SPARK 7.9.9 Release Notes and Webinar

The SPARK 7.9.9 release is planned for Saturday, January 27th. This update includes the latest SBA form changes and enhancements to Sources & Uses. The maintenance window will occur from 9:00 PM CT on Saturday, January 27th through 10:00 AM CT on Sunday, January 28th.

Please join us for a release webinar on Thursday, January 25th at 11:00 AM CST, where you can see a demonstration and ask questions about the content of this release. You can view a recording of the webinar at this link.

What's New

SBA Form 1919

SPARK now supports the new SBA Form 1919 which includes the following changes:

• The original SBA Form 1919 document placeholder is being disabled and will be replaced by a new SBA Form 1919 placeholder due to the change in requirements -- the original 1919 was associated with "Individuals" and the new version is associated with "Businesses".

• The new document placeholder will automatically appear on all SBA packages for business borrowers, individual co-borrowers, and operating company guarantors in EPC/OC transactions, and will replace the existing document placeholder in any custom document views and checklists. Existing SBA Form 1919 document placeholders will remain untouched and will continue to be available.

• New business history, personal history, and entity owner history forms have been created to align with the questions in the new Form 1919. These new forms also include questions that must be answered for SPARK's E-Tran integration. The new forms will be automatically updated on all standard SBA products in your instance of SPARK.

• The new SBA Form 1919 relies on a combination of business history questions and personal history questions.

  • If any questions are answered "Yes" on the business history form, the generated 1919 will include the response from the business history and an addendum with relevant details entered by the applicant.

  • In cases where a question is answered "Yes" on the individual history form after previously having been answered "No" on the business history form, the personal history answer preempts the business history answer and maps to Form 1919. For example, if question 13 (Is the Applicant, any owner of the Applicant, or any business owned by them (Affiliates), presently involved in any legal action (including divorce)?) is answered “No” on the business history form, and then is answered “Yes” on an individual history form, the generated SBA Form 1919 will include the "Yes" response.

• The following questions remain on the SPARK Business History Statement based on current requirements for E-Tran submissions:

  • Is the Applicant presently involved in bankruptcy or insolvency? (Also applies to Entity Owner History)

  • Does the Applicant have a prior SBA loan? (Also applies to Entity Owner History)

  • Does the Applicant or any business owned or controlled by the Applicant have any outstanding business debt?

  • Is the Applicant presently involved in any pending lawsuits? (Also applies to Entity Owner History)

• The following questions remain on the SPARK Personal History Statement based on current requirements for E-Tran submissions:

  • Are you presently involved in bankruptcy or insolvency?

  • Are you presently involved in any pending lawsuits? 

• The "Business History" column that is visible on the Businesses page has been updated to include a new status of "Review Recommended" when an Applicant answers any of the following questions "Yes":

  • Questions 1, 2, and 7-13 on SBA Form 1919.

  • Is the Applicant presently involved in bankruptcy or insolvency? (used for E-Tran submission).

  • Is the Applicant presently involved in any pending lawsuits? (used for E-Tran submission).

• The "Business History" column that is visible on the Businesses page has been updated to show a status of "Ineligible" when the Applicant answers “Yes” to Question 4 on SBA Form 1919

• The "Personal History" column that is visible on the Individuals page has been updated to include a new status of "Review Recommended" when an Applicant answers “Yes” to any of the following questions:

  • Questions 1, 2, and 13 on SBA Form 1919.

  • Is the Applicant presently involved in bankruptcy or insolvency? (used for E-Tran submission).

  • Is the Applicant presently involved in any pending lawsuits? (used for E-Tran submission).

• The "Personal History" column that is visible on the Individuals page has been updated to show a status of "Ineligible" when the Applicant answers "Yes" to Question 4 on SBA Form 1919.

• Our standard stage change validators have been updated to use the same logic defined for the "Business History" and "Personal History" status columns so that "Ineligible" business or personal history statements show a status of "Action Required" and "Review Recommended" business or personal history statements show a status of "Action Recommended”.

• The Character section of SBA Eligibility has been removed on packages where this section was not In Progress or Complete.

SBA Form 3518 

• The SBA has replaced Form 2449 Community Advantage Addendum (Pilot Program) with Form 3518 Community Advantage Addendum. 

