customer stories
Nations Direct Mortgage sees 67% faster income review with Ocrolus
Customer Stories
Nations Direct Mortgage sees 67% faster income review with Ocrolus
Mortgage | Classify, Analyze and Inspect
Nations Direct Mortgage is a wholesale lender serving broker clients and non-delegated correspondents across the country. With loan operations spanning setup, disclosure, underwriting and quality control, the company processes a high volume of files that each demand accuracy and speed.
As loan volume grew, the team turned to Ocrolus, a vertical AI workflow and analytics platform for lenders, to automate document classification and income analysis with Encompass. Two years later, the results reach from the setup floor to the underwriting desk — with measurable gains in time, cost and capacity that have positioned the team to scale without scaling overhead.
Challenge
Nations Direct Mortgage relied on an offshore team to handle document indexing and separate tools for income analysis, creating variable turn times and inconsistent quality across every file.
Solution
Ocrolus automated document classification and income calculations within Encompass, delivering organized, analysis-ready loan files before the setup team or underwriter opens a file.
Result
• 83% reduction in file setup time: Indexing dropped from 2 hours to 20 minutes per file
• Up to 85% cost savings per file: Ocrolus replaced offshore setup costs at a fraction of the price
• 67% faster income review: Underwriters reduced income analysis from 30–45 minutes to under 10 minutes
• 90% income acceptance rate: Underwriters accepted Ocrolus-recommended income calculations as-is on 9 in 10 files
• Scaled volume without proportional hiring: Volume spikes required only a handful of new hires instead of a 20% headcount increase
Challenge: Building a more consistent, scalable loan operation
To keep pace with loan volume, Nations Direct needed a more consistent and scalable approach to file setup. The team had relied on an offshore vendor for document identification, indexing, splitting and field completion, a process that worked but created variability as demands increased.
"Sometimes I would have a rush request and need to specifically request a person on their offshore team to go in and knock it out quickly," said Kevin Morrissey, Broker Approval/Support and Loan Setup & Disclosure Desk Manager at Nations Direct Mortgage.
On the underwriting side, Tiffany Raynes, SVP of Credit and Underwriting, needed a faster, more standardized path to income analysis. Underwriters were manually working across multiple tools to calculate income for every file before they could begin their credit review.
"When it comes to income, what we were using before was our own income worksheet," said Raynes. Self-employment and rental income required a separate tool on top of that, adding steps before underwriters could even begin their review. The process consumed 30 to 45 minutes per file, leaving underwriters less time for the decisions that required their judgment.
Solution: Automating setup, income and inspection at every stage
Nations Direct deployed Ocrolus across both the setup and underwriting functions. For the setup team, Ocrolus now handles document identification, indexing and naming within Encompass automatically. When a loan arrives, documents are sorted and labeled before any human touches the file.
"Just put the documents in the folder and Ocrolus classifies and does everything with them," said Morrissey. Naming conventions became consistent. Turn times became predictable. The dependency on any one person's skill or availability disappeared.
On the underwriting side, Ocrolus now calculates income before the underwriter opens the file. Paystubs, W-2s, tax returns and other income documents are processed during the setup phase so the income worksheet is ready the moment a file reaches the underwriting queue.
"The underwriter just needs to go in and take a cursory review, make sure that nothing needs to be tweaked, and 90% of the time they can utilize the recommended income from Ocrolus," said Raynes.
The team is also expanding its use of Ocrolus to surface discrepancies across the loan file. "It's also identifying discrepancies with the Inspect feature, looking at large deposits in bank statements," said Raynes. As adoption grows, the team is building Inspect into every underwriter's standard workflow. "We're working through making sure everybody's taking a look at it and determining what needs to be conditioned," said Raynes.
Result: Dramatically lower costs and a team that can scale
The time savings are concrete. File setup dropped from 2 hours to 20 minutes. "We are going from 2 hours in the setup with the offshore team to 20 minutes," said Morrissey. The cost impact followed. "It’s more than a 50% savings in cost — maybe even in the 75% to 85% range as far as cost per file."
Income analysis improved just as sharply. "What used to take underwriters 30 to 45 minutes in reviewing income now takes less than 10," said Raynes. The driver is simple: removing manual input from the equation. "It's already done for you; tweaking is faster than having to do all the input on your own."
The operational benefit became clearest during a volume surge in February 2026. Under the previous model, absorbing that level of increase might have required adding roughly 20% more staff. Instead, Nations Direct added only a handful of people.
"It definitely has allowed us to expand our pipeline without having to make this a whole HR circus and add a bunch of people, train them and make a cycle out of the whole thing," said Morrissey.
Key outcomes:
- 83% reduction in file setup time: Indexing dropped from 2 hours to 20 minutes per file
- Up to 85% cost savings per file: Ocrolus replaced offshore document processing at a fraction of the cost
- 67% faster income review: Underwriters reduced time on income analysis from 30–45 minutes to under 10 minutes
- 90% income acceptance rate: Underwriters accepted Ocrolus-recommended income as-is on 9 in 10 files
- Scaled volume without proportional hiring: A February 2026 spike required a handful of new hires instead of a 20% headcount increase
Why Nations Direct Mortgage recommends Ocrolus
Morrissey points to vendor responsiveness as the single most important factor for any lender evaluating AI. "It's really important to get involved with a vendor that's responsive and really listens to the unique setup that you guys have on your end as far as the platform you're using, how it could be integrated into your current process."
Two years in, the experience has proven that out. "A very responsive team on the Ocrolus end has made for a really smooth onboarding plus one-year experience for us," said Morrissey.
For Raynes, the bigger picture is the partnership itself. "We’re looking forward to continuing the partnership and growing together."
"With Ocrolus, we’ve taken income review from 30 to 45 minutes to less than 10."
Tiffany Raynes, SVP of Credit and Underwriting at Nations Direct Mortgage
