to veterans and the servicing community while reducing costs to the government.”
This regulatory revision transformed VA’s role from supplemental servicer to servicing oversight, resulting in increased reporting requirements for mortgage clients. By deploying VALERI, the VA has provided an electronic solution enabling its clients to send and receive the data they previously were transmitting manually.
“FIS is proud to have partnered with VA to deliver a combination of a robust workflow, document management and a business rules engine that represents a significant step forward in technology for VA,” said Laura MacIntyre, chief operating officer for the FIS Desktop group. “We are confident that our partnership will accelerate processing, improve communication and reduce costs for all industry participants.”
VA and FIS will continue to transition servicers onto the VALERI platform through November 2008.
In other company news, FIS also announced the release of FIS Desktop 2008, what the company considers the most significant and comprehensive release of the company’s workflow management system.
FIS Desktop 2008 is a highly efficient imaging, retrieval, expense and communication management system that provides real-time connectivity to participants in the mortgage banking and financial industries. It links FIS’ default customers to more than 10,000 vendors, service providers and investors through a single user-interface and streamlines complex work processes by automating labor-intensive functions and eliminating the need to build multiple interfaces among various data and service suppliers. FIS Desktop 2008 also generates advanced reporting and performance metrics, which significantly reduce the manual effort required to process default files.
The FIS Desktop 2008 release was a multiyear project, according to the company. It includes a redesigned user interface and development framework that will enhance user experience, increase flexibility and allow advanced integration with other industry partners. It enables clients to view all active loans in FIS’ Mortgage Servicing Package (MSP) through the product’s user interface and to launch workflows from mortgage servicing systems using a combination of business rules. Workflow processes can be deployed across the organization in real time, helping to break down operational barriers and improve communications internally and with vendors.
“The FIS Desktop 2008 application is a ground-breaking enterprise solution that will greatly simplify workflow and eliminate the labyrinth of service bureau wrap applications maintained by many of our mortgage servicing clients,” said Greg Whitworth, president, FIS’ LPS division. “It delivers upon our commitment to provide a simple, one-stop solution that improves scalability and efficiency, while reducing operational and IT expenses.”
For more information, visit www.fidelityinfoservices.com.
