Patent ID: 8060438

Claim:
A browser-based automated loan system, the system comprising: one or more computer processors; computer-readable memory; and a collection of software components stored in the computer-readable memory and operable via the one or more computer processors, the collection of software components comprising: a loan engine offered individually to each of a plurality of participating financial institutions to set up, operate and manage loan product offerings of each of the financial institutions; a consumer website interface, which comprises a loan application form with specific data fields relevant to qualifying a borrower for a loan based on the loan product offerings of each financial institution, wherein the consumer website interface enables the borrower to select a category of the loan product offerings; a designer component that establishes one or more tasks organized in the form of a loan process checklist associated with each loan product offering for each financial institution, such that each checklist is associated with the selected category of loan offerings and such that each task associated with each loan process checklist has attributes available for establishing one or more entry conditions in order to provide workflow automation, and wherein each task is performed when each of the one or more entry conditions associated therewith is satisfied; a workflow engine for automatically evaluating the loan application form completed by the borrower using the applicable loan process checklist, in conjunction with rules, logical mathematical computational components, and risk based offer configurations, and for generating an instant loan offer when a borrower qualifies; and a workflow designer, wherein the designer component is operably integrated with the workflow designer residing on a server with the workflow engine in a networked environment, the workflow designer providing a flexible object-based interface for creating and modifying each loan process checklist in real-time, and also providing functionalities for defining the automation attributes for each task of each loan process checklist.