Implementation Support Page

The purpose of this page is to assist new e-Trac clients in the preparation of their inbound data file and program conversion.  Please feel free to contact e-Trac Operations with your questions at (800) 597-1866 or via email at operations@seattlespecialty.com

Overview

The e-Trac System requires to primary sources of information in order to function: (1) Loan Data, and (2) Insurance Data.  Loan data is provided by the lender on a periodic basis (usually weekly), and Insurance Data is obtained by keying insurance mail into e-Trac as it is received from the borrower, agent or company.

There are two techniques commonly used to select the data to be provided to e-Trac: (1) the lender selects from their loan portfolio only those loans eligible for tracking, or (2) the lender sends all of their loans and indicates via collateral or loan type codes which are to be tracked.  The most common approach is the second one.  Its advantage is that in the event collateral codes are added or changed by the lender, no changes need be made by the lender in the procedure that extracts the data for e-Trac.  The lender simply informs e-Trac Operations in advance of the changes and the e-Trac data extract program will be modified as required.  No changes need be made by the lender other than to communicate with e-Trac Operations on a timely basis.

Current Program

We currently have no insurance tracking program

Our current tracking program does not involve a data exchange

Our current tracking program involves a periodic data exchange

No Insurance Tracking Program. You need to develop an extract of your loan data to send to e-Trac on a periodic basis.  Most commercial loan servicing systems have dealt with this issue before, and it is likely that an existing interface is available that can be utilized. Recommended steps:

  1. Contact your loan servicing system technical support staff or internal liaison and see if an insurance tracking loan extract exists. If so, request documentation on the extract including the output file definition, file type, media options, etc.
  2. The other option is to develop a new extract procedure based on the e-Trac Standard Data Submission Format.

Active Program - No Data Extract Submission.  You need to develop an extract of your loan data to send to e-Trac on a periodic basis.  Most commercial loan servicing systems have dealt with this issue before, and it is likely that an existing interface is available that can be utilized.  Also, we will need information on your current tracking program.  Recommended steps:

  1. Contact your loan servicing system technical support staff or internal liaison and see if an insurance tracking loan extract exists.  If so, request documentation on the extract including the output file definition, file type, media options, etc.
  2. If no existing data extract is available, obtain a copy of the e-Trac Standard Data Specification

Active Program with Extract Data Submission.  You need to either develop an extract of your loan data to send to e-Trac on a periodic basis, or redirect the current extract to e-Trac.  In nearly all cases, the format you are currently using will be adequate to meet the needs of the e-Trac System.  Exceptions to that rule occur when the e-Trac program expands on the services provided by your previous tracker, such as adding mortgage loan tracking when only vehicle loans were tracked before.  Also, we will need information on your current tracking program.  Recommended steps:

  1. Provide us with a copy of your current data extract and file definition/layout.
  2. If the proposed e-Trac program expands upon the tracking performed by your current provider, you may need to add additional fields to the data extract to support these enhancements.  After we review your current data extract format we will be able to determine if this is true.  If so, we will start by requesting that you contact your loan servicing system technical support staff or internal liaison and see if a data extract exists that contains the required information. If one does, request documentation on the extract including the output file definition, file type, media options, etc. That failing, a new extract will need to be developed or the existing extract modified to add the required fields.

Conversion from your current force place program to e-Trac

I plan to complete a conversion of data from my current program to e-Trac

No conversion is planned

Data Extract Development

I want to proceed with the development of a new data extract

I plan to use the data submission format from our current program

New Data Extract Development.  First, obtain a copy of the e-Trac Standard Data Submission Specification by clicking on the following link:


e-Trac Standard Submission Specification

  1. The specification lists required and optional data elements.  Please note that it is not necessary to develop your extract precisely to this specification.  Since most loan servicing systems have some sort of data extract or report writer capability, use our specification as a list of required and optional data elements.  They can be placed in any order and can be any size.  
  2. For any coded field, please provide a list of all valid codes and their definitions.  One critical field is your collateral code, as it will determine which records are extracted, and under what loan and portfolio type they will be tracked.  You will need to identify which codes should be tracked and which should be ignored.  Some code definitions are often too generic to classify, so you may need to provide some additional explanation of what we should expect in those cases.  An example is "secured" - secured by what?  A certificate of deposit, stock (both non-trackable), or a vehicle or real estate (both trackable).
  3. Your extract should include all loans with each submission.  Transactional formats can work, but the risk of getting 'out of sync' offsets the benefits of the smaller data set size.  The extract program we develop to apply your data to the e-Trac System includes three steps: 1) your inbound file is compared to your e-Trac file and any loans on your file not on e-Trac are added as new loans if the collateral codes indicate they should be tracked, 2) all loans on your file that match loans on e-Trac are updated, and 3) loans on e-Trac not found on your inbound are marked as potential payoffs.  They may not actually be marked as paid off on e-Trac for one or two more additional submission cycles depending on your situation.  Ideally, you will be able to provide e-Trac with a payoff date or payoff indicator rather than have loans drop from the data submission without reason.
  4. The preferred data format is a fixed length ASCII text file.  An alternative to the fixed length file is a comma or tab delimited text file.  The delimited format is acceptable, but requires an additional processing step at e-Trac.

Data Submission

I want to submit my data extract electronically

I want to submit my data extract using physical media (tape, diskette, etc)

Electronic Data Submission.  Electronic data submission is the recommended approach as it is immediate, does not involve physical media and its potential for loss or damage, and is less expensive.  The e-Trac System supports several electronic submission options including the following:

  • eMail attachment.  This is the most common and effective solution.  We maintain a dedicated email address for data submissions: custdata@seattlespecialty.com.  eMail is not a very secure medium as the message and attachments are sent in open format over the Internet.  To address this concern, we support the use of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption, pass worded Zip files, and other techniques to secure your data and ensure all security related regulations are met.
  • FTP (File Transfer Protocol).  In a FTP data exchange, one party acts as the server and the other as the client.  We can support either approach.  e-Trac maintains a closed FTP site for data submission purposes.  Most FTP sites are open in the sense that anyone accessing the site may sign on by simply using the user name "anonymous" and their email address (or any text for that matter) as the password.  You then usually free to upload, download or delete files on that site at will.  The e-Trac FTP site is closed and requires a valid user name and password to gain access to the site.  You still have the option to secure your data submission via a pass worded Zip file or PGP among other techniques.

Submission via Physical Media.  If electronic data submission is not an option, physical media may be mailed or shipped to the e-Trac data center for processing.  Media options include:

  • Diskette.  This is the most commonly used and effective solution where available.  File sizes are limited to 1.4MB, but the source file can be "Zipped" to effectively increase the size of the file that can be copied to diskette.  Loan data can typically be compressed to 20% of its original size when Zipped, which equates to a 7MB file fitting on a single diskette.
  • Reel Tape.  Reel tape can be submitted in 800, 1600 or 6250 BPI.  Tapes can be labeled or unlabeled.  Data must be provided in EBCDIC (preferred) or ASCII with a block size not to exceed 10K bytes.  All data should be in "display" format, that is no COMP-3 or compressed data.
  • 3480 Data Cartridge.  Half inch 3480 cartridges are supported, but their use is discouraged.