J.L.Sherman&Associates,Inc.

The Leader in Loan Quotation and Loan Calculation Software

SCEX - Sherman Calculation Engine with XML Interface

The SCEX is loan calculation software that can be embedded within your own application, supporting consumer, commercial, and mortgage loan calculations. The Sherman Calculation Engine with XML Interface (SCEX) is the software solution that makes Sherman’s extensive expertise in the mathematics of lending part of your own software. Instead of struggling with loan calculations, payment protection methods (which vary by state and company), compliance issues, and the expertise required to identify and setup these calculations, let Sherman and Associates take care of it. The SCEX is quite simply the “calculation brain” of our software or of yours. With thousands of possible setup customization options and over sixty man years of specific experience contained in it, the SCEX is your best choice.

Who Needs the SCEX?

Two types of customers rely on the SCEX:

  1. Lenders developing their own platform system can just drop the SCEX module into their software. The full array of Sherman’s calculations for accrual types, loan types, and payment protection products are then customized with setups to match the lender’s methods. Lenders developing their own systems, who chose the SCEX, or a custom calculation engine we developed specifically for them, include Wells Fargo, KeyCorp, Paccar Financial, Union Bank, and Chase Education Funding.

  2. Loan origination and servicing software providers rely on the SCEX as the calculation heart of their systems. They don’t have to worry about programming the loan types, interest methods, payment protection plans, and Truth In Lending disclosures their clients require, because the SCEX covers all of this and more. Sherman and Associates also provides the downstream support for all of these elements. Please see the Partners area of our site for a partial list of our LOS partners. It includes the major LOS providers across the consumer, commercial, mortgage, and student lending spaces.

What does the SCEX do for you?

Using the SCEX

The SCEX provides a XML interface wrapped around our calculation engine. All input sent to the SCEX is contained in one character buffer (or character string). Similarly, the SCEX returns all results in a single character buffer, which the calling application must provide.

The format of the text contained in these character buffers is what the ‘X’ in the SCEX is all about - XML. XML is a simple, flexible text format which is playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of data between disparate platforms and systems.

To use the SCEX, the application calling it provides the necessary input in a character buffer, which contains the XML data. As an example, here is the XML input data for a 36 month equal payment loan based on a 10% interest rate and $10,000:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE inEQUAL_PMT SYSTEM "inEQUAL_PMT.dtd" >
<inEQUAL_PMT Account="2" PPY="monthly" HOEPA="no" HideAmort="true">
 <LoanDate>2004-06-10</LoanDate>
 <PmtDate>2004-07-10</PmtDate>
 <IntRate>10.000%</IntRate>
 <Proceeds>$10,000.00</Proceeds>
 <Term>36</Term>
</inEQUAL_PMT>

The result of the loan calculation is then passed back to the calling application in a buffer. The application then need only parse the returned XML to use the calculation results as appropriate. Here is a sample result returned from the SCE, using the inputs specified above (with the amortization table turned off):

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no" ?>
<!DOCTYPE outEQUAL_PMT  SYSTEM "outEQUAL_PMT.dtd" >
<outEQUAL_PMT>
 <Results>
  <Description>Successful Calculation</Description>
  <XMLDetail>XML Input is well formed</XMLDetail>
  <XMLDetail>XML Input is Valid.</XMLDetail>
  <XMLDetail>XML Output is untested</XMLDetail>
  <Payment>322.70</Payment>
  <Final>322.63</Final>
 </Results>
 <FedBox>
  <AmtFin>10000.00</AmtFin>
  <FinChg>1617.13</FinChg>
  <TotPmts>11617.13</TotPmts>
  <RegZAPR Type="Actuarial">10.006</RegZAPR>
 </FedBox>
 <Moneys>
  <Principal>10000.00</Principal>
  <Interest>1617.13</Interest>
  <Protection Category="None" PerPmt="0.00" PerDay="0.00">0.00</Protection>
 </Moneys>
 <Accrual>
  <Method>Actual/365 US Rule</Method>
  <Days1Pmt DayCount="Actual">30</Days1Pmt>
  <Maturity>2007-06-10</Maturity>
 </Accrual>
 <PmtStream Term="35" Pmt="322.70" Rate="10.000" Begin="2004-07-10"/>
 <PmtStream Term="1" Pmt="322.63" Rate="10.000" Begin="2007-06-10"/>
</outEQUAL_PMT>

The SCEX Loan Server

The SCEX Loan Server goes one step beyond the SCEX, turning the SCEX into a multi-platform calculation engine. The SCEX Loan Server provides a TCP/IP communication wrapper around the SCEX. So long as the platform on which your application resides can communicate via TCP/IP, you can use the SCEX in your product.

The Loan Server listens on a specified port for incoming loan calculation requests. When it receives a loan request, the Loan Server dispatches the SCEX XML loan request to the SCEX. Once the SCEX returns an XML result to the SCEX Loan Server, the Loan Server then returns the XML result buffer to the client via TCP/IP.