Feature Enhancements in Version 23.2 Major Release

(Added on 6/1/2023)

The “Consumer Connect Site ID” field is included with Encompass, though it is not visible on standard input forms, the Consumer Connect Admin portal nor on loan applications. This field is populated automatically with the site ID of the Consumer Connect site that belongs to the loan officer assigned to a loan submitted through a Consumer Connect site.

With the Encompass Consumer Connect 23.2 release on June 10, the logic that Consumer Connect uses to populate this field is changing. Please read the details below as this change may impact business rules and Partner implementations that use this field.

How the Logic is Changing:

In Encompass Consumer Connect 23.2, the Consumer Connect Site ID field is populated when the first request associated with the loan is sent to any recipient. This can be an eConsent request sent to a borrower, a settlement service request sent to a provider, sending initial disclosures to a borrower, or any other request that is sent to a recipient related to the loan.

Currently, the Consumer Connect Site ID field is populated when a loan officer is assigned to the loan.

The above logic assumes the Consumer Connect administrator has enabled the Direct Borrowers to Consumer Connect Site setting in the Consumer Connect Admin portal > Website Builder. If this option is not enabled, loans will be directed to the Loan Center.

Why the Logic is Changing:

With the current population logic, the Consumer Connect Site ID could be populated prior to the loan originator (if originated by someone other than a loan officer) assigning the loan to a loan officer. This could lead to a designated default site ID being assigned to the loan prior to a loan officer being assigned to the loan. By waiting until a loan request is sent before assigning the site ID, it ensures a loan officer has been assigned to the loan and the borrower will be routed to their Consumer Connect site.

The New Logic to Populate This Field:

To ensure there is always a site to direct borrowers to in 23.2, administrators must set one of their Consumer Connect sites as the default site. If there is only one Consumer Connect site currently published, that site will be automatically set as the default site. If you have more than one site published, use the Set this site as default site option in the Website Builder to designate the default site.

• If the loan officer does not have a Consumer Connect site assigned to them, borrowers will be directed to this default Consumer Connect site. The logic of populating this field will be as follows at the time of the first request associated with the loan is sent to any recipient:

• If the loan officer has a Consumer Connect site associated with them, then that site ID is populated into the Consumer Connect Site ID field, and the borrower is directed to that site.

• Otherwise, if the default site exists, the site ID of the default site is populated in this field.

If both of the above conditions are false, then 0 is populated in this field. This indicates that there is no Consumer Connect site to direct the borrowers to. They will be directed to the Loan Center instead.

For loans originated from a Consumer Connect site, business partners are always directed to Loan Connect.

In preparation for the 23.2 release...

• Lenders: Review any business rules you may have around this field (Encompass field ID ConsumerConnectSiteID) and update as needed.

• Partners: Review your implementation logic for any references to or related to this field (Encompass field ID ConsumerConnectSiteID) and update as needed.

Encompass Consumer Connect administrators can now enable borrowers to send and receive one-time password requests via email. Borrowers accessing the Encompass Consumer Connect Borrower portal on One-Time Password (OTP)-enabled instances can use email as an alternate option to the current phone-text/call options. They can then use the email option to complete authentication and access the Borrower Portal to complete their tasks.

In the Consumer Connect Admin site, administrators can use the Borrower Loan Portal > Security Settings to manage the security settings to apply to borrower accounts and control password requirements. To provide borrowers with the email option, set the Allow borrowers to receive one time password (OTP) via email for borrower account authentication and loan linking to ON. (By default, this option is OFF.)

Review the information in the prompt. When ready to proceed, click Continue. The email option will then be set to ON.

With this OTP option turned on, borrowers logging into the Consumer Connect site will now have the option to request the required passcode via email using the link provided at the bottom of the screen.

The passcode is sent to the email address provided by the borrower when they set up their user account. They can then add the code provided in the email to this screen to complete the log in process.

Encompass administrators now have the option to enable or disable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for the Encompass Consumer Connect Admin portal and Borrower portal. MFA strengthens the security of user’s accounts and ensures the safety of their personal information by adding an additional layer of protection. When MFA is enabled, users are required to authenticate to their corporate network by providing a user name and password, and then by providing a pin or code from their smartphone or device. Once authenticated, then they can proceed into the Admin portal or borrower portal.

Please note that the option to receive a pin or code via email is currently not available for MFA with the Admin portal. If you are enabling MFA for the Admin portal, users accessing the Admin portal must have access to their phone or else they will not be able to log in.

