Efficiency in simplicity: making servicing simple by automating lien releases

Mortgage professionals know that keeping the loan process moving while keeping borrowers and homeowners happy requires precision timing and proven workflows to navigate a complex environment. But just because a certain workflow has done its job doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Take something like releasing the lien for a fully paid loan. It is the crowning achievement for a homeowner. They have diligently paid down their loan for years, if not decades, and now they are on the cusp of owning their home outright. On paper, releasing their lien and recording it should be simple, but any servicer will tell you how time-consuming and laborious that process really is. Coordinating with title companies, notaries, vendors and more means it can take weeks of manual work to release a lien — and that’s without taking into account how every interaction between parties introduces the potential for human error.

The workflow has worked in the past. It is not perfect.

The ICE team continually evaluates mortgage processes and looks for ways to increase efficiency. With lien release, the team saw an opportunity for a solution that could be implemented quickly and would help servicers execute on this important moment in a fraction of the time.

Automated Lien Release℠ (ALR) for the MSP® loan servicing system digitizes and automates the unwieldy and roundabout lien release process by combining document creation and automated workflows into one solution. ALR pulls the data from MSP to populate an electronic lien release form and then routes lien release packages for eSigning and eRecording according to local county regulations for more than 2,500 counties across the U.S.

The development and release of ALR for MSP marks the first time ICE has harnessed the full capabilities of its expanded mortgage technology division (powered by the 2023 acquisition of Black Knight) to quickly build and implement solutions to address needs in the market.

“In a few short months, we’ve identified a number of opportunities, like the Automated Lien Release solution integrated with MSP, to improve processes and bring tremendous lift to mortgage servicing,” said Dana Federspiel, Senior Vice President, Servicing Technologies Product Innovation at ICE Mortgage Technology. “We are using our expanded capabilities to develop new solutions quickly, and we are continuously making investments to improve valuable processes like lien release. Our technology experts are always exploring more ways to bring to market nimble solutions with outsize impact.”

To learn more about ICE’s new Automated Lien Release capability with MSP, click here, or reach out to your ICE representative.

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