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Function
To create a file that can be forwarded to a credit bureau to report the status of loans. Operating Instructions Setup tab This step is required prior to producing a credit bureau report. ECOA Code is a required field for reporting. Special Comments Code, Compliance Condition Code, Consumer Transaction Type, borrower’s Date of Birth, Portfolio Type and Account Type are reporting options. You will want to discuss these options with your credit bureau representative. They are not required to create a credit bureau report but you are encouraged to use them to provide a complete picture of the account. Instructions for creating and maintaining optional fields can be found in Help, Tools, Optional Master Fields. Account Numbers These numbers are provided by your credit bureau, and entered here to be included in the created data file. Specify loans If no limitations are placed on the report by selecting “Include loans with Y in optional question” or “Include all loan status” or “Include all borrower types” all loans will be included in the report; this is only limited by loans with specific statuses – read more about this in the section titled Things You Should Know. Include loans with a Y in Optional Question: Entering a checkmark will allow you to select the Optional Master Field that contains the Y indicating the loan is to be included. Include all loan status: Entering a checkmark will allow you to select which status(es) to be included. Include all borrower types: Entering a checkmark will allow you to select from currently used borrower types. You may wish to exclude Corporations. Special Comments Code An optional field may be established and data entered within that field related to the Credit Bureaus’ Comments Code. Details of these codes will be provided by the Credit Bureau to which you are reporting. To include this code in the report, put a checkmark in the box just to the left of Special Comments Code and select the appropriate optional field from the drop menu. Account Status Code Although this code is automatically generated, it can be overridden by establishing an optional field and entering data into that field. If you wish to use this option, put a checkmark in the box just to the left of Account Status Code and select the appropriate optional field from the drop menu. Important Note: If the automatic code is to be overridden on a short-term basis, remember to edit this field and remove the overriding code once the report has been created. Compliance Condition Code An optional field may be established and data entered within that field related to the Compliance Condition Code. Details of these codes will be provided by the credit bureau to which you are reporting. To include this code in the report, put a checkmark in the box just to the left of Compliance Condition Code and select the appropriate optional field from the drop menu. Consumer Transaction Type An optional field may be established and data entered within that field related to the Consumer Transaction Type. Details of these codes will be provided by the credit bureau to which you are reporting. To include this code in the report, put a checkmark in the box just to the left of Consumer Transaction Type and select the appropriate optional field from the drop menu. ECOA Code NOTE: This is a required reporting field. An optional field should be established and data entered within that field related to the ECOA Code. Details of these codes will be provided by the credit bureau to which you are reporting. To include this code in the report, put a checkmark in the box just to the left of ECOA Code and select the appropriate optional field from the drop menu. Date of Birth An optional field may be established and the borrower’s date of birth entered into that field. To include the date of birth in the report, put a checkmark in the box just to the left of Date of Birth and select the appropriate optional field from the drop menu. Portfolio Type The software will automatically default to the Portfolio Type of Installment so you do not need to establish this optional field if all of your loans are Installment. Should you have loans that are Line of Credit, Mortgage, Open or Revolving, you will want to establish this optional field. Appropriate responses are C=Line of Credit, I=Installment, M=Mortgage, O=Open and R=Revolving. Account Type Account Type will automatically default to Business. If your loans are of an Account Type other than Business, you will want to establish this optional field and enter the appropriate response for each non-business type loan. There are over 100 different Account Types so you will need to consult the credit reporting guide to locate the correct Account Type. Appropriate responses are 2 digits and always start with a number. The 2nd digit may be either a number or a capital letter. Consumer Information Indicator Consumer Information Indicator is to be used to report a special condition of the account that applies to the primary borrower and will be utilized when selecting either Primary Borrower Only or Primary Borrower Only – If borrower data is found in Company Loan Information, substitute Contact for Company reporting options. This special condition may be that a bankruptcy was filed, discharged, dismissed or withdrawn; a debt was reaffirmed; or the consumer cannot be located or has now been located. This code should be reported one time only. Credit Bureau Report II tab Date Use the calendar to select a cutoff date for the credit bureau report. The screen will display the last report date, assisting in selecting the new cutoff date. Please review Things You Should Know section for important information regarding loan status changes. Sort by Select Loan ID# or Alpha Code Primary Borrower only Select this option if you wish to report only on the Primary