May

Client Bulletin: May 30, 2023

We’re always focused on refining the experience you and your homeowners have with us. In this spirit, we’ve made enhancements to provide consistency, quality and efficiency for you regarding homeowner compliant reporting. We’ve already seen the results of these changes, with complaints substantially down year-over-year.

What We’ve Done

We’ve updated the annual Level 1 complaint training for our contact center representatives, to ensure complaints are handled with care and consistency from the moment they come to us.

We removed the requirement for homeowners to change their password on CenNet every 365 days. We typically receive a high volume of calls, especially at the beginning of the year, from homeowners needing assistance to reset their CenNet password. With this change, we’ve received fewer calls from homeowners regarding password resets, which also has helped to reduce complaints.

We’ve introduced a redesigned and enhanced escrow analysis statement, creating a better homeowner experience by adding a “How to Read” brochure, clearer description of the analysis results and an updated look and feel.
We’ve refined ACH-related communications and web registration and implemented email communication where only letters once existed, adding clarity regarding homeowner actions and next steps. We’ve seen 55% decrease in ACH web rejections as a result.
We’ve begun sending proactive emails to homeowners regarding tax and insurance payments. When we make insurance and tax payments on behalf of the homeowner, we send the homeowner an email that also includes their insurance carrier and taxing authority in case they have questions. This eliminates the need to call us to check to see if payments have posted and refers members to their agent or taxing authority if they have questions. We believe that this has reduced frustration from homeowners who call us regarding questions that we cannot answer. (For example: why did my taxes/insurance premium increase?)

Combined, we believe that these efforts will enhance and streamline how you and your homeowners work with us.

New Hours for our Client Assistance Phone Line

When you have a request, our Cenlar Case Management (CCM) system remains the best and quickest communication channel for you. Requests can be submitted at any time, and will be handled during standard business hours.

However, if you need to call our Client Assistance phone line, please be aware that the hours of the line will change, effective June 1. The new hours are 8:30 a.m. – 8 p.m. ET Monday-Friday for main Client and Branch Assist calls.

If you have any questions, please contact your client manager.

Corrected Process for Flood Zone Determination Vendors

Use Code ‘NOFLD’ in XML Payee Field

In March, we announced that on June 1 we will require that all loans boarding our system have a flood zone determination completed by one of our approved vendors: Corelogic, Servicelink, CBC Innovis, Flood Zone Determination Services, Data Verify Flood Services, Factual Data or Kroll Factual Data.

If you cannot provide the transferable life of loan flood certificate from one of the approved vendors listed above when boarding a loan, then you must board the loan using “NOFLD” in the payee field in XML. Please note that this “NOFLD” code is different from the “NOFLOD” code previously communicated to you. When a loan boards with “NOFLD” payee, Cenlar will initiate the ordering of a new flood zone determination from our contracted flood vendor, Corelogic, and pass the cost on to you in your monthly invoice.

Mortgage Insurance Removal, Multi-Factor Authentication Streamlined in Latest Update

We’re continually making enhancements to our CenNetTM website as part of our mission to provide the best experience for your homeowners. We’ve recently rolled out a slate of new features, which include the following:

Multi-factor authentication process – Homeowners can now cut and paste a code from a text field instead of making individual entries for each character when using multi-factor authentication — an easier process, especially on a mobile device.

“Make a Payment” tile – The “Make a Payment” tile will now be auto-populated with the account name associated with the homeowner who is signed in, eliminating a common scenario where homeowners misinterpreted this field and entered their bank’s name, causing the payment to be rejected.

Mortgage insurance removal – For certain homeowners with mortgage insurance, the “Manage Mortgage Insurance” tile on CenNet’s “My Loan” page will offer a quick, convenient way for homeowners to request mortgage insurance removal online.

Rebranding – For our private label clients, if you decide to rebrand, a new enhancement makes it easier to convert a block of homeowners from one brand to another, no matter the scenario.

These are just a few of the enhancements we’ve made and will continue to make to CenNet. If you have any questions, please reach out to your client manager.

Jeremy Oliver: Automating for the Future

Director of Operations Production Jeremy Oliver has been in the mortgage servicing space for almost 20 years. He joined Cenlar’s team in 2021, and has been a key player in building out our automation strategy.

These automations will streamline manual functions to deliver the best quality service to our clients and their homeowners.

“The goal of automation is not only to eliminate the chance of errors, but to make an employee’s job more meaningful by cutting out the repetitive tasks,” Oliver said.

One of the first jobs Oliver handled when he came onboard at Cenlar was automating payoffs. He and the automation team successfully piloted a bot to handle the payoffs we receive each month. Since implementation, the bot has been able to handle 90% of payoff wires coming to Cenlar.

Our automation efforts continue as part of our Automation Factory. Oliver and the team are currently working on more than 30 processes waiting to be automated.

Automation Factory, which is spearheaded by Chief Digital Officer Josh Reicher, is a self-contained team that can identify clear targets, map processes, deliver automation into production and manage and monitor the impacts. This cross-functional team covering operations, finance, risk, controls, compliance, and technology skills is made up of employees and consultants equipped with a toolbox of capabilities to deliver process automation and efficiency gains. No one is working in a silo — it is a group effort to get automation up and running and to do it right.

Of the many projects Oliver and crew are working on, he said one of the biggest successes is the automation of mortgage insurance. The team is currently programming bots to make the decisioning on mortgage insurance termination. Depending on the loan characteristics, the bot can determine whether someone is eligible to terminate their mortgage insurance. If homeowners are not eligible to cancel insurance, the bot can identify alternatives for them on how they could possibly do so.

You’ll be able to read more about this and our other efforts that are part of our Automation Factory in the next issue of our quarterly Centinel newsletter, out in June.

Newest Video in Our Culture Series Shows the Importance of Trust

In April, we shared the first of a series of videos representing Cenlar’s corporate values (Respect, Trust, Integrity and Caring). The series features some of our most talented employees speaking about how they work with Cenlar brand values every day.

Today, we’re proud to introduce to you our Trust video, which demonstrates how we strive to build relationships by establishing genuine connections with each other, you and your homeowners. We know deeply how crucial your trust is to the overall success of our partnership.

You can check out our Trust video here. More videos in the series will be premiering in the coming months.