Recently I had dinner at Shelly's Tradizionale restarant located at 41 West 57th Street in Manhattan, where I talked with Rick Roque, national management, business development at Calyx Software about the state of mortgage technology. It was an interesting conversation. Given Point’s market share they can be a real leader, and they’re stepping up. The more vendors that take a leadership role in transforming the mortgage industry, the better.
As evidence, the company introduced Calyx Point Data Server. The latest version 6.1 is described by Calyx as a “secure way to share Point files across the organization. Loan data, templates and Cardex data are stored on a central server, making Point files accessible from any location. Point Data Server enables loan officers and processors to search, open, edit and save loan files on the central server — right from their Point desktop via an Internet connection. The tool can also generate management reports that include information from different offices, providing a consolidated view of your entire pipeline."
Similarly the company also offers clients a Web presence with WebCaster, which enables users to promote their products and services, including a secure online loan center that provides seamless integration with Point and Point Data Server. Lastly, the company has opened up to the idea of integrating with other service providers in an official, company-approved manner so the user doesn’t have to create custom interfaces with the introduction of the Calyx Network. Currently, Calyx has approximately 300 companies participating in the Calyx Network.
While none of these products and services are particularly unique or new as other companies have been offering comparable services for some time, it indicates that Calyx is realizing its position in the market. Mr. Roque told me that given the company’s market share they’re in a good place to see how a variety of companies do business and form best practices for the industry as a result. Inserting features like automated compliance checks at certain points during loan processing is an example of how Calyx can push the industry to be more proactive about things like loan quality and accuracy.
Also, given that the LOS is the system of record, Calyx is in a position to move brokers and lenders closer to paperless processing and ultimately full e-mortgages. And given my conversation with Mr. Roque, the company is finally starting to realize it’s potential and responsibility to the industry. In his travels, Mr. Roque told me clients are now looking at things like e-signatures and they’re investing now for e-strategies to come in 2009. He said, “2008 is really all about 2009. Lenders are getting their strategies in place and they’re investing for the long term.”
Another large technology company with comparable market share, namely Fiserv, is seeing the same things. However, unlike Calyx, Fiserv has always been an “e” pioneer and is now seeing the fruits of that more forward-looking strategy. “I completely agree with Rick’s statement,” said Kim Weaver, vice president of product management for Fiserv’s eLending Platform. “Lenders understand the complexity of the business re-engineering that has to go on in order to do e-mortgages.
“However, they’re seeing the spike in e-notes registered on MERS. The industry realizes that there are still a small numbers of e-notes done by a handful of lenders, but those lenders are starting to open the barn doors so to speak because they’re doing larger numbers now.
“Every year more and more lenders are saying this is the year for e-mortgages for us. There aren’t just three lenders doing this anymore. It’ll still be a few years before it goes mainstream, but certainly more and more lenders are going live each year.”
And with more proactive vendors in the space to help those lenders along, adoption will be that much easier. Wouldn't you agreee?