Borrower. Your report will include either the Company Loan Information or Personal Loan Information from the Loan Master, depending upon how your loan is set up. You will then also have the choice of substituting the Contact name for the Company name if the loan is set up as a company or you may select to substitute the Company name with the name set up as the Primary Borrower in the Multiple Borrowers section of the Loan Master. (If selecting the option to substitute the Company name with the name set up as the Primary Borrower in the Multiple Borrowers section, it will also pull any codes entered in the Consumer Information Indicator from the Multiple Borrower section, rather than using the code entered in the Optional Field.) This option will create the file in 426 format and will not include the K4 Segment in reporting. Multiple Borrowers Select this option if you have set up additional borrowers in the Multiple Borrowers section of the Loan Master and wish to include them in your report. Whatever is set up in Company Loan Information or Personal Loan Information will appear in your Base record. When selecting Multiple Borrowers, your primary borrower and up to three additional borrowers will be included. You may also select to replace the Company Loan Information with the person set up as the Primary Borrower in the Multiple Borrowers section. Should you select this option, if it is found that you have loans set up as a company but do not also have a Primary Borrower set up in the Multiple Borrowers section, you will be given the option to Cancel – allowing you to set up the primary borrower; answer Yes to continue but use the Company name for the loan(s) listed or No and the loan(s) listed will not be included on your report. (When selecting any of the Multiple Borrower reporting options, the Consumer Information Indicator that is entered in the Multiple Borrowers section of the Loan Master File will be reported, rather than the code entered as an Optional Field.) This option must be selected if you wish to use the 1326 file format which includes the K4 Segment for Specialized Payment Information for Deferred Loans in your report to the credit bureau. Process Buttons Will display a report of the loans and pertinent information that will be included on the report; printing the report is a required step, and must be selected prior to Prepare. If you have selected to replace “Company Loan Information” with Primary Borrower information, a check will be performed when you click Print to confirm you have Primary Borrowers set up for each loan. If it finds you do not, you will receive a message listing the loans found to not have Primary Borrowers. Click Yes to continue which will cause those loans to be reported under the company name. Click No to exclude those loans. Click Cancel to receive a printable listing of loan numbers and names so that you may add primary borrowers to these loans if you choose. Prepare Selected to create a data file for forwarding to the credit bureau. You will be given the option of where the file is to be saved. When you click on Prepare, if it is looking at an Optional Field to pull the ECOA Code from and finds this field to be blank, you will receive a message stating “There are loans that do not have a valid ECOA Code set up. We will default them to 1. Do you wish to continue? Yes/No” If you select No, you will receive a listing of all loans missing the ECOA Code so that you may review it to confirm that 1 is the correct code to be reported. If you answer Yes, processing will continue and those loans with no ECOA Code will be reported with the code of 1. If all of your loans have ECOA Codes assigned, you will not receive the above message. Print Text Produces a listing of the data file for review. Things You Should Know This supplement was designed to the specifications provided by the Associated Credit Bureau (ACB). It will create a data file that can be forwarded to the credit bureau. Although there are three national credit reporting organizations (Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian), credit bureaus are operated independently, and reporting requirements vary from one to another. For example, some credit bureaus will not accept an electronic file unless you are reporting on 500 or more loans. For this reason, we strongly recommend you contact your local credit bureau for guidance before purchasing and installing this supplement. Joining Credit Builder’s Alliance may also allow you to use this supplement should you have fewer than the required number of loans. (www.creditbuildersalliance.org) Metro Status Code II guidelines are used in this supplement. The program will retrieve information from Loan Master files and loan histories, and automatically assign a status code based on the payment history with special attention to loan balance and “next due date.” However, an optional field may be used to override the automatic status code. Additional optional reporting codes may be included in the data file and relate to Special Comments, Compliance Condition, and Consumer Transaction Type. The borrower’s date of birth may also be included. ECOA Codes are required to be reported and should also be set up as an optional field to allow you to enter the appropriate code. Should you desire to use any optional reporting codes, please request a listing of codes from your credit bureau. A booklet including all optional codes is also available for purchase from the ACB. While it is not a requirement to include the optional reporting fields, when these codes are used in conjunction with the other information you are reporting, it provides a more complete picture of the account. If for any reason you do not wish to report on all loans within your portfolio, options are included to allow you to be very specific about which loans will be included in the report. An optional field may be created and used to indicate which loans are included, or you may exclude specific statuses, ex: deferred or defaulted loans or you may exclude specific borrower types, ex: corporation and other. You may also prepare your report in any of five different ways:
