Lender Price launched the first cloud-native, AI-driven pricing engine in early 2026, using natural language processing to let secondary market teams write pricing rules in plain English instead of complex spreadsheet formulas. That product exists because the industry has a pricing accuracy problem: when your Encompass mortgage pricing relies on manual rate sheet uploads, every delay between market movement and system update is a window for quoting stale rates.
A few basis points in either direction can win or lose a borrower. Quote 6.75% when a competitor pulls live data and shows 6.625%, and the borrower walks. Quote below the actual investor price, and you absorb the margin hit or face a buyback. ICE Mortgage Technology's 2024 ROI study found that Encompass users see a $1,056 increase in gross profit per loan through optimized workflows, and real-time pricing integration is one of the highest-impact optimizations available.
This guide covers how real-time market integrations work inside Encompass, what they replace, and how to set them up without disrupting your current lending operations.
Manual pricing means downloading rate sheets, copying data into spreadsheets, and uploading numbers into Encompass, often before the first loan officer arrives at their desk. By the time that process finishes, rates may have already moved.
The operational costs break down into four categories:
These are not edge cases. They happen daily at lending operations that still depend on manual pricing workflows. The fix is straightforward: automate the data feed so Encompass always reflects current market conditions.
Real-time market integrations are automated data feeds that deliver current pricing from investors, GSEs, and secondary markets directly into your Encompass system. They replace manual rate sheet uploads with API-based connections that keep your pricing engine synchronized with the market.
Here is what flows through these integrations:
The data flows through secure API connections between your pricing engine and Encompass. When rates change, your system reflects those changes automatically. When an investor updates guidelines, the new rules are already factored into loan scenarios before your team runs them.
ICE Mortgage Technology's own Product and Pricing Engine (PPE) provides this integration natively within Encompass. Third-party pricing engines like Lender Price, Mortech (Zillow), and Optimal Blue also offer Encompass integrations with varying depths of bi-directional data transfer.
Real-time integrations eliminate pricing lag. Your loan officers quote current rates, not yesterday's numbers. In competitive purchase markets where multiple lenders are courting the same borrower, pricing accuracy is often the deciding factor.
When your competitor pulls live investor data and you are working from this morning's rate sheet, you lose on speed and accuracy. Real-time pricing lets your lock desk respond to market movements instantly, offering borrowers the best available terms at the moment they are ready to lock.
Eliminating manual rate sheet uploads frees your lock desk and secondary market teams to focus on strategic work: managing hedge positions, analyzing execution options, and handling pricing exceptions. That is time shifted from data entry to revenue-generating decisions.
Pricing that stays aligned with current investor guidelines reduces the chance of re-disclosures, tolerance violations, and buyback demands. When a rate lock is submitted against expired pricing, the loan may need to be re-disclosed or repurchased. Real-time data eliminates that risk at the source.
When a borrower calls ready to lock, your loan officer pulls up live pricing and confirms the rate on the spot. No delays, no callbacks, no "let me check and get back to you." That responsiveness builds trust and closes more loans.
Implementing real-time pricing integrations requires planning across technology, compliance, and team workflow. Here is the sequence that works:
Select a pricing engine with a proven Encompass integration. ICE PPE is the native option. Third-party engines like Lender Price, Mortech, and Optimal Blue each offer different strengths in investor coverage, analytics depth, and capital markets tools. Evaluate based on your investor mix and secondary market strategy.
Identify every investor whose pricing data needs to flow into Encompass. Document rate sheet formats, update frequencies, and any investor-specific pricing rules. This mapping determines how many API connections your integration requires.
Pricing data feeds must travel over encrypted connections with proper authentication. Set role-based access so only authorized users can view or modify pricing configurations. Document your security controls for SOC 2 and regulatory audits.
Run the integration in parallel with your manual process for at least two weeks. Compare automated pricing against manual rate sheets to verify accuracy. Test scenarios including volatile market days, investor guideline changes, and lock extension requests.
Your lock desk staff needs to understand how the integration works, how to handle exceptions, and what to do if the automated feed encounters an error. Train them on the new workflow before retiring the manual process.
The mortgage pricing technology space is evolving rapidly. ICE Mortgage Technology's PPE provides seamless Encompass integration as a native solution. It supports instant rate quotes, lock management, and investor delivery from within the Encompass interface.
Third-party options are expanding as well. Lender Price offers AI-driven pricing with natural language rule creation. Mortech's Marksman provides bi-directional data transfer with historical pricing, lock notifications, and change of circumstance support. Optimal Blue delivers broad investor coverage with analytics and hedging tools.
With ICE's SDK sunset deadline at December 31, 2026, any pricing integration using SDK-based connections must migrate to API-based architecture. API integrations offer faster data transfer, lower maintenance costs, and alignment with ICE's platform direction.
The choice depends on your investor coverage needs, secondary market strategy, and existing technology stack. All major engines support Encompass integration, but the depth of that integration varies.
Mortgage Workspace helps lenders build secure, scalable interfaces that connect real-time market data to their Encompass environment. Our team configures pricing engine integrations, API connections, and security controls so your lock desk operates with live investor data instead of static rate sheets.
Our services include Guardian Private Server Hosting, Guardian Virtual Desktops, and Microsoft 365 Guardian, all built to protect your operations and support seamless Encompass integration. With 25+ years supporting 750+ financial institutions and SOC 2 Type II certification, we deliver the reliability that mortgage pricing demands.
Talk to an expert about connecting real-time market pricing to your Encompass system.
A real-time market integration is an automated API connection that delivers current investor pricing, rate changes, LLPAs, and product eligibility data directly into your Encompass system. It replaces manual rate sheet uploads so your pricing engine always reflects current market conditions without human intervention or data entry.
Real-time pricing keeps your Encompass system aligned with current investor guidelines and market rates. This reduces re-disclosure risk from expired pricing, prevents tolerance violations caused by rate changes between quote and lock, and minimizes buyback exposure from loans priced against outdated investor matrices. Automated pricing creates an auditable data trail.
ICE Mortgage Technology's own Product and Pricing Engine (PPE) provides native Encompass integration. Third-party options include Lender Price, which offers AI-driven pricing with natural language rule creation; Mortech by Zillow, which provides bi-directional data transfer and lock desk tools; and Optimal Blue, which delivers broad investor coverage with analytics capabilities.
Implementation typically takes four to eight weeks depending on the number of investor feeds, complexity of your pricing rules, and testing requirements. Plan for at least two weeks of parallel operation where automated pricing runs alongside your manual process to verify accuracy before fully transitioning your lock desk to the live integration.
Yes. Any pricing integration using SDK-based connections must migrate to API-based architecture before ICE Mortgage Technology's December 31, 2026 deadline. API-based pricing integrations run faster and cost less to maintain than SDK alternatives. ICE reports that clients who completed the API transition see an average benefit of $149 per loan from reduced latency.