Tech developments in the mortgage capital markets heat up

Several developments involving companies active in the industry's secondary and capital market emerged this week.

AI-driven pricing data provider buys MBS specialist

Solve, a provider of pre-trade data and predictive pricing that has long used artificial intelligence to aggregate and analyze information, announced Thursday that it has purchased a company with similar but deeper capabilities focused specifically on mortgage-backed securities.

The financial terms for the acquisition of MBS Source are private. MBS Source's founder, Mihai Szabo, will take on a new role involving innovation AI, machine learning and predictive analytics at Solve in line with the company's past practice in bringing new acquisitions into the fold.

"With every firm, the idea was that the senior team take some sort of a bigger, larger leadership role within Solve," CEO Eugene Grinberg said in an interview.

Specific capabilities MBS Source brings to solve include predictive pricing for agencies, a prepayment model, and derived information from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine that's more specific than what FINRA provides.

Intercontinental Exchange teams up with REIT on new indices

AGNC Investment Trust and ICE Mortgage Technology' corporate parent have created three indices for current coupon government-related securities.

The two companies have launched indices for 30-year Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities, and 15- and 30-year uniform MBS from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"These indices will provide market insights and performance data for the most liquid and actively traded segments of the agency MBS market," Sean Reid, executive vice president, strategy and corporate development at AGNC, said in a press release.

Optimal Blue launches capital markets platform updates

Technology vendor Optimal Blue reported that it introduced a new product and added new features to three existing ones this week ahead of the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention.

Broker search data license, the new product, aims to give investors a view of demand across the market using anonymized information from the Loansifter platform.

The company also added pipeline monitoring to its existing product and pricing engine, tracking data like credit scores, loan amounts or property information as the loan gets processed. The monitoring is designed to help users track changes that could affect pricing or eligibility.

Optimal Blue also added new capabilities to its hedging and loan trading technology that are aimed at allowing traders to directly collect, compare and execute broker-dealer pricing. The company also added the ability to track this pricing over time for competitive analysis.

The Comergence platform, a due diligence, added the ability for business users to add integrations without coding.

Incenter Lender Services collaborates on CRA loan exchange

While some parts of the Community Redevelopment Act have been undergoing a rollback, the core rule remains in place and interest in CRA loan trades persists that a new national platform from Incenter Lender Services supports.

Incenter built the platform with e11tec, an automated decision engine for loans in underserved markets, and a division of Watermark Capital that acts as a central counterparty.

The technology helps match bank buyers who have to meet quarterly and annual deadlines with sellers that often come from the nonbank community.