CMS Connection
Exciting new CMS updates coming soon!
The new three-year cohort default rate coupled with an economic recession means everyone needs to focus even more effort on default prevention. The Cohort Management System (CMS) is one of the most effective tools for tracking and managing the borrowers in your cohort rate--and it’s about to get even getter.
EdFund will be rolling out several phases of enhancements to CMS, starting December 3. Many of these new enhancements were directly requested by schools. You talked and we listened!
Here is a list of the major changes and a brief description of each.
- A new cohort cut-off-days box for letters
available in the school profile screen under the “system” tab
While you have always had the option of limiting the number of borrowers in the call queue by telling CMS to show only those who will be at risk of defaulting by the end of the cohort tracking period, this was not true of delinquency letters. In the past, EVERY delinquent borrower in the cohort received a delinquency letter regardless of their at-risk status.
Now, if you choose, you can send delinquency letters only to those at risk of defaulting by the end of the cohort tracking period. Like the cohort cut-off-days box for the call queue, the default definition of at risk is 360 days delinquent by the end of the cohort period.
If you want to ensure you are only sending delinquency letters to the same borrowers you are targeting in your call queue, you will need to set the cohort cut-off-days box and letter cohort cut-off-days box to the same number of days delinquent.
- Two new filters
available on the call queue screen
You will now be able to filter borrowers in the call queue by last name and number of days delinquent. This is a great enhancement for schools with a large cohort population in CMS and multiple users. Now you can easily assign multiple users a subset of accounts by last name, days delinquent or a combination!
- Delinquency letter restart
In the past, CMS would not resend a delinquency letter that a borrower had already received. This was true even if the borrower’s account was cured and became delinquent again. Fortunately, multiple delinquencies within a two-year cohort period were rare. However, with the new three-year timeline, it will become much more common to see borrowers become delinquent, cure their account and then become delinquent again before the end of the cohort tracking period. This CMS enhancement will ensure these borrowers receive a new round of delinquency letters.
- New display fields available on the borrower information screen
When it comes to counseling your delinquent borrowers, new delinquency and default data now available on these additional fields may prove to be the most useful of the latest enhancements.
At the top of each borrower’s information screen, you will see the following new fields:
- Delnq. Amount: Adds up the past-due amount reported by the lender(s) for all EdFund-guaranteed loans taken out to attend your school.
- Monthly payment: Adds up the monthly payment reported by the lender(s) for all EdFund-guaranteed loans taken out to attend your school.
- Anticipated Claim Paid Date: Populates with a date if the borrower’s default claim has been filed on EdFund’s system. The date reflects the earliest date EdFund anticipates placing this borrower in default for cohort tracking and collection purposes.
The following new fields are available by clicking on the “Loans” tab at the bottom of the borrower’s information screen and clicking on an individual loan:
- Principal balance: Contains the outstanding principle balance on the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Interest balance: Contains the outstanding interest balance on the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Last payment date: Contains the last date the borrower made a payment on the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Last payment amount: Contains the amount of the last payment the borrower made on the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Economic hardship: Contains the number of months of deferment used for the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Unemployment (UE): Contains the number of months of deferment used for the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Unemployment (UN): Contains the number of months of deferment used for the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Armed Forces/Public health: Contains the number of months of deferment used for the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Military operation: Contains the number of months of deferment used for the loan, as reported by the lender.
- Forbearance: Contains the number of months of forbearance used for the loan, as reported by the lender.
Lastly, a new tab, “Claims,” has been added to the borrower’s information screen. This screen will contain information if the borrower is default-claim filed on EdFund’s system. Default-claim filed means the lender has submitted a claim for default and EdFund is in the process of reviewing that claim to determine if the lender can be paid and the borrower placed in a default status for cohort and collection purposes.
The following new information is available on the “Claims” tab:
- Claim number: The case number EdFund has assigned to the default claim. You can click on this number to get more details on the claim, including the claim history status.
- Loan number: A list of the loans included in each claim submitted by the lender. Note: If a borrower has many loans, some may not be claim filed or may be part of a different claim number.
Claim received: The date EdFund received the claim from the lender.
- Status: A two-letter code that represents the current status. You can click on the claim number to get the details of this status.
- Lender/Servicer ID: The lender/servicer ID that submitted the claim to EdFund
- Servicer/Lender: The name of the lender/servicer that submitted the claim.
- Claim amount: The amount the lender is requesting EdFund pay for all loans on the claim.
- Ant Paid Date: The date EdFund anticipates placing the borrower in default. Different claim numbers may have different anticipated claim dates depending on when the claim was received.
This newsletter only briefly describes the new enhancements scheduled for implementation December 3. To learn more about these important changes, please plan to attend one of the following four webcasts:
- Monday, December 7 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific/1:00 p.m. Eastern
- Monday, December 7 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific/ 4:00 p.m. Eastern
- Wednesday, December 9 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific/ 1:00 p.m. Eastern
- Wednesday, December 9 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific/4:00 p.m. Eastern
To receive an invitation to the webcast, please send a request to Ruby Nieto at rnieto@edfund.org.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact your client relations manager or e-mail us at DPIUnit@edfund.org.
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