Mortgage technology

Users of Ellie Mae's self-hosted loan origination system will soon have to make a choice: migrate to the software-as-a-service version of Encompass or switch technology providers altogether.

Just three years ago, CEO David Nelms heralded the purchase of LendingTree Loans as a milestone in Discover's evolution from a strict credit-card company to a broad-based consumer lender. Now he is hinting that it might exit the mortgage business.

Amid a growing investor appetite for risk, efforts to standardize private-label securities are key to helping ensure the market's healthy return.

Ellie Mae reported fourth-quarter earnings of $4.3 million, more than double that of the same period in 2013.

Citi has formed a digital marketing alliance with online real estate marketplace Zillow in a bid to reach more customers in the financial services company's priority cities, the company announced Feb. 10.

Mortgage document preparation vendor International Document Services has named its first chief executive.

The Qualified Mortgage rule, as well as increased scrutiny and more frequent auditing by regulatory agencies, has required lenders to embrace quality control to a far greater degree.

Mortgage professional hiring and new job appointments for the week ending Feb. 6.

New disclosure rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau don't go into effect until this summer, but lenders are already worried about compliance and fearing it may make the closing process far more difficult.

One of the first housing-related items on the budget is continued support for industry regulation, in general, and the CFPB, in particular.

Tewksbury FCU and CU Close have launched a new collaborative enterprise to help lenders and credit unions profit from combined volume and more efficient vendor management.

The 10X Award honors a company, product or technology that's had an exponential impact on mortgage finance. Learn about this year's finalists and see who won the 2014 MT Award.

Studying borrowers' credit characteristics and tightening quality control are more important to how mortgages perform than the size of down payments.

While many of the lenders and investment firms seeking to profit from higher-risk mortgages are working to revive the business of bundling such loans into bonds, Citadel, one of the biggest players, is in no rush to see that happen.

Borrowers with lower credit scores accounted for a greater share of loan volume in December 2014 than they did in December 2012, according to a sample of mortgages processed by the Ellie Mae loan origination system.

ReverseVision, which operates the largest technology platform in the reverse mortgage industry, suffered an outage with its RV Express system because of a hardware failure. It's the second technology disruption for the San Diego-based vendor.

Arbor Commercial Mortgage has launched a proprietary online loan processing technology platform.

Fannie Mae recently released its Collateral Underwriter automated risk assessment tool, which evaluates the risk associated with appraisals. It does not accept or reject appraisals, nor does it provide lenders with an estimate of a property's value.

If Zillow is allowed to acquire rival Trulia, the company says it will maintain both brands' websites.

Purchase loan volume increased in December, reversing a four-month decline, according to the mortgage data firm Ellie Mae.