SPARK 8.1.4 Release Notes

The SPARK 8.1.4 release is planned for Saturday, January 4th. This update includes an integration with Lumos to obtain the PRIME+ score as well as some quality-of-life improvements. The maintenance window will occur from 11:00 PM CT on Saturday, January 4th through 9:00 AM CT on Sunday, January 5th.

Please join us for a release webinar on Thursday, January 9th at 11:00 AM CT, where you can see a demonstration and ask questions about the content of this release. Sign up for the release webinar using this link.

What's New

Lumos PRIME+

The Lumos PRIME+ scoring model enhances underwriting efficiency and delivers a more accurate and equitable risk assessment for small business loans.

Key features of the Lumos PRIME+ score:

• Data-Driven Insights: Incorporates over three decades of small business performance data across multiple economic cycles, adapting to changing economic environments.

• Relevant Factors: Focuses on metrics that directly impact small business performance, avoiding reliance on consumer credit scores or business credit history.

• Advanced Technology: Leverages state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms for precise predictions.

• Risk Forecasting: Predicts expected credit losses over the next 12 months.

• Robust Validation: Undergoes rigorous back testing, stress testing, and comparison against challenger models to ensure accuracy and stability.

More details can be found on Lumos's Website.

The PRIME+ report can be requested in two ways:

• Scoring Dashboard - directly request and view scores within the Scoring Dashboard.

• Automation Workflow - configure an Automation to request the PRIME+ report and optionally assign a recommendation based on the score.

When ordering a PRIME+ report, SPARK sends the following information to Lumos:

• Loan Information

  • Loan Amount

  • Loan Type (term or revolving)

  • Rate Type (fixed or variable)

• Business Information

  • Business Address

  • Borrower Type (Borrower, Co-Borrower, Guarantor, etc.)

  • Business Type (also known as Legal Structure)

  • Number of Employees

  • Franchise / FRUNS Number

  • NAICS Code

  • Years in Business

  • Annual Revenue

  • Bankruptcy (yes, no, or unknown)

  • Lawsuit (yes, no, or unknown)

• Personal Information (one or more Owners or Personal Guarantors)

  • Address

  • Personal Credit Score

  • Individual Type (Owner, Co-Owner, Guarantor, etc.)

  • Ownership Percentage

The resulting report includes the following information:

• An overall PRIME+ score

• Expected Loss, Probability of Default, and Loss Given Default

• Predicted Grade in three economic scenarios (Recession, Base, and Boom)

• List of Factors that influence the Score

• Full PDF of the report with additional characteristics

New Lead Form Questions

Two new questions are now available for lead forms:

• Gross Revenue

• Number of Employees

These fields are designed to support lenders who wish to order a Lumos PRIME+ score as part of an automation triggered upon lead submission.

Note: These questions are not automatically included in existing lead forms. To collect this information from applicants, the questions must be manually added to your lead forms.

New Referral Partner Questions

Three new questions are now available for Referral Partners submitting deals through the Referral Partner Portal:

• Gross Revenue

• Number of Employees

• Franchise

These questions are optional by default but can be configured to be required based on your preferences.

Similar to the lead form enhancements, these questions were added to support lenders who wish to order a Lumos PRIME+ score as part of an automation triggered when a package is referred.

New Strategies for Automatic Fee Creation

New strategies will be available in this release to enable automatic documentation of fees* for scoring integrations:

• Lumos PRIME+: Enables automatic documentation of fees when a Prime+ report is requested.

• PayNet: Enables automatic documentation of fees when a PayNet report is requested.

• FICO SBSS / Business Credit: Enables automatic documentation of fees when a FICO SBSS report is requested or manual business credit report is documented.

• LexisNexis Business: Enables automatic documentation of fees when a LexisNexis InstantID Business report is requested.

• LexisNexis Individual: Enables automatic documentation of fees for each individual associate included in a LexisNexis InstantID Business report.

*Additional configuration is required to enable automatic fee creation. Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager if you would like this set up.

Disbursement Webhooks

We've added three new webhooks for disbursement-related events to enable real-time updates.

• Disbursement Created: Triggered when a disbursement is created. The payload includes:

  • PackageId

  • DisbursementId

  • Status of the disbursement

• Disbursement Updated: Triggered whenever a disbursement is updated, including changes to all fields and the status of the disbursement. The payload includes:

  • PackageId

  • DisbursementId

  • Status of the disbursement

• Disbursement Deleted: Triggered when a disbursement is deleted. The payload includes:

  • PackageId

  • DisbursementId

Additional Properties added to the Package Extract Endpoint (API v3)

Two additional properties have been added to the extract endpoint:

• riskRating: the calculated risk rating for the underwriting risk rating scorecard.

• projectAddress: the project address for the package

What's Changed

Scoring Dashboard Visual Updates

Several visual updates have been made to the scoring dashboard:

• Gauges are now smaller to make room for the Lumos integrations and future integrations.

• Clicking a score now mutes other scores for the entity for more focused viewing.

• The order of the gauges now reflects a more realistic order of when a report is typically ordered:

  • Businesses

    • LexisNexis

    • SLA Score (if applicable)

    • SBSS / Business Score

    • PayNet

    • Lumos Prime+

  • Individuals

    • LexisNexis

    • Personal Credit

Process Stage Sorting on Package Lists

The stage column now sorts based on process stage order rather than alphabetical order. Ascending sort displays earlier process stages (e.g., "Lead") at the top. Descending sort displays later process stages (e.g., "Funded") at the top. 

Improved Handling of Unclassified Documents

When uploading an unclassified document, the "Folder" drop-down will automatically default to the unclassified folder for the selected view. Once an unclassified placeholder is created, the document will automatically appear in the unclassified folders of all other views that have been configured.  Previously, the unclassified document was only added to the selected folder.

SBA Loan Number in Package Header

SBA loan packages that have an SBA Loan Number now include the SBA Loan Number in the standard package header that is visible on all package pages.

What's Been Fixed

• Documents for Owners Missing when Referring a Package - A hotfix was deployed to fix an issue where documentation requirements for owners were not displayed for referral partners using the referral partner portal to refer packages.

• Update Task (API v3) - A hotfix was deployed to fix an issue that would occur when updating a task tied to a business, individual or collateral.

• Commitment Letter Validation - The logic for validating commitment letters has been updated to properly recognize when a commitment letter has been uploaded instead of generated or when a previous version has been deleted. 

• Business Acquisition Section for Credit Memos - A "$" sign was added to the value for "Price Paid".

• General Eligibility Section and All Owners Guaranty Loan Check - The logic for our SBA General Eligibility check for requiring all 20% or more owners to guaranty the loan has been updated to exclude businesses with a special ownership type of ESOP, ROBS, or ROBS 401k Trust / 401ks as well as business borrowers that are Sole Proprietorships.

• Avatar Image Scaling - The avatar image scaling has been changed to avoid distorting profile images.

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, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or submit a ticket to the SPARK Support Team. Your feedback will help us make SPARK the best loan origination software in the market!