• We have added Form 3518 in SPARK and disabled Form 2449.

SBA Applicant Eligibility Automation Activities

With updates to SBA Form 1919, we've added several activities that can be included in automation workflows for SBA products. Responses to each of these activities can result in an automation result of Pass, Fail, or Incomplete/Not Answered.

• Business History Activities:

  • Bankruptcies

  • Delinquent Government Loan

  • Suspended or Debarred

  • Revenues

  • Legal Action

  • Pending Lawsuits

  • Incarcerated / Parole / Subject to Indictment

  • Conflict of Interest

  • Eligibility of a Business History form

• Personal History

  • Bankruptcies

  • Delinquent Government Loan

  • Suspended or Debarred

  • Legal Action

  • Pending Lawsuits

  • Incarcerated / Parole / Subject to Indictment

  • Owes Child Support

  • Eligibility of a Personal History form

• Entity Owner History

  • Bankruptcies

  • Delinquent Government Loan

  • Suspended or Debarred

  • Legal Action

  • Pending Lawsuits

  • Eligibility of an Entity Owner form 

Please reach out to your CSM if you are interested in implementing this change.

Tax Return Strategy for Applicants and Guarantors 

We have introduced a new strategy for lenders who do not want Tax Return Document Placeholders to be generated for affiliates. We have also modified the existing Tax Return Strategy to include lessees.

If you would like your SPARK instance to use this new strategy for tax return placeholders, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Referral Partner API Endpoint 

We added a new Referral Partner API endpoint to expand reporting capabilities for Referral Partners. At a high level, it includes: 

• Referral Partner Information

• Referral Partner Company Information

• A list of packages referred by the Referral Partner including Package ID, Referral Fee, Package Amount, Package Stage, Package Status 

Further details will be available in the SPARK API documentation following this release.

Option to filter Document List when Lender views as Applicant 

When viewing document lists from the Applicant Portal, lenders can now choose to view the list as a specific Applicant User on the package. This allows lenders to see the exact set of documents visible to the selected user, empowering the lender to assist with applicant training and troubleshooting. 

What's Changed

Sources & Uses Enhancements

We have made some updates to Sources and Uses to improve your user experience!

Here are some changes to be aware of:

• Historically, a product could only have one default source of funds. Now lenders can set up multiple default sources of funds for each product, so these sources are populated automatically on packages. 

• For Sources that support Terms:

  • Select fields can now be added and edited from the Source panel

  • The following actions are available for each Source: 

    • Go to Terms

    • Go to Amortization Schedule 

• “Discard Changes” is available if you would like to experiment with edits to the allocations of Sources and Uses and not save the changes. 

• An indicator of Unsaved Changes, Saving, Saved, Unable to Save is now shown above the Sources and Uses table as well as the package header.

Autosaving Package Commentary 

We've introduced autosave functionality for Commentary/Narrative boxes in the following areas of SPARK: 

• Collateral 

• CAIVRS 

• Location Analysis 

• Management/Operations 

• Project Summary 

• Sources of Repayment 

• Sources & Uses 

• Strengths & Weaknesses 

• Total Exposure 

SBA Form 1050 & Project Budget

• We have updated SBA Form 1050 to the latest version. Please note that the SBA announced earlier this month that the form is no longer required.

• We have changed how a project budget is created based on the SBA breakdown of Refinance Uses of Proceeds. SBA packages with refinances will now have budget categories that reflect the SBA’s terminology of Same Institution Debt, not Same Institution Debt, etc. Since the project budget change is a go-forward change, generating a settlement statement for packages that don’t have the “new project budget” will assume refinances are fully disbursed when the 1050 is generated. 

• The new approach for the project budget will also impact SBA loans with refinances going forward. Instead of showing a generic “refinance of existing debt” budget category, we will show the SBA’s terminology. This means there could be up to 4 different refinance budget categories on the SPARK settlement statement and in the disbursement manager. 

Construction Loan Strategies

• We have updated the strategy “Construction Loan > 350k” to “Construction Loan > 500k” to align with changes in the latest SOP update. This strategy applies to a package if there is a construction use and the loan amount is greater than $500,000. 

• We added a new construction strategy that references the construction use of proceeds only. The new “Construction Use of Proceeds > 500k” applies to a package with a construction use of proceeds greater than $500,000. 

