Digital mortgages

From first-time homebuyers and real estate referrals to digital mortgages and back office execution, here's a look at the biggest concerns and highest priorities of the country's most successful loan officers.

While the West Coast still reigns as the epicenter of technology development, the Detroit area has quietly emerged as a proving ground for digital mortgage innovations.

Publicly traded mortgage technology firms seeking growth could eventually end up squaring off against or buying privately owned point of sale system startups.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is calling for Ginnie Mae, states, the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies to overcome remaining digital mortgage challenges.

Cloudvirga, in collaboration with Freddie Mac, has created the capability for loan officers to submit mortgage loan data to both government-sponsored enterprises' automated underwriting systems simultaneously with a single click.

The bank says its partnership with Lender Price will help streamline and simplify its home loan process.

While the mortgage industry heads in a digital direction, homebuyers are still expecting a more electronic experience during the mortgage process, which would also stand to benefit lenders.

Applications can now be made on the bank's app or website, but closings will still be in person. With this move, BofA joins Quicken Loans, Lenda, SoFi and others offering a mostly digital mortgage. The trend is sure to continue.

Lennar Corp.'s home finance subsidiary with the help of Blend rolled out its own digital mortgage platform, as another small lender tries to keep up with Rocket Mortgage.

Tech vendors Merscorp Holdings and eOriginal have developed a suite of tools for small and midsize mortgage lenders to close fully electronic loans.

While mobile applications have become increasingly present in the originations segment of the mortgage industry, they're now making their mark in the servicing space.

Lenda, launched in 2014, currently makes mortgages start to finish in two weeks. But it's aiming to make it a process that can be finished on a borrower's lunch break.

Servicers are still trying to figure out how they can best take advantage of the growing use of electronic notes and other digital mortgage tools by lenders and the secondary market.

Governments are studying ways blockchain can safeguard property records and simplify how they get tracked.

While the industry continues adopting digital mortgage methods, homebuyers expect to be able to apply for a mortgage and complete the application online, but still want human interaction, according to Ellie Mae.

Fannie Mae is about to roll out a new underwriting system that will address some concerns about layered risk that cropped up after it raised its maximum debt-to-income ratio.

Financial data and analytics company FinLocker has gained the approval of a second patent supporting its digital vault functionality.

Mortgage settlement software provider Qualia is getting a new $33 million round of funding that it will use to expand into additional U.S. markets.

The bank will spend an additional $1.4 billion on technology in 2018 to gain share and boost efficiency, executives said Tuesday. But they were peppered with questions about whether the big investment will yield a big financial return down the road.

Banco Santander joined existing investors JPMorgan and USAA as well as others in raising $25 million in secondary-round financing for Roostify, which seeks to build a paperless mortgage process.