Glossary
The mortgage operations glossary.
Twenty terms, defined in plain language. Written for the people who run loan production: processors, ops leaders, and CIOs. No jargon required to read about jargon.
A
- Automated underwriting system AUS
- An automated underwriting system (AUS) is software that evaluates a loan file against investor guidelines and returns findings in minutes. Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter and Freddie Mac's Loan Product Advisor are the two most common. The findings drive which documents and conditions the file needs.
C
- Clear to close CTC
- Clear to close (CTC) is the milestone when underwriting confirms every condition is satisfied and the file can move to closing documents. The last gate before scheduling. Files that bounce back after CTC are among the most expensive defects on the line.
- Condition tracking
- Condition tracking is monitoring every outstanding item a loan needs before it can close. Traditionally done by hand, in spreadsheets, across systems that don't talk to each other.
- Correspondent lender
- A correspondent lender originates, underwrites, and funds loans in its own name, then sells the closed loans to a larger investor or aggregator. Keeps control of the borrower experience without holding the loan long term.
- Cost per loan
- Cost per loan is the fully loaded cost to originate a single loan: people, technology, vendor fees, and overhead. The number every ops conversation eventually returns to, and the one fragmentation quietly inflates. See how IMBs move this number.
E
- Exception routing
- Exception routing is deciding which work moves on its own and which needs a human, then getting that work to the right human with context attached. The difference between a queue and a system.
H
- Handoff
- A handoff is the moment a file passes between people, teams, or systems. Every handoff is a chance for context to thin out and time to leak. Most "slow" loans are not slow anywhere; they are waiting at a handoff no one owns.
- Human-in-the-loop
- Human-in-the-loop is an automation pattern where defined decisions pause for a person to review, approve, or redirect before the work continues. The alternative to both full manual work and unsupervised automation.
I
- Independent mortgage bank IMB
- An independent mortgage bank (IMB) is a non-depository lender. IMBs fund loans through warehouse lines rather than customer deposits, then sell the loans they close, so speed and cost per loan hit their economics directly.
L
- Loan origination system LOS
- A loan origination system (LOS) is the system of record where a loan lives from application to closing. Sortai reads the closing package; the LOS stays the system of record.
M
- Milestone
- A milestone is a named stage a loan passes through: application, processing, underwriting, clear to close, closing, funding. Milestones are how pipelines get reported, and where files quietly age in between.
- MISMO
- MISMO is the mortgage industry's data standards organization. Its formats give systems a shared language for exchanging loan data, which is what makes integration between an LOS, vendors, and investors possible at all.
O
- Orchestration
- Orchestration is coordinating work, data, and decisions across every system in the line so the whole process runs as one. Automation completes a task inside one tool. Orchestration owns what happens between the tools.
P
- Pipeline
- A pipeline is every active loan in flight, viewed as one thing. Ops leaders manage the pipeline. The trouble is that most stacks only show it one system at a time.
- Point of sale POS
- A point of sale (POS) is the borrower-facing front end of the stack: application intake, document upload, disclosures, status updates. Sits ahead of the LOS and hands the file to it.
- Pull-through rate
- Pull-through rate is the percentage of applications or rate locks that actually fund. Every file that dies mid-process still consumed processing time, which is why pull-through and cost per loan move together.
S
- Straight-through processing STP
- Straight-through processing (STP) is work that completes end to end with no human touch. The realistic goal is not one hundred percent STP. It is routing the predictable majority straight through so people can spend judgment on the files that need it.
- System of record
- A system of record is the one system whose data wins when copies disagree. For a loan, that is the LOS. Every copy of loan data living outside it is a sync problem waiting to happen.
T
- TRID
- TRID is the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule. It governs the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure, including strict timing windows around delivery and changes. For ops, TRID is why disclosure dates drive so much of the closing calendar.
- Turn time
- Turn time is elapsed time through a stage or the whole loan: application to close, underwriting turn, docs out. The metric lenders quote, compete on, and lose to queues rather than to actual work.
Missing a term you expected to find here? Tell us and we'll add it: info@gettrained.ai
Book a demo
Vocabulary is the easy part. The line is the hard part.
Bring a real workflow. We'll show you where files wait between these terms, and what it looks like when they don't.