Illini Bank Practices Rules Relationship Management

Maintaining consistent communication across channels and departments is a staple of CRM, but for Illini Bank, it’s also a good way to make sure everybody at the bank knows about rapidly evolving lending rules.

“It’s frustrating, you learn one set of rules, then you get another,” says Gregg Formigoni, vp of retail and mortgage lending for the $250 million institution serving the central part of Illinois. As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issued rapid-fire changes in loan level pricing and altered GSE programs amid the mortgage crisis, the bank is using Mortgagebot’s suite of integrated point of sale mortgage processing tools in part to ensure uniform implementation at all staff levels.

The technology is primarily designed to ensure customers receive consistent customer service and communication at all channels across the enterprise, and the bank is using it for that purpose—recently deploying a new Mortgagebot platform called Mortgagebot Advisor, which allows call center and branch staff to receive mortgage applications in minutes.
But the bank has also found that additional benefits can be gleaned by being able to quickly respond to a volatile GSE landscape, seamlessly altering some mortgage products, while backing off others entirely, such as 100 percent financed GSE loans.

“We’re obviously not taking applications for programs that are no longer available,” Formigoni says. “You don’t want to make a mistake with customers a loan that Fannie Mae won’t buy anymore.”

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