Several years ago before joining Nortridge, I worked as a loan servicing manager at a financial institution that purchased commercial distressed debt. The underlying assets connected with this debt were valued in the millions of dollars. At the time of purchase, these loans had not been worked for a couple of years, and in some cases were sold and resold from banks or the FDIC. Thus, they were very delinquent.
In order to make a profit on any of these debts, we found our greatest success when we attempted to work something out with the customer. Opting for a win-win situation was always best for all concerned parties. In situations where workouts weren’t realized, cases went to court and properties were foreclosed upon. Those situations were further complicated by insurance requirements and delinquent taxes.
During my tenure there, I worked with several extremely bright, talented and experienced asset managers. They were, without a doubt, the most creative people I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with, and they would put that creativity to use as they worked to restructure situations during their negotiations with customers.
Once successful, these asset managers would then bring the new documentation to the loan servicing department, and we would have to be just as creative to figure out how we were going to modify the loan, or in some cases, book a newly restructured loan. The problem? Our software did not allow for any creativity or flexibility. We were forced to try and fit this square peg into a round hole.
Since this model was highly profitable to the company, we very quickly began looking for a new servicing software product that would be flexible enough to meet our needs. The hunt was on and we were shocked with what we found: Even in the high-dollar cost range, there was absolutely nothing that fit the bill.
Then we discovered Nortridge Software. Once we viewed a demo of this product and received all the answers to our questions, there was no looking back. It was the most flexible system out there for a fraction of the cost of the big players. Heck, even our auditors loved it! Once we were fully up and running, we found we needed less staff because we were no longer double-checking everything we did – we were confident of the results NLS was providing for us.
Perhaps the best news was that when the asset managers ended up in court and it was necessary to provide documentation and transaction histories for these assets, there was never any doubt about the authenticity and integrity of these items.
Too many times I have clients tell me they are rethinking their business rules because their legacy software is so restrictive. They are forced to do half of their work in Excel spreadsheets and they need to constantly recheck calculations and balances.
With the fluctuations in the economic environment over the last few years, financial institutions really need to be able to offer a variety of products and expand their business lines to be competitive. In addition, they need to get creative with terms, interest rates, payment schedules, among others. If your software is the only thing holding you and your experienced staff back, it’s probably time to reconsider your options.
