Without a doubt, the biggest issue pointed out by the regulators, attorneys and consultants is that of Data Integrity. This leaves the CFPB wondering if we really do know what we are doing, when the data we report to HMDA or use to manage our company is inherently incorrect!
So if you have a “hot mess” you need to go back to the beginning and start to figure out where your quality is faltering.
Step One: Define Your Data!
The first step is to form your team, with one goal in mind; data evaluation. Your Data team should consist of one person from each department that handles the loan workflow. Ideally, this person should be the practitioner and not the manager who doesn’t work with the data and systems daily.
As an example, your team may consist of the following:
•Loan Originator
•LO Assistant
•Opener
•Processor
•Processing Assistant
•Underwriting
•Secondary Marketing
•IT
•A Good Project Manager
At this point the objective is to Define, not Create Data Structure.
Each person should come to the first meeting with only two things:
- What data fields they use in their department?
- What systems they use to process this data.
This information gets passed to the project manager for organization.
That’s It! No discussion should happen here as to what could be done better or how!
Step Two: Data Mapping
Now, the project manager does their magic. Absent of any system considerations, a data map is created that details all the fields you may use in the process of mortgage loan origination and then they tie each of those fields to a position in your company. As complex as this may seem, it is actually not that hard.
The project manager then looks for who touches what data fields and when in the process. This is a bit more complex, but it serves to accomplish two things:
- You see who starts the data, who modifies it and who is responsible for finishing it.
- You define data responsibility and accountability per position.
Once you accomplish this task (it really doesn’t take that long), then we will begin to work through the data workflow and monitoring which will allow you to increase your efficiency dramatically. Next up is IT part to this process.
Stay Tuned!
