Enhancements to Locking & Adjustments - Automated Concessions*

Overview

Release 6.0.4000 includes the following changes to Locking & Adjustments in oPOS:

• two new configurations have been added to Vendor Manager that allow admins to enable automated processing of price concession requests. Previously, when a concession was approved the system would send an email to the lock desk mailbox, which is configured through "General Lock Deck Mailbox for Approved Concession". With this enhancement, the system will no longer send the approved concession data through email, but rather it is sent directly through the API, based on the following new configurations.
  
  • "Activate Send Approved Concession to Pricing Engine" - when enabled, this configuration allows the "approved" concession request to be sent to the lock desk vendor via the API, instead of email.
    • As a result, it is no longer necessary for the system to send a notification email to the "General Lock Deck Mailbox for Approved Concession". Therefore, iMP System Admin > Locking Configuration > "Send Concession Email Notifications" must be set to "No"
  • "Activate Send Requested Concession to Pricing Engine" - when enabled, this configuration attempts to deliver requested concessions by the loan team to the locking desk via an API.
    • NOTE: When this configuration is utilized the auto decision making process will be processed according to the preset concession limits set forth within the pricing engine. In short, there are configurations that need to happen within the pricing engine, not just oPOS.
• the Add Item button has been replaced with the Add Concession button, which now opens a separate concession request window 
• users will now be prompted to indicate whether they want to keep or remove any existing concessions when the market price of the selected loan product has changed

What is the advantage of utilizing this enhancement? 

When "Activate Send Approved Concession to Pricing Engine" is enabled the API does the legwork of applying the concession decision within the pricing engine. When disabled a member of the lock desk team must manually apply the concession within the pricing engine after being alerted by email.

When "Activate Send Requested Concession to Pricing Engine" is enabled the loan teams request is sent directly to the pricing engine where it is either approved or denied based on preconfigured tolerances, set within that application. In short, this automation allows the lock desk decision maker to offload this menial task. 

Note: This feature only affects pricing concessions. Updates to rate concessions will be addressed in a subsequent release.

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Configure Automated Pricing Concessions

Users with oPOS Admin credentials now have the ability to configure the system to automate part or all of the processing of pricing concessions. Use the following steps to set up the new configurations:

1. Access Vendor Manager: Admin > Vendor Manager
2. Open the Pricing section
3. Open Vendor Product Settings for Optimal Blue
4. Enable the desired configuration: 
   • Enable "Activate Send Approved Concession to Pricing Engine"
     • When enabled, this configuration allows the "approved" concession request to be sent to the lock desk vendor via the API, instead of email.
       • As a result, it is no longer necessary for the system to send a notification email to the "General Lock Deck Mailbox for Approved Concession". Therefore, iMP System Admin > Locking Configuration > "Send Concession Email Notifications" must be set to "No"
   • Enable "Activate Send Requested Concession to Pricing Engine" 
     • When enabled, this configuration will bypass the request/approval process within oPOS and instead will send the request to the pricing engine for review via the API.
     • NOTE: When this configuration is utilized the auto decision making process will be processed according to the preset concession limits set forth within the pricing engine. In short, there are configurations that need to happen within the pricing engine, not just oPOS.
   • If neither configuration is enabled, then "approved" concessions will be sent via email and not directly through the API. The workflow for the requested concessions will remain within oPOS.

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Add New Pricing Concession

To add a pricing concession, click the new Add Concession button on the "Locking & Adjustments" page, which opens the "Adjustments - Concession Request" window. 

NOTE: new pricing concessions cannot be added if a pending concession request already exists. Additionally, pricing concessions may only be applied in two scenarios: 

1. At Lock - meaning the concession has been approved in oPOS and will be sent with the lock request to the pricing engine. In this scenario, the locking request will be processed first, followed by the concession within the pricing engine. "Activate Send Requested Concession to Pricing Engine" must be disabled because the pricing engine cannot make a concession decision prior to a locking decision. 
2. Post Lock - meaning the lock status in oPOS is marked as "Locked". In this case either of the enhanced automated concession configurations may be utilized. 

The Concession Request window contains the following fields:

1. Concession Type - price or rate concession. The options that appear here are dependent on the privileges held by the user
2. Current Price - the price of the loan product obtained by the pricing engine (calculated automatically)
3. Price Concession - the numerical value of the concession. Use the radio buttons to select the correct unit ($ or %)
4. Requested Price - represents the projected price after the requested concession (calculated automatically)
5. Concession Reason - cause for the concession request
6. Concession Paid By - the entity that will pay the cost of the concession
7. Concession Approver - the name of the user that needs to approve the concession. The options that appear here are those users who have been assigned to the relevant role in iMP System Admin (Rate Concession Approver/Price Concession Approver)
   1. NOTE: The Concession Approver line will not appear if the "Activate Send Requested Concession to Pricing Engine" configuration is enable, since the decisioning process will move to the pricing engine via the API.
8. Requestor Comments - any additional information provided by the user

Once these fields are completed, click Submit Request. Upon submission, the current status of the concession will appear in the top right corner of the window and the fields will become disabled. The request will be processed according to the approval configurations outlined above. If the request needs to be approved, a will be sent to the concession approver.

You can continue to check on the status of a submitted concession request within the Price Concession Status table

The user may need to apply the "Approved" concession depending on whether or not the concession was delivered to the pricing engine. For concessions that have not been delivered to the pricing engine, the concession may be moved between Loan Officer Table of Adjustments and the Concession Status table using the blue arrow icon. 

NOTE: 

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Decisioning a Concession in oPOS

Precondition: "Activate Send Requested Concession to Pricing Engine" must be disabled.

Concession Approvers will receive an email notification when a concession request has been submitted for their review. Following the link in the email will direct them to the Concession Request modal window that was completed by the Loan Officer. 

All but the following fields in this window will be disabled:

• Concession Amount - use this field to enter an alternative amount for the concession 
• Concession Approver - allows the approver to re-assign the request to a different approver
  • An approver is able to select a different approver from additional approvers found within the Concession Approver dropdown list (if additional approvers are not available the approver may only see their name).
• Approver Comments - use this text field to provide comments to the requestor
  • Approver Comments are dated and time-stamped. A decision action must be made in order for a comment to be added to the conversation log history.

Use the following buttons to take action on the request:

1. Close - close the window and return to this request later
2. Reassign - reassign the request to a different approver selected in the "Concession Approver" field; sends an email notification to the requestor and the re-assigned approver
3. Decline - do not approve the submitted request; sends an email notification to the requestor with an update
4. Approve - approve the submitted request; sends an email notification to the requestor with an update

NOTE: The Adjustment Status indicator in the upper right corner of the modal will change to reflect either an "Approved" or "Declined" status depending on the decision button selected by the approver. 

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Keep or Remove Concessions When the Market Changes

When a concession has successfully been applied to a loan and the market price of the selected loan product changes, the user will be prompted with a modal window that asks them to indicate whether they want to remove or keep the concession. This window displays an updated price for the product if the concession remains. 

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Acceptance Criteria

Corresponding Feature(s): 419665