Bank of England Mortgage Expands Audit Operations with ACES

CHALLENGE

BOE Mortgage needed to move beyond spreadsheets and manual resources to help it manage the increasing audit and compliance changes it was experiencing. To automate its internal QC reviews, BOE Mortgage needed a system that could:

• Maintain compliance and stay up to date with guidelines and requirements;
• Create a structured internal audit system; and
• Handle discretionary targeting in addition to standard loan sampling.

RESULTS

ACES user-friendly, flexible design paved the path for the BOE Mortgage to expand its audit team and internal processes, allowing it to streamline multiple lines of business and easily train new employees.

“Moving to a more robust software system boosted productivity. We were able to get more audits out per auditor, with the ability to focus on specific questions and get more discretionary type audits fulfilled,” said Lindsey Hendricks, Quality Control Manager at BOE Mortgage. “We’ve been able to add more defined audits and discretionary targeting, beyond just the random 10% pre-funding, so we have a lot more variety. We’ve also started to add other types of audits, such as early payment defaults, which have been helpful. ACES makes it easy to change an audit quickly to address a certain need if we see something arise.”

Implementation & Support

From the start of the implementation process, ACES provided weekly calls and training sessions for BOE Mortgage’s staff, and during the week of the go-live, ACES increased that cadence to daily calls to ensure a smooth internal launch.

“At the beginning of the implementation process, we quickly realized it was a large setup, but the ACES team was there for us step by step. They helped us through the entire process, including some things we didn’t have time to work on ourselves. ACES also helped us make some bigger decisions by providing general guidance on how to set the system up,” Hendricks said. “Having their extensive knowledge and support was invaluable. Everyone is amiable and always willing to help, which we appreciate. We get immediate answers, which is vital considering the environment we work in is so fast-paced.”

Managed Question Sets

ACES’ proactiveness in updating its managed question sets as rules and regulations change has enabled BOE Mortgage to stay nimble throughout its audit processes.

“The monthly updates are a huge reassurance for us. We certainly keep up with all the guidelines, but having the software also push out updates, we can choose what we want to keep and what we want to remove. That’s very helpful for fine-tuning and getting more detailed audit input,” Hendricks explained.

Reporting

The variety of reporting capabilities is another ACES feature BOE Mortgage highly values. In addition to significantly reducing reporting turn times, ACES has also helped increase confidence amongst the bank’s executive team in the quality of its loan production and its QC department.

“The reporting is great. There are hundreds of different reports that you can pull, and the customization of the reports is super helpful. We have many different audit requests, thus creating the need for different reports. It’s nice just to go in, pull what you need and then it’s right there for you,” Hendricks said. “ACES also gives senior management a lot more confidence. The streamlined reporting is helpful, especially because the reporting is very similar to what we get from our vendor. Having the streamlined, consistent reporting is convenient when reviewing or explaining any issues or go numbers.”

Functionality

Given the importance of lending in the bank’s overall operations, BOE Mortgage has a robust internal lending staff. Thanks to ACES’ user interface, the bank was able to bring all lines of business up-to-speed on the platform quickly, thus helping streamline the auditing process.

“ACES is extremely user-friendly. Because we have such a large staff, multiple areas of the bank have to go into the system and answer any audit questions. We get questions from underwriters, processors, loan officers, and so on – so having a very user-friendly system for them is also helpful to the compliance team. It cuts down on the noise as far as questions on how to use it and how to answer,” Hendricks said.

Increased Capabilities

Since implementing ACES, BOE Mortgage has expanded its team of auditors and improved its workflows, resulting in more successful regulatory exams.

“We’ve had great success with ACES. We successfully went through a Fannie Mae MORA audit with it, which made everyone extremely happy, and it’s definitely helped with outside audit requests,” Hendricks said. “I would say it also gives certain agencies a little more confidence in the work we’re producing because they know that ACES has our back as far as keeping up with all the regulatory changes and guidelines. We love ACES and are excited to continue expanding our use of the platform.”

Bank of England is not affiliated with ACES Quality Management. Bank of England Mortgage is a division of Bank of England. NMLS 418481. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.