SBA Eligibility - Citizenship Questions 

• With the release of SOP 50 10 7.1, USCIS Form G-845 is no longer required to verify the status of non-citizens. 

• Under the Citizenship section of SBA Eligibility, if the second question is answered no, the warning now states: “Lender must obtain all necessary certifications and documentation as provided under the current SOP.” 

• If any individuals on the package are not US citizens, the “Relevant Documents” section will appear (formerly “Required Documents”). If documents are attached to any ‘USCIS Form G-845' placeholders those will appear. Otherwise, “Copy of Permanent Resident Card” placeholders will appear if present on the package.

Visibility to Archived and Resolved Notes 

We've introduced toggles in every Notes panel that allow users to see resolved and archived Notes that were previously available only via Package Activity.

Deleting Project Agents Created by SPARK

SPARK automatically creates project agents based on the existence of a packaging fee or referral fee. These agents are tagged with a "System" badge and historically could not be deleted. Users can now delete these agents from the Project Agents page; however, the agent will be recreated if either a packaging fee or referral fee still exists. A tooltip has been added to the "System" badge to provide more context as to why SPARK is requiring this agent.

Total Exposure

Total Exposure has been updated to use the latest SPARK styles. There are no functional updates associated with this change.

Additional Customization for Referral Partner Portal 

The following fields can now be configured to be required for referral submissions:

• Require Legal Structure 

• Require Date of Formation

• Require Business TIN

• Require NAICS 

• Require Business Phone 

• Require Address

• Require SSN

• Require Email

• Require Contact Phone

• Require Address

• Customize the Document View

Please reach out to your CSM if you are interested in implementing this change.

Customizable Names for Conditions and Covenant Types 

Lenders can now customize the name of Conditions & Covenant Types, which are the tabs or “buckets” that appear under Conditions and Covenants on a package. 

Please reach out to your CSM if you are interested in implementing this change.

Global Debt Service Synchronization 

• If a sub account is added to the Pro Forma DSC and an amount is entered, the sub account and the amount will flow to the Global DSC.

• If a sub account is added to a (historical) DSC and an amount is entered, and a Pro Forma DSC does not exist on the package, the sub account and the amount will flow to the Global DSC. 

• No configuration is needed if sub-accounts are already present on the relevant DSCs. 

Business Mailing Address in SPARK-Generated Forms

A new Business Mailing Address field has been added for SPARK-generated forms. If this property is used in a form, we'll use the mailing address that was entered for the business. If a separate mailing address was not entered, it defaults to the current business address. This is a new property so if you would like to take advantage of it, your PDF forms will need to be updated.

Rich Text Editors for Scorecard Configurations 

The options in the configuration of a Scorecard are now Rich Text Areas to improve the aesthetics for customers with verbose Risk Ratings. 

What's Been Fixed

• Content Snippets for SBA Eligibility Commentary - A hotfix was deployed to address an issue that impacted snippet selection on the SBA Eligibility main page.

• Team Configurations - A hotfix was deployed to address an issue with viewing the list of all Teams that have been configured in your instance of SPARK.

• Electronic Signatures - A hotfix was deployed to address an issue where the correct documents weren't being included when an envelope was updated after its initial creation.

• Financial Analysis and Comparison Tab - A hotfix was deployed to address an issue where the comparisons tab in a consolidated analysis was not being shown in SPARK when the tab was hidden from the credit memo.

• 1071 Report - A hotfix was deployed to resolve an issue with generating a 1071 report when the reason for denial was mapped to the CFPB's category of Other.

• Project Agents and Itemization Document Placeholders - The name of the Itemization document placeholder will no longer use the name of the uploaded file. Going forward, the placeholder name will match the name defined in your SPARK configuration (e.g., Itemization and Supporting Documentation for SBA Form 159), and the agent name will be appended.

• Days in Stage Calculation on Package Lists - We've updated the days in stage calculation used on package lists in SPARK to exclude the days the package was on hold.

Find Out More

Stay tuned for the latest features and subscribe to your favorite categories. You can view our product roadmap at any time here.

If you have any feedback or questions about this release, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or email us at support@lendwithspark.com. Your feedback will help us make SPARK the best loan origination software in the market!