Sovereign Bank's National Commercial Real Estate Group Gains Benefits of Implementing North Shore Origination Software
(January 2007) – After choosing the software application from North Shore Systems (NSS), Sovereign’s National Commercial Real Estate Group made the switch. Based in Brooklyn, New York, they recently converted to the NSS web-based commercial real estate lending system. They will use to originate over $3.5 billion of Commercial Real Estate and Multifamily loans a year. Sovereign Bank’s North Shore software success demonstrates the benefits of a streamlined lending process. Overall, Sovereign Bank’s North Shore software success showcases potential for efficiency and improved processing times in commercial real estate lending.
As a result of this conversion, originators, underwriters, and processors in the company’s five nationwide officers will access the system online. They will do this via the web.
Underwriters use the loan information captured by the system. They perform side-by-side comparisons of the different loan scenarios to determine the best execution of the deal. The system also improved the Multi-Family lending group’s process flow. Their high volumes required a system that provides flexibility and capacity. It also needs to offer stringent business rule functionality along with cohesive checklists and tickler modules.
Additionally, the system generates all loan approval documents and reports on-demand. Consequently this has streamlined the generation of documents that were mostly manual processes prior to the North Shore conversion.
Furthermore, upon loan closing, an interface with Sovereign’s loan servicing system (Strategy) automatically boards the loan for servicing. This process involves little to no manual intervention. These interfaces significantly reduce both the time and the errors normally involved in manual information transfers.
Sovereign Goes Live with North Shore (page 2)
Besides realizing processing efficiencies and eliminating manual processes on the front-end, Sovereign will benefit from the improvements. They will also use North Shore’s Portfolio Analysis Reporting (PAR) module. This module will assist in Asset Management and help determine borrower credit concentration.
Anthony Figeroux, Sovereign SVP, sums it up this way: “We are on a mission to improve our processing times and eliminate redundant entry of data throughout our organization. The North Shore system is a critical component of our strategy. We believe the North Shore system allows us to integrate our processes in ways not possible just a few years ago, and we expect that timeliness and efficiency will be significantly improved as we progress with our daily operations using the North Shore System.”
Brian McCracken, North Shore president, adds, “This implementation at Sovereign serves as a great example of the efficiencies that can be gained. This is achieved through the proper, well-planned use of an integrated LOS. They were able to cohesively define their process and goals, which, in turn, the North Shore application could be configured for and provide straight-through processing from Broker submission through sale or securitization. Even the underwriting and appraisal tracking are taking place on the system. Both the NSS team and the Sovereign team got a lot of satisfaction from seeing it come to life first-hand at their location in New York and their remote offices.”
Future Plans for Expanding North Shore's Capabilities
Looking ahead, Sovereign plans to use the North Shore platform to pool deals for securitization. They also aim to establish a portal for their brokers, and link to other industry data services, such as credit, market data, and compliance services. Since North Shore uses MISMO and other industry standard formats, value is added in being able to export and import data. This process can be done electronically and seamlessly to other systems and services. This includes Excel integration.
About North Shore Systems
For over nine years, North Shore Systems, LLC has been providing the CRE lending industry with turn-key solutions. These comprehensive solutions address their automation needs. The company’s primary product “North Shore” allows all entities involved in the entire loan process to interact in real time. It leverages .NET web services technology, industry standards, and a lender’s existing systems.
Headquartered in Costa Mesa, Ca, North Shore Systems services lenders and brokers across a wide spectrum of lending programs and property types. The various types of lenders have originated over $30 billion in loans using the North Shore platform. The company also offers a Broker Version of the system that is a subscription based, online service that allows brokers to maintain a lender database that can be queried, build a pdf loan package that can be emailed to lenders, and to maintain their own pipeline database.
The North Shore suite also includes modules for Securitization, Portfolio Analysis, Asset Management, and Construction.