The option to enable borrowers to receive a pin or code via email is available if the lender has opted into borrower account authentication and loan linking and the one-time password (OTP) option (described in the entry above) is turned on. If email is not a viable option, borrowers will need to have access to their smartphone to receive the pin or code every time they are logging into the Borrower portal. It is important to keep this phone requirement in mind if you are enabling MFA for the Borrower portal, since borrowers may be located outside of the U.S. or without their phones at certain times. Without access to their phone, the borrower will not be able to log in.

MFA for Admin Portal:

By default, MFA is disabled for the Consumer Connect Admin portal.

When enabled, lenders accessing the Encompass Consumer Connect Admin portal via a direct link in a web browser will be required to complete MFA to access the portal every time they log in.

For users who already have the required permission to access the Admin portal, this MFA login requirement is not enforced if they are accessing the Admin portal from the Manage your Consumer Connect Portal link in the Consumer Connect Administration module on the Encompass Home page. Users accessing the Admin portal from Encompass are already authenticated Encompass users. Therefore, additional MFA authentication is not required. Encompass also has its own MFA and Single Sign-On (SSO) policies that may be invoked for users logging into Encompass.

When MFA is enabled, here is the lender experience when logging into the Admin portal from a link in a web browser:

After retrieving the code and entering it in this screen, the user will click Verify and then be logged into the Admin portal.

MFA for Borrower Portal:

By default, MFA is turned off for the Consumer Connect Borrower portal for all existing sites. When creating a new site in Consumer Connect 23.2 (and later), this MFA option will be turned on by default.

When turned on, users accessing the Encompass Consumer Connect Borrower portal will be required to complete MFA to access the portal every time they log in.

In the Personas settings in Encompass, a new option, WebAssistant, has been added to the Consumer Connect tab. Administrators can select this option to enable users assigned with the persona to log into the Consumer Connect Admin portal with their Encompass instance ID and user credentials.

Previously, only administrators, loan officers, and users with personas set up with WebAdmin or WebContent access could access the Consumer Connect Admin portal. With this new WebAssistant option, additional users can now log into the portal and assist loan officers with incomplete applications and borrower lookups while loan officers focus on generating new business and other tasks.

Personas set up with the WebAssistant option have limited access to the admin portal when compared with personas set up with WebAdmin or WebContent permissions. While personas with WebAdmin or WebContent permissions can enter the portal and make changes to Encompass Consumer Connect site settings and site content, personas with WebAssistant permissions can only manage (delete, archive, submit) incomplete applications, view application statistics, access the Borrower Lookup page, unlock borrower accounts, and view document package links.

Note, that these WebAssistant tasks can be further managed/limited by administrators in the Consumer Connect Admin portal. Administrators can use the Access Settings > Incomplete Apps, Statistics, and Borrower Lookup settings to select the various permissions that “WebAssistants” may have for incomplete applications, statistics, and borrower lookup. Refer the Encompass Consumer Connect online help for more information on these settings.

In previous versions of the Admin portal, these access settings were nested withing their respective sections under -

• Incomplete Apps Settings

• Statistics

• Borrower Lookup

With this new enhancement, a new option on the left navigation menu called Access Settings has been introduced. The Access Settings page displays a more granular view of these three areas, and the administrator can use this page to set the permission levels of loan officers and assistants.

All previous loan officer settings that were set up in lenders’ instances prior to this change will remain intact and have been migrated to this new Access Settings page.

The layout for the users associated with a loan has been updated to a new table format. To view the users modal window, administrators navigate to the Consumer Connect Admin portal > Borrower Lookup > and then, after locating a user, click the Show all users icon. The users associated with the loan are listed in this table format within the modal window:

(Updated on 6/21/2023)

When a borrower or co-borrower accepts the Credit Authorization Agreement, Asset Verification Authorization, or the Income Verification Authorization, a copy of the authorization language is now stored in the Encompass eFolder as a PDF file. In addition, the name of the borrower and co-borrower, along with the date they accepted the authorization, is included on the document in the eFolder.

For example, when asset verification is authorized by a borrower or co-borrower as shown below, a PDF document file containing the authorization language and the borrower/co-borrower name and date of authorization will be added to the loan's documents in the eFolder. The document is only saved to the eFolder if the authorization is accepted.

