Meridian Loan Prescreen

Performer | UiPath REFramework | Unattended

The second stage in the Meridian Loan Processing pipeline. This automation consumes applications from the PrescreenedApplications Orchestrator queue, retrieves the corresponding application and customer screening data from MongoDB, and runs a three-tier rules engine to determine the outcome: auto-deny, enhanced review, auto-approve, or standard underwriting.

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Features

• Queue-Driven Performer -- Pulls transaction items from the Orchestrator PrescreenedApplications queue using the standard REFramework Get Queue Item pattern
• Kill Rules (Auto-Deny) -- Evaluates hard-knockout criteria that result in immediate denial with ECOA-defensible reason codes; multiple deny reasons can accumulate per application
• Enhanced Review Detection -- Identifies applications that warrant senior underwriter attention based on loan amount, credit score, or financial capacity -- serving business goals beyond just risk
• Auto-Approve Engine -- Clears low-risk applications through an 8-point validation gate, approving only when every metric passes
• Four-Way Routing -- Each application exits to one of four distinct queues: DeniedApplications, EnhancedReview, ApprovedApplications, or StandardUnderwriting
• MongoDB State Management -- Updates application status and reason codes in the applications collection at each decision point, maintaining a complete audit trail
• Externalized Thresholds -- All business rule thresholds are configurable via Config.xlsx and Orchestrator Assets, allowing business analysts to tune criteria without code changes

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Process Flow

Start
  |
  v
[Get Transaction Item]
  |- Pull from "PrescreenedApplications" queue
  |- Extract AppId from queue item SpecificContent
  |- If no items remain --> End Process
  |
  v
[Fetch Application Data]
  |- MongoDB Find: applications collection by AppId
  |- If not found --> BusinessRuleException
  |- Regex-clean ObjectId wrappers, deserialize to JObject
  |
  v
[Fetch Customer Screening Data]
  |- MongoDB Find: customers collection by customer_id
  |- If not found --> BusinessRuleException
  |- Deserialize screening record (credit, income, debt data)
  |
  v
[Kill Rules] -- Hard Knockouts
  |- Defaults on file >= 1?              --> DENY
  |- Credit score <= threshold?           --> DENY
  |- Debt-to-income ratio >= threshold?   --> DENY
  |- Derogatory marks >= threshold?       --> DENY
  |- Low credit + recent delinquencies?   --> DENY
  |  (Multiple reasons accumulate)
  |
  |- If ANY triggered:
  |     Update MongoDB status = "Denied" + reasons
  |     Add to "DeniedApplications" queue
  |     Return (skip remaining checks)
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  v
[Enhanced Review] -- Escalation Triggers
  |- Loan amount > HighValueAmount?       --> ENHANCED (HighValue)
  |- Credit score >= HighScore?           --> ENHANCED (HighScore)
  |- Capacity index > threshold?          --> ENHANCED (HighCapacity)
  |    (annual_income + savings - debt)
  |
  |- If triggered:
  |     Update MongoDB status = "EnhancedReview" + type
  |     Add to "EnhancedReview" queue
  |     Return
  |
  v
[Auto-Approve] -- Low-Risk Gate (ALL must pass)
  |- No defaults on file
  |- No derogatory marks
  |- No delinquencies in last 2 years
  |- Credit score >= 740
  |- DTI ratio <= 0.35
  |- LTI ratio <= 0.30
  |- PTI ratio <= 0.10
  |- Annual income >= $50,000
  |- Loan amount <= $30,000
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  |- If ALL pass:
  |     Update MongoDB status = "Approved"
  |     Add to "ApprovedApplications" queue
  |     Return
  |
  v
[Default: Standard Underwriting]
  |- Update MongoDB status = "StandardUnderwriting"
  |- Add to "StandardUnderwriting" queue
  |
  v
[Set Transaction Status] --> Loop

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Routing Summary

Outcome	Queue	Trigger	MongoDB Status
Auto-Deny	DeniedApplications	Any kill rule fires	Denied
Enhanced Review	EnhancedReview	High value, high score, or high capacity	EnhancedReview
Auto-Approve	ApprovedApplications	All 8+ validation checks pass	Approved
Standard Underwriting	StandardUnderwriting	Default -- no other rule triggered	StandardUnderwriting

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Kill Rules Detail

These represent clear, regulator-recognizable knockouts that map to ECOA adverse action reasons:

Rule	Condition	Denial Reason
Defaults	defaults_on_file >= 1	Applicant has at least one Default on file
Credit Score	pulled_credit_score <= CreditScoreKill	Applicant credit score is too low
DTI Ratio	debt_to_income_ratio >= DTIKill	Applicant Debt vs Income is too high
Derogatory Marks	derogatory_marks >= DerogatoryKill	Too many active derogatory marks on file
Compound Risk	credit_score < 560 AND delinquencies_last_2yrs > 2	Credit score combined with active delinquency assumes too high risk

Multiple reasons can accumulate -- a single application may be denied for several independent causes, all recorded.