NOTE: In order to use the Primary borrower substitute company with primary borrower option or either Multiple Borrowers options, you first need to complete this information for each loan in the Loan Master, Borrower tab, Multiple Borrowers section. When the data file is created, it will be based on a cutoff date determined by the user. If for any reason the data in GMS-RLSS was inaccurate, a replacement file may be created at any time. The data file will inform the credit bureau when a loan is being reported for the first time. Also, once a loan balance reaches zero, it will be reported in the next two reports created, and then excluded from the report. Sometimes a loan balance may become zero, and then disbursements posted, returning the balance to above zero again. In this situation, if post-payoff disbursements indicate the loan is to again appear on the credit bureau report, it should be established as a new loan. If the maturity date recorded in the Loan Master file has passed prior to the report cutoff date, the loan balance will be reported as the amount due. If the loan status is edited to write-off, the loan amount is retrieved from the Loan Master file. If standard write-off procedures are followed and the loan balance becomes zero, then the amount written off will continue to be reported as the Current Balance and the Amount Past Due. (If you do not want the written off amount to be reported as the Current Balance and Amount Past Due, you will need to enter code 64 in the Account Status Code Optional Field.) Be certain you have changed the status of the loan to write-off and the date entered is the exact same date that was used as the Activity Date for the negative disbursement to bring the loan balance to zero. The loan will continue to be included on each subsequent report, per credit bureau instructions. However, using an optional field to identify which loans to be included on the report will allow you to report written-off loans for a specific period of time only, and then exclude them from reports. Also, excluding the write-off status when preparing the report will eliminate these loans from subsequent reports. This may be another issue you’ll want to discuss with your credit bureau representative. Deferred loans are reported with amount due of zero, and late days zero. In the Loan Master file, when a status is Deferred, the Status Date entered should be the date payment is expected to resume. Additionally, if a loan is Deferred due to a Natural or Declared Disaster, be certain you report the correct Account Status Code and Special Comment Code. Also, you should review Loan Activity/Handling Special Situations/Deferred Loans for additional required steps. A loan with a zero balance and a repaid status will be included on two final reports, and then will no longer appear. Important note: the status within the Loan Master file at the time the report is created is what will be used to determine the data on the report. If, for example, a loan was active, and that status changed to deferred on 03/31/20, any report created 03/31/20 or later will consider the loan deferred. Status changes are not retroactive. If you have selected to replace “Company Loan Information” with Primary Borrower information, a check will be performed when you click Print to confirm you have Primary Borrowers set up for each loan. If it finds you do not, you will receive a message listing the loans found to not have Primary Borrowers. Click Yes to continue which will cause those loans to be reported under the company name. Click No to exclude those loans. Click Cancel to receive a printable listing of loan numbers and names so that you may add primary borrowers to these loans if you choose. Additionally, when you click on Prepare, if it is looking at an Optional Field to pull the ECOA Code from and finds this field to be blank, you will receive a message stating “There are loans that do not have a valid ECOA Code set up. We will default them to 1. Do you wish to continue? Yes/No” If you select No, you will receive a listing of all loans missing the ECOA Code so that you may review it to confirm that 1 is the correct code to be reported. If you answer Yes, processing will continue and those loans with no ECOA Code will be reported with the code of 1. If all of your loans have ECOA Codes assigned, you will not receive the above message. Be sure to check the Setups each time before preparing the report to make certain nothing has changed since you last reported, especially Borrower Type. For example, if the business is a corporation and you’ve entered the corporate officers in the Multiple Borrowers section of the Loan Master, you will not want to include these officers in your report so you’ll want to be certain to exclude Corporation from the Borrower Types to be included. Another way to exclude these officers is by answering N to the CB II (Y/N) question in the multiple borrower table. If you are using Optional Fields to provide further details to the Credit Bureau regarding your loans, be certain you review the entries in these Optional Fields to make certain the information has not changed. To easily review this information, you may go to Tools, Optional Fields and select the Optional Field to be reviewed. When that Optional Field is on the screen, click on the Report button. This will create an Excel spreadsheet of all loans in your portfolio along with any entries made for that Optional Field. Review this report to determine if the codes entered still apply or if other loans may need codes added. Repeat this process for each of your Credit Bureau related Optional Fields. |