Chevy Chase To Launch Wholesale Web Site

Chevy Chase Bank has tapped GHR Systems, a provider of loan origination and processing technology, to design a wholesale lender Web site to provide Chevy Chase's broker network with online access to registration, lock-in, and underwriting submission services.

Bethesda, Md.-based Chevy Chase was in the market for a technology solution that would increase productivity and profits for both broker partners and its wholesale lending team.

The traditional process of receiving loan registrations and lock-in requests by fax was proving cumbersome for brokers and correspondents. Chevy Chase's key objective was to speed product eligibility and pricing decisions and complete the submission process.

"The GHR solution will enable our brokers to obtain lock-in confirmations and underwriting decisions in minutes and get them out of the business of faxing in forms and manually re-keying data from their origination systems," said Robert Broeksmit, president and chief operating officer of B.F. Saul Mortgage, the residential lending subsidiary at $11.3 billion Chevy Chase Bank.

The self-service loan origination Web site, integrated with a decisioning engine and ASP network, puts Chevy Chase in a position to provide instant loan approvals round-the-clock.

Broeksmit continued, "We want to ensure the loan origination process is extremely efficient for our brokers and correspondents so they will keep coming back to us time and again. We found that GHR's wholesale origination Web site, with its self-service features, provided the efficiency gains we sought."

The Web site, scheduled to go live in June, will enable brokers to complete the entire 1003 application online or upload the information from their origination system (including Calyx, Genesis, Byte, Contour, and other popular applications), obtain a credit report, submit for automated underwriting, and receive an instant loan decision with a risk-adjusted price.

The system will reduce not only the time required to enter and submit a loan application, but also the human error factor in keying an application. Brokers will only need to point their Internet browsers at the Chevy Chase site to access the system.

"This year, the mortgage business promises to be highly competitive with refinancings predicted to slow down considerably. Chevy Chase is focused on ways to provide new levels of service to brokers to keep them coming back to do additional business," said Cy Brinn, president of Wayne, Pa.-based GHR Systems.

GHR operates a fully redundant, high-capacity Web-hosting environment. In 2002, its lending network-a redundant, nationwide fiber optic network for Internet connectivity-processed more than 4.8 million loan origination and related services transactions.

GHR's wholesale origination Web site delivers instant loan approvals in a highly automated fashion, so that brokers can quickly determine which loan products match borrower qualifications, view broker-specific, risk-adjusted pricing, closing costs and lender/investor stipulations.

Brokers can indicate online if they want to lock or float a loan, based on mortgage-product options and lender preferences. They can also obtain credit and Fannie Mae DU and Freddie Mac LP decisions online at the point of sale.

The site provides brokers with browser-based loan origination capabilities to capture borrower data and enables uploads of loan application files from any loan origination system, including Calyx, Genesis, Contour and Byte software.

Other features include lender pipeline management, broker pipeline management, fulfillment service ordering and broker registration/administration.