Sample VOE and VOI Authorization Acceptance document:

In addition, new Authorized VOI (Verification of Income) and Authorized VOA (Verification of Assets) fields are now provided in the Verification Information section of the Borrower Summary - Origination input form in Encompass. These eight fields for Authorized VOI and Authorized VOA information were added to capture the indicator and date that the borrowers authorize the VOI and VOA. This information is provided from the Verification of Income / Verification of Assets indicators in the loan file from Encompass Consumer Connect. Note that Encompass Consumer Connect logic selects both indicators for the VOE and VOI when the specific vendor that provides both services is receiving the order.

Although these fields are now available in Encompass, the mechanism to automatically populate these fields with the applicable VOI and VOA information from Encompass Consumer Connect loan files is not currently available. This functionality will be provided in a future Encompass release. In the interim, users may manually enter information in these fields.

See the screen example below for the new field locations and field IDs.

On Consumer Connect loan applications, the Lender Credit / Discount Points filter on the Loan Programs page has been re-labeled to Points. Borrowers can use this filter to set a range of points when searching for applicable loan programs. After setting the filters and performing a search, the results returned on the Rates cards display loan programs that offer points within the range set in the Points filter.

In addition, the tooltip for this Points filter has been updated to the following:

Filter by the amount of credits or costs associated with each interest rate. On this filter, a negative number means you are receiving money at closing (also called a lender credit), while a positive number means you are paying more money at closing (also called discount points).

When the administrator selects the option to display the Massachusetts state disclosure on applicable loan applications, the disclosure language now displays in accordance with the Massachusetts general law that requires the statement's font size be at least 2 points larger than the rest of the application. This language now displays 2.7 pixels larger than the body text font on Consumer Connect loan applications.

Lenders now have the ability to set default values for fields in the mortgage calculator that they provide on their Consumer Connect site. This enables borrowers to quickly get a snapshot of the rates that the lender is providing. After reviewing the default rates, borrowers can then continue to enter new data in the calculator and get new rates as needed.

In the Consumer Connect Admin portal, administrators can use the Website Builder > Widgets > Mortgage Calculators to set the values for their rates calculator and then publish the calculator to the site. The values set for the fields by the administrator will then be populated to the calculator displayed for the borrower when they visit the lender’s Consumer Connect site.

In order for these default rates in the widget calculators to display on the Consumer Connect site, the Auto launch rates which defaults are set for Rates Calculator option must be set to Yes. Manage this setting in the Services Management > Product and Pricing Settings section of the Admin portal.

Enhancements have also been made to the layout of the mortgage calculators to improve the look and feel of the calculator and provide a better user experience for borrowers.

It is recommended that you provide only one rates calculator widget on the same page in your borrower-facing site. Providing more than one rates calculator on the same page could lead to possible difficulty in understanding which rates are returned for each calculator after the borrower clicks the Get Rates buttons.

Starting with this 23.2 release, Consumer Connect users now review and eSign their closing packages via ICE Mortgage Technology’s Simplifile electronic signing solution. eClose packages sent to Consumer Connect users are now launched in a Simplifile session, providing an efficient and faster way to close loans. Previously, this process was facilitated using the DocuSign signing solution. With this change, Consumer Connect users will not experience any major differences in the signing process. Entry and exit points are the same, and the navigation between the new Simplifile signing windows remains easy and very similar to the process used by DocuSign. Here is a sample screen:

When lenders send document packages to borrowers via email, the borrowers can select the link provided in the email to access the package in the Consumer Connect borrower portal. If there is an issue with the link and the document package cannot be loaded in the portal, the borrower is now routed to the Home screen in the borrower portal and the following message is displayed:

“We couldn't load your tasks. Please use the appropriate loan card to navigate to your tasks."

The borrower can then select their loan file and navigate to the loan document package.

(Added on 6/1/2023)

A new eConsent Agreement has been created for use with loans originated via Encompass Consumer Connect after the Encompass 23.2 release. Previous versions of the eConsent Agreement included language specific to electronic versions of Initial Disclosure packages (eDisclosures). The updated eConsent Agreement includes generic language that is more inclusive of other electronic workflows, including eClose packages.

When borrowers log into Encompass Consumer Connect for the first time, they are presented with the eConsent Agreement. If they accept the agreement, they can access and complete tasks electronically. The new agreement displays only for new loans created after the Encompass 23.2 release. The old agreement displays for loans created prior to the Encompass 23.2 release.