Mortgage technology

OpenClose Solutions has partnered with Costa Mesa, Calif.-based MeridianLink to interface the company's MortgageCreditLink with OpenClose's loan origination software. MeridianLink and OpenClose will enable brokers and wholesale lenders to request and access credit information from any Internet connection and deliver merged credit reports from more than 50 credit reporting agencies. The move allows wholesale lenders and brokers to access to the same credit data. Lenders and brokers using OpenClose's LOS can then directly import the credit information directly into the software, eliminating duplicate data entry.

In response to federal regulators encouraging lenders and servicers to participate in the Federal Housing Administration's HOPE for Homeowners program (H4H), Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has begun to develop a suite of solutions to help financial institutions comply with the program's requirements. The H4H program was created by Congress to help borrowers at risk of default and foreclosure refinance into more affordable and sustainable loans. For borrowers who refinance under H4H, lenders are required to write down the mortgage to the Department of Housing and Urban Development-provided maximum loan-to-value ratio based upon the home's new appraised value. In many instances, lenders will determine that such a reduction in principal allows them to avoid a costly foreclosure, while helping borrowers stay in their homes with an FHA-backed mortgage. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services says it is developing the documents necessary for lenders and servicers to comply with the H4H program's new consumer disclosures and closing package requirements. The documents will be available in electronic or print formats and through the company's document preparation platform. The documents are expected to be available by the end of 2008.

Data-Vision Inc. has signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase all or substantially all of the operating assets of Netupdate Inc., a Web-based point-of-sale technology provider. No sale price was disclosed. Netupdate is a wholly owned subsidiary of Most Home Corp., a national provider of online customer service solutions for the mortgage and real estate industries. The acquisition of Netupdate http://www.netupdate.com will strategically advance the accessibility and quality of Data-Vision's integrated Internet lending technologies. Data-Vision's goal is to come to market with a suite of Web portal and e-lending solutions, complete with capabilities such as online origination, point-of-sale, lead capture, instant decisioning, product selection, initial disclosures and secure electronic document delivery. Data-Vision can be found on the Web at http://www.d-vision.com.

Ellie Mae, a provider of loan processing software, is creating and updating loan modification closing packages for several top ten lenders, the company said. Ellie Mae said clients are currently using the service to process more than 5,000 loan modifications per week. The service creates loan modification packages with Web-based data entry that requires no re-keying of data. All documents are compliant with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and MERS requirements, Ellie Mae said. The service assesses the needs of the lender's workflow, accommodates lender-specific workout plans, and handles all recording, notary, and compliance monitoring needs, the company said.

The First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., said it has introduced what it believes is the first "reverse mortgage score," a data-based numerical value designed to help servicers quantify the likelihood that struggling senior borrowers can avoid foreclosure on their current loans by qualifying for government-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages. The score, introduced at the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association conference in Los Angeles, examines factors specific to the government reverse mortgage program such as the new $417,000 HECM national loan limit, the number of borrowers on the loan and their ages, living trusts and powers of attorney. It also examines homeowner and property information from First American's data repository. The combined examination of these factors results in a weighted average score ranging from one to five in which "one" indicates the borrower is "least likely" to qualify for a HECM and "five" indicates the loan is "most viable," an external spokesman said. The spokesman also said score may be helpful to originators as well as servicers.

Title insurance giant Fidelity National Financial has agreed to purchase one of its top competitors, LandAmerica Financial Group, for $126 million in stock. The sale announcement comes a day after LandAmerica said it would delay its third quarter earnings release. The purchase is subject not only to shareholder approvals but needs to be sanctioned by the antitrust division of the Justice Department. The two companies say they will save at least $400 million in expenses by reducing their combined debt loads by $250 million and cutting another $150 million in costs. Fidelity, a large player in servicing technology, is based in Jacksonville, Fla. LandAmerica is headquartered in Richmond, Va. Shareholders of LandAmerica, the nation's third largest title insurer, will receive 0.993 shares of Fidelity common stock for each share held.

