JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

• Multiple significant enhancements have been added to the Empower loan origination system to support home equity loans and lines of credit
• New enhancements provide a streamlined, end-to-end home equity lending application and fulfillment process
• With Empower, home equity products and mortgage loans can be originated on one system, helping lenders increase efficiencies, maintain regulatory compliance, mitigate risk and improve customer service

Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: BKFS), a leading provider of integrated technology, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries, announced today that it has made significant enhancements to its LoanSphere Empower loan origination system (LOS) to provide expanded support for home equity loans (HELOANs) and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). These enhancements add new capabilities within Empower to provide a more robust, streamlined end-to-end home equity application and fulfillment process, resulting in greater efficiencies for lenders.

Empower supports retail, wholesale and consumer-direct lending channels, and delivers the functionality to electronically capture and process data for every facet of the loan origination process.

The new enhancements to Empower include a powerful, configurable rules engine that automates the underwriting credit-risk assessment process, as well as a robust product and pricing engine that offers added flexibility and greater functionality. Additional enhancements to Empower's home equity functionality include:

• Capabilities to support the automated placement of orders for credit reporting, flood certification, verifications, fraud and property valuation.
• A Web portal view for bank branch associates to easily access, view and update loan information on a borrower's home equity loan application.
• Enhanced document provider integrations and document package configurations to support lender-specific forms.
• Seamless integration for boarding loans onto LoanSphere MSP, Black Knight's end-to-end servicing system used by financial institutions to manage all servicing processes, including escrow administration, investor reporting and default management.

With Empower, lenders can originate HELOANs and HELOCs on the same system as first mortgage loans, helping to reduce IT complexity, increase efficiencies, mitigate risk and improve customer service. Additionally, since Empower is continually updated to support regulatory requirements, lenders can benefit from these enhancements consistently across lending products. 

"We significantly expanded Empower's home equity capabilities to deliver robust end-to-end support for both closed-ended and open-ended home equity products," said Jerry Halbrook, president of Black Knight's Origination Technologies division. "Using Empower, lenders can consolidate the origination of real estate-secured products onto one technology system, helping them gain greater insight into loan opportunities and risks, simplify their compliance efforts, and reduce the costs associated with maintaining disparate systems."

About LoanSphere

LoanSphere is Black Knight's premier, end-to-end platform of integrated technology, data and analytics supporting the entire mortgage and home equity loan lifecycle – from origination to servicing to default. The platform delivers business process automation, workflow, rules and integrated data throughout the loan process, providing a better user experience, cost savings and support for changing regulatory requirements. By integrating lending functions and data, Black Knight's LoanSphere helps lenders and servicers reduce risk, improve efficiency and drive financial performance.

Clients that use multiple LoanSphere offerings, such as Empower and/or LendingSpace, Exchange, Quality Insight, Closing Insight and MSP, are considered Black Knight Enterprise clients and can realize exponential value from the integration of these technologies, as well as the utilization of Black Knight's comprehensive data and analytics.

About Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. 

Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: BKFS), a Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) company, is a leading provider of integrated technology, data and analytics solutions that facilitate and automate many of the business processes across the mortgage lifecycle.

Black Knight Financial Services is committed to being a premier business partner that lenders and servicers rely on to achieve their strategic goals, realize greater success and better serve their customers by delivering best-in-class technology, services and insight with a relentless commitment to excellence, innovation, integrity and leadership. For more information on Black Knight Financial Services, please visit www.bkfs.com.

For more information:

Michelle Kersch
Black Knight Financial Services
904.854.5043                                                                      
michelle.kersch@bkfs.com              

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SOURCE Black Knight Financial Services, Inc.