Two New England-based financial institutions have installed a new version of loan-processing software aimed at squeezing the most bang for the buck out of personal computers.
Plymouth Mortgage Co., Middleboro, Mass., and Dutch Point Credit Union, Wethersfield, Conn., recently installed the new software from Computer Software Specialists, Carver, Mass. Called Loan Originator, the software has been upgraded for use with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system for PCs.
The graphics-oriented Windows environment, which controls the basic functions of a computer, is now being used on nearly 25% of the 766,000 PCs in commercial banks, according to the American Banker/Ernst & Young 1992 technology survey.
Computer Software Specialists officials said they believe Loan Originator is the first mortgage-processing system to run in the Windows environment.
This turnkey system automates all aspects of mortgage lending from origination and processing to secondary marketing. Loan Originator is installed at over 50 U.S. financial institutions, a number of which are upgrading to the Windows version, officials at Computer Software Specialists said.
Plymouth Mortgage, a wholly owned subsidiary of $470 million-asset Plymouth Savings Bank, is one of the largest mortgage companies in New England, processing over $300 million in mortgages annually.
Earlier this year, Plymouth Mortgage switched to a network of PCs, from a Wang minicomputer. The conversion was a good opportunity to use Windows as well, said Brenda Pelicano, a mortgage services administrator.
"With Windows you can do multiple jobs at once," Ms. Pelicano said. "Let's say I'm in the middle of working on an application and someone calls needing confirmation on a loan amount: I can stop what I'm working on and jump into a window to answer the question."
Timothy Roy, a vice president at $80 million-asset Dutch Point Credit Union, said the Windows-based software has led to better handling of increased volume, and faster closings in.
Up from Manual Processing
Applications were processed manually before the credit union installed Loan Originator earlier this year for its two-person mortgage department.
"We did over $10 million in mortgages last year and that's a lot of paperwork for two people," Mr. Roy said. "Now everything is in the system and we're closing deals in three weeks instead of four or five."
In addition to working with Windows operating system, Loan Originator runs on DOS and Unix-based hardware.
