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The judges panel is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2011 Mortgage Technology Awards.

Welcome to Mortgage-Technology.com I’m Austin Kilgore.As the servicing industry continues to adjust to the changing mortgage landscape, technology is evolving to meet those needs.Lender Processing Services has long been the dominant provider of mortgage servicing technology. It’s flagship product, the Mortgage Servicing Package, is used by more than half of servicers in the United States.MSP is the servicer’s system of record. When a mortgage is performing, the system’s automated processes saves time and money. But when a mortgage becomes delinquent or goes into default, ancillary technology is needed to integrate with MSP and perform high-level functions.Servicers have used MSP in one form or another since the 1960s, but it’s not without its critics, explains Jeff Lebowitz, president of the Oregon-based mortgage technology consulting firm Mortech.“They’re the IBM of servicing at LPS. People have been grumbling about the system being out of date for 30 years. But they keep using it because it’s good enough. They are the dominant player and if you’re making the decision about switching systems, or want to if you’re the IT manager or the servicing manager, you need to have a pretty good reason to get off of LPS.”But LPS Chief Information Officer Joseph Nackashi says MSP is a stable and reliable platform that benefits from $100 million in investment every year — money that goes toward updating MSP to meet compliance and business changes and upgrading it to take advantage of new technological advancements.At the end of the day, when you step back and look at the LPS architecture today and the core system of MSP and what it represents, is it still a mainframe-based application? It absolutely is. And with that mainframe-based application gives us the kind of reliability and scalability that a large customer like a Chase and a Wells enjoy today — our ability to turn year-end cycles in record-breaking time; our ability to provision access to the data in a near-24/7 mechanism.Another topic concerning servicers is the expected growth of electronic mortgages in the foreclosure pipeline.Experts predict that the gradual rise in paperless originations will result in growing levels of e-mortgage default — even after the current flood of delinquencies subsides.Legislation that paved the way for electronic commerce more than 10 years ago spells out the technology and workflow requirements that originators, servicers and their attorneys must maintain for e-mortgage compliance. But it’s still a new and relatively untested concept, with little precedent to alleviate uncertainty.Adding to the confusion are consumer advocates spreading inaccurate myths about the legalities of e-mortgages, including some using faulty logic to spread the idea that judges are throwing out e-signed mortgage documents in foreclosure cases.That simply isn’t the case, explains Kim Weaver, vice president of product management at Wisconsin-based Fiserv Lending Solutions.There are over 200,000 e-notes, which I know is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of mortgage loans originated every year. But still, I do know that there are loans secured by electronically signed promissory notes that have unfortunately gone into foreclosure or other reconciliation and no, that has not been an issue. I think that’s because of the care the mortgage industry took to put in place the right kind of documents, the right kind of systems and most importantly, the right kinds of checks and balances.To combat the misconception, e-mortgage advocates continue to mount an aggressive education campaign to explain to lenders, servicers and the legal community about the benefits of e-mortgages.You can read those stories and more in the February edition of Mortgage Technology magazine.In late February, the servicing industry will converge on Dallas for the Mortgage Bankers Association annual National Mortgage Servicing Conference and Expo.Scheduled to appear are key regulators from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as well as executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the nation’s largest servicing shops.The event will feature specialized tracks focusing on loss mitigation, foreclosure and bankruptcy, regulatory reform and business operations. I will be there, along with other members of our editorial team, so please reach out and let us know if you’re attending.Thanks for watching. For more on the latest daily news and commentary from the mortgage industry, visit Mortgage-Technology.com and NationalMortgageNews.com, sign up for our free e-mail newsletters and check out the latest editions of our print publications.In this video get a sneak peak at the February edition of Mortgage Technology magazine and the special report on mortgage servicing. Also, a preview of what the servicing industry will be talking about at the upcoming MBA conference.

With prices trending down in the third quarter of 2010, lenders and servicers are looking for innovative tools to improve the marketing and liquidation of REO homes.

Headlines are changing daily regarding foreclosure moratoriums and the default servicing process. Opinions are mixed on whether or not more government regulations are a good thing for the industry.