Zillow.com and Weichert Realtors have formed a partnership, which enables Weichert to automatically feed all of its listings to Zillow.com on a regular basis. Weichert joins the hundreds of partners participating in the Zillow Listings Feed program, which launched in November 2007 and has grown to more than 3.2 million listings today. Each listing Weichert feeds to Zillow includes a description of the property with multiple photos and contact information for the listing agent, including links back to the Weichert website where Zillow users can find more information and connect with a Weichert sales associate to guide them through the home buying and selling process.

First American CREDCO has replaced eCREDCO.com, the company's dedicated e-commerce site, with an all new integrated online ordering and marketing website. The new site features expanded functionality that allows customers to order and track products more efficiently and the company to develop and deliver new products faster. The newly upgraded platform-www.CREDCO.com-features a totally improved customer purchasing experience, supported by Direct-Connect customer support, simplified account administration and real-time product tracking. The new CREDCO.com features include streamlined ordering, direct-connect with customer support, access to multiple accounts with one sign-in, electronic document uploading, access to detailed pricing and transactions, search functions, free credit report reprints, real-time product tracking, simplified account administration and a credit card payment option.

Zaio Corp. of Canada abruptly pulled the plug on its U.S. property database unit, dismissing its top officers. The end came on Thursday when Zaio issued a press release confirming the shut down. The company said that the division's top officers, James Kirchmeyer and Douglas Vincent have resigned. Zaio, which bills itself as a technology and database company, says its secure database has 140 million property records and 24 million photographs.

Financial Industry Computer Systems, a Dallas-based provider of mortgage origination and servicing software, is celebrating its 25th year in business. During its quarter-century of business, FICS has worked with 1,200 mortgage companies. The company's first product, Mortgage Servicer, was written in Basic programming language with a four megahertz processor, 512k of memory, and could only handle up to 2,000 loans. The system was rewritten for Windows by 1996 using PowerBuilder programming in a 32-bit processing environment. Today, the company offers six Windows-based products as well as several Web-based services. FICS can be found on the Web at www.ficsloanware.com.

Mortgage insurer Radian Guaranty, Philadelphia, has entered into a partnership with the New York Loan Exchange, which directly incorporates Radian MI into the mortgage pricing and eligibility process across the NYLX platform, which operates a real-time data base of mortgage programs, rates, and guidelines. "For the first time ever, two icons in the industry are joining together to provide a fast and accurate method for determining a loan's complete eligibility, significantly increasing a lender's efficiency," said Radian Guaranty chief operating officer, Jeff Cashmer. "This will be done through the seamless integration of Radian's MI pricing and guidelines into the NYLX platform." The partnership allows Radian and NYLX's customers "to streamline processes and enhance profitability and growth," he said. As part of this partnership, NYLX will include Radian's rates and guidelines in its pricing and eligibility platform so lenders can calculate MI on loans based on real-time market conditions and consequently make better-informed decisions during loan execution. In addition, Radian customers will learn about the NYLX solution and how to maximize profitability through automation, Radian said.

Tavant and Wolters Kluwer Financial Services said they are working together to make the compliance documentation process for mortgage lenders easier, faster and more accurate while giving them multiple document delivery options. The two companies have integrated Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' Document Services Platform with Tavant's point-of-sale solution suite. The new integration will enable users to generate standard and customized compliance documents and disclosures through Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' Document Services Platform, and then electronically deliver them to borrowers for e-consent and signature. The platform also gives lenders the option of completely and securely outsourcing the printing and mailing of paper disclosures when needed or requested by the borrower through Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' SAS 70-certified mail fulfillment center.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors LLC, a Dallas-based mortgage servicer specializing in highly delinquent loans, has partnered with the AFN, the American Legal & Financial Network, to improve mortgage performance, protect creditors and preserve homeownership. Through this joint program, participating investors, lenders and law firms replace the last resort of foreclosure with a new concept that the AFN and Wingspan call a "Total Default Solution." Through the Total Default Solution, a servicer, lender or investor refers cases to Wingspan Portfolio Advisors. Next, Wingspan Portfolio Advisors collaborates with the AFN attorneys to maximize the chances of home retention while the legal proceedings move forward. The AFN is a professional organization comprised of members of the residential mortgage banking and legal communities.