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Enhanced Review Triggers

Enhanced review serves business goals beyond risk mitigation:

Trigger	Condition	Rationale
High Value	loan_amount > HighValueAmount	Large loans require senior underwriter sign-off
High Score	pulled_credit_score >= HighScore	Potentially under-priced applications worth a second look
High Capacity	income + savings - debt > CapacityIndex	Wealth-management cross-sell opportunities

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Tools & Technologies

Component	Technology
RPA Platform	UiPath Studio 26.0 (Windows target)
Framework	REFramework (Robotic Enterprise Framework)
Database	MongoDB (via InternalLabs.MongoDB.Activities)
Queue (Input)	UiPath Orchestrator -- PrescreenedApplications
Queues (Output)	DeniedApplications, EnhancedReview, ApprovedApplications, StandardUnderwriting
Config	REFramework Config.xlsx + Orchestrator Assets

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Key Workflows

File	Purpose
Main.xaml	REFramework state machine entry point
Framework/GetTransactionData.xaml	Gets next queue item from PrescreenedApplications
Framework/Process.xaml	Orchestrates the full triage: fetch data, kill rules, enhanced review, auto-approve, route
Meridian/KillRules.xaml	Evaluates hard-knockout deny criteria; outputs Denied flag + reason list
Meridian/EnhancedReview.xaml	Checks escalation triggers (value, score, capacity); outputs Enhanced flag + type
Meridian/AutoApprove.xaml	8-point validation gate for low-risk auto-approval
Meridian/Update Denied.xaml	Helper: sets denied flag and appends reason string to the deny list

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Configuration

Setting	Purpose
OrchestratorQueueName	Input queue name (PrescreenedApplications)
OrchestratorQueueFolder	Orchestrator folder path
DBConnection	MongoDB connection string
Database	MongoDB database name
CreditScoreKill	Credit score threshold for auto-deny
DTIKill	Debt-to-income ratio threshold for auto-deny
DerogatoryKill	Derogatory marks threshold for auto-deny
HighValueAmount	Loan amount threshold triggering enhanced review
HighScore	Credit score threshold triggering enhanced review
CapacityIndex	Net capacity threshold triggering enhanced review

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Design Decisions

• Three-tier evaluation order -- Kill rules run first (cheapest check, highest conviction), then enhanced review, then auto-approve. If no rule fires, the application defaults to standard underwriting. This ensures borderline cases always get human judgment.
• Accumulated deny reasons -- Rather than short-circuiting on the first kill rule, all applicable reasons are collected. This mirrors ECOA requirements where adverse action notices must cite all material factors.
• BusinessRuleException for missing data -- If an application or customer record can't be found in MongoDB, the transaction throws a BusinessRuleException (skipped, not retried) rather than a system exception, preventing infinite retry loops on data integrity issues.
• Regex ObjectId cleanup -- MongoDB's BSON ObjectId wrappers (ObjectId("...")) are stripped via regex before JSON deserialization, keeping the data pipeline clean without requiring custom serializers.
• Externalized thresholds -- Kill and enhanced review thresholds live in Config.xlsx / Orchestrator Assets. A business analyst can tighten lending criteria during a downturn without filing a code change request.

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Pipeline Context

This is Stage 2 of the Meridian Loan Processing pipeline:

[Email Processor] --> [Loan Prescreen] --> [Loan Assigner] --> [Underwriter Dashboard]
     Intake             (this)             HITL Assignment      Attended Workspace

The upstream Email Processor dispatches items to PrescreenedApplications. This performer routes them to one of four downstream queues consumed by the Loan Assigner and future notification performers.

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Dependencies

InternalLabs.MongoDB.Activities  [1.0.1]
UiPath.Excel.Activities          [3.5.1]
UiPath.System.Activities         [26.2.4]
UiPath.Testing.Activities        [25.10.2]
UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities   [25.10.31]
UiPath.WebAPI.Activities         [2.4.0]