I recently became the manager of my bank's document preparation department. I'm learning my way around the software (Harland's Laser Pro Lending) but I'm not familiar with which documents should be prepared for each loan type. Are there any reference materials available?

I hate to tell you this, but IMO loan documentation is not a matter of looking at a list. Some understanding of both federal and state laws would be very helpful. While basic loan docs can remain static for each loan type, not every loan,of the same type will always have the same loan docs. Some will have more than others, depending on the terms and conditions of the loan.

If you cannot locate a reference source, you might consider pulling some of the loan docs on existing loans and making your own lists.

The tutorial in Laser Pro may also be helpful.

You might also check with your state's bankers association. The Georgia Bankers Association conducts training classes each year on proper loan documentation.

You need to take your compliance officer to lunch and open a channel of communications that will produce answers to questions of this type.

Assuming your compliance officer knows anything about lending! I know many who know the regs but NOT how to document a loan other than issues relating to regulations. You need to meet with your senior lender, find out what the bank's expectations are, and perhaps even have a discussion with counsel for the bank to see if they bank has been forgetting anything. I have had to fix some incredible problems, such as lenders trying to do third party loans (property to be held by a trust or an additional party on the mortgage) using straight fannie/freddie loan documents with no modifications. Doesn't work. You end up saying someone has signed a note who hasn't..fannie docs assume a one for one match.

For business lending, it is not just cookie cutter pick a document. You need to understand different types of guarantees, UCC requirements and the necessary language for filings, and many other things. It is extremely important to know what the banks credit policy requires, and to read the actually read the loan writeup to see what collateral is being taken, who is borrowing, who is guaranteeing, and so forth. Third party pledges come up frequently in business lending as well.

Again, start by speaking with the senior lender and counsel and developing policies on what is acceptable. Then there are courses in loan documentation, RMA has some available to help with understanding the concepts.

Luckily you are using LaserPro which is collateral driven. The software will pull required documentation based on the identified collateral. Any additional documents needed, such as Assignments should be dependent upon whether your credit policy and/or lending officer requires. I would make best friends with senior lending officer for additional help.

But make sure you fully understand the transaction-LaserPro only knows what you tell it. Do you have a special form that the lenders must use to give you an outline of the deal (borrower, owner of collateral, collateral, term, guarantors, etc.) or must those inputting the info to LaserPro read the loan write up and decipher it? The latter can waste a lot of time and back and forth with lenders if the loan write up is not in a format that requires them to clearly state the terms of the deal.

Always beware of loan types and collateral. Occasionally a lender here will do a construction only loan for an individual to build their new primary residence. This is a closed end line of credit. Our software will only recognize this as a commercial loan and therefore no truth-in-lending document is prepared. Luckily, it doesn't happen very often but it can be a problem.