(Archive) GOLD 9.7 March 14, 2010

Escrow analysis statements are now simpler and easier for your members to read, with an end result of fewer calls to your credit union!

Some of the changes include...

· An easy-to-read summary is located at the top of the statement (instead of it being lost at the end) so that members are immediately informed of the information they most want to know.

· The anticipated payments now appear first above the previous year’s payment history.

· The member’s shortage or surplus is clearly explained in the summary area.

· The summary also instructs the members how to calculate their new escrow payment.

· The difference between the old monthly mortgage payments (including escrow) is clearly listed next to the new monthly mortgage payment (including escrow).

We are sure you AND your members will appreciate the new escrow analysis statement look!

· A larger view of the new escrow analysis statement will be available in the “Escrow Processing with CU*BASE ” booklet. Refer to the CU*BASE Reference Page for details.

Edit Your Miscellaneous Member Account Forms upon Printing

For our online credit card clients, we have made some changes to the online credit card statement layout. In a nutshell, here is what has been done and what is up-and-coming.

· The first round of changes (that already were included in the February statements) included adding late payment and minimum payment warnings, as well as a number to contact for credit counseling. We are currently working on some AnswerBook items regarding the nuances of the calculations of these payments.

· The next round of changes, which will take effect for March statements, includes a separation of fees and interest charge items included in the transactions section, as well as a separate section noting “Total Fees Charged in 2010,” “Total Interest Charged in 2010,” and “Total Fees For This Period.”

We are expanding the balance field in the Loan MODEL format for ALM downloads. We also added a new separator between the rate and variable rate code fields. The result of this is that all subsequent fields are moved slightly further to the right in the file.

We have contacted CuPro, Profitstar, and Brick and Associates with samples of the new layout. They have all indicated they will have no problem accommodating the changes. However, you will need to take some action before you download ALM files for March month-end. The vendors simply ask that you get in touch with one of their customer service representatives to verify that all of the necessary arrangements have been made to ensure you can work with the new files starting with March data.

Additionally, the file name GLEXPORT is now only applicable for the G/L ALM downloads. For the ALM loan file, be sure to use the file name LNEXPORT and for the ALM Certificate file, use the file name CDEXPORT.

· Documentation will be included in the “ALM Downloads ” booklet. Refer to the CU*BASE Reference Page for details.

The Participation Loan Settlement Detail Report has been enhanced to add Activity Types that indicate member activity that occurred as of the settlement date.  New columns identify via a letter code (A-G) regular payments, principal curtailments, paid ahead payments, adjustments, past due or paid off loans.  This will assist your credit union with research relating to the settlement. Because of these changes, the Seq, Type, Last Pmt Date, #Trn and #Adj columns have been removed.

·     Documentation will be included in the “Participation Lending ” booklet. Refer to the CU*BASE Reference Page for details. Details for all related screens will be available via CU*BASE GOLD Online Help with the release.

§Looking up Member Email Addresses – There are now two “canned” Queries you can use to look up email addresses. We have changed the existing one (still available as a shortcut EMAIL) so that it automatically defaults to looking for a single email address - you simply replace the fake address with the actual one you are looking for. A great tool for figuring out which member sent you a message!

The new Query is on menu CU*BASE Report Builder 1 (MNQURY) #24 and can be used to find all members that have data in the email address field on the PCMBRCFG file. (This is how the old EMAIL lookup used to work, but it was confusing people who wanted to just look up a single address, as it was easy to forget to change the “Not equal to” parameter to “Equal to”). We thought it would be helpful to have both Queries to use depending on the situation. 

§More Specific Receipt Retrieval – Now when you access an archived receipt using eDOC Innovations archived receipt feature, the system will bring up only the member’s receipts archived on the selected date instead of all receipts for the member, greatly reducing the number of receipts that might appear on your screen.

§Select a Printer With Two Additional Reports on the Extended Loan Processing Menu (MNEXLN) – Now when you print the Quarterly Work File (#23) or Quarterly Government Reports (#26), you will be able to select the printer to which you want to print the report.

§More Flexibility When Creating Account Service Charges – When creating an Account Service Charge (MNCNFA #8, then #3 Account), you may select to have the minimum balance field set at a negative number.  Also, when setting up program comparison criteria to define which accounts are charged the fee, if you choose the CURBAL (Current Balance) field you can enter a negative number as the “data value to compare on.”