Surge Forecast in Collateral Mgmt Spending

Spending on automated mortgage collateral management systems will grow from $33 million this year to $193 million in 2008, according to an estimate by TowerGroup, Needham, Mass.The spending increase will cut the average time for a mortgage lender to complete a home appraisal from 6-10 days now to 4-7 days by 2008, the company said. "This is a critical shift for the mortgage lending industry, as it faces declining loan volumes following the record mortgage refinancing period experienced over the past two years," TowerGroup said. ".... Recent introductions of automated valuation models and automated collateral management systems hold promise for mortgage lenders to streamline traditional appraisals and collateral document management, which is the lengthiest and least automated of the loan processing tasks." The company said the forecast is based on research titled "The Next Mortgage Underwriting Revolution: Mortgage Collateral Assessment," by Craig Focardi, a senior analyst in TowerGroup's Consumer Credit practice. The company can be found online at http://www.towergroup.com.