LeaderOne Financial has opted to use Mortgage Builder as its new mortgage origination software solution to help it grow to a national footprint. A.W. Pickel III, LeaderOne's founder and CEO, said his company is in negotiations to acquire a bank as the first step towards a multistate expansion program. "We needed an enterprise-scale loan origination system," said Mr. Pickel. "We looked at many systems and found that Mortgage Builder had the solution we needed to help us grow and do so rapidly." LeaderOne's planned expansion includes opening up new loan centers in several parts of the country, so Mr. Pickel wanted a system that could scale rapidly along with his expansion.

Integrated Mortgage Solutions has expanded its loss mitigation package to include the IMS Notary Service, an e-service product that facilitates the signing and notarization of loan documents online. All IMS e-services are MISMO SMART Doc compatible. The news was released at the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention in San Francisco. According to recent surveys, it has been reported that 40% to 50% of loss mitigation packages are not returned from the borrower to the servicer. Notary Service is designed to eliminate barriers to the return of loss mitigation packages. With Notary Service, whether the servicer utilizes e-services technology or the traditional paper document package delivery, IMS will draw the documents and coordinate a meeting with both the notary and the borrower. IMS determines a specific date, time and location requested by either the servicer or the borrower to have the documents notarized via electronic signature pad or the actual paper documents.

Idaho Housing and Finance Association (IHFA), a housing finance agency and administrator of affordable housing resources, is saving time and streamlining labor tasks with MORvision, ISGN's loan origination system that automates the loan cycle from point-of-sale and Web origination through processing, underwriting, closing, secondary tracking, and delivery. IHFA, which recently opened up a new segment for funding and closing loans, had previously been fulfilling all functions on a manual basis prior to implementing MORvision. "IHFA functions a lot like a secondary market investor does, but also recently began working with brokers and has expanded into closing and funding loans," said Susan Semba, director, homeownership lending for IHFA. "Prior to implementing MORvision, we had been doing everything manually, which meant that we were producing all of our closing documents by hand, based on a Microsoft Word template. On the processing side, it's faster and easier for us to keep track of the progress of each loan, which saves us a lot of time on phone calls with brokers."

Advantage Systems, a provider of accounting and contract management tools for the mortgage and real estate industries, announced at MBA's 95th Annual Convention and Expo that the Web-based reporting tool within Advantage Systems' Accounting for Mortgage Bankers (AMB) is now used by 971 branch locations across the United States. The Web-based reporting tool within AMB enables mortgage lenders to provide their branch managers with information such as loan-level accounting reports, branch profit and loss reports, branch check register and originator performance reports via the Internet in real time. The system has role-specific views that can be established and restricted by the organization's chief financial officer. Benefits of the Web-based reporting tool for branch managers include eliminating the burden of bookkeeping and accounting while providing updates on the status of pending loans and financial progress, in real time, without placing calls to company headquarters.

Metavante Corp. now offers support for new FHA compliance regulations enabling lenders to take advantage of this significant business opportunity. According to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), twice as many people with subprime loans are refinancing into government-insured FHA mortgage loans and these types of loans are also ideal for first time homebuyers and those who may have less than perfect credit. Metavante's LOS supports the FHA Loan Transmittal, the Maximum Mortgage Worksheet for 203k and 203k Streamline loans and the Mortgage Credit Analysis Worksheets (MCAW-PUR for purchases and MCAW-W/S for refinances). Metavante's LOS also supports key components of the FHA Modernization Act of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), as well as the minimum cash investment requirement and maximum combined loan-to-value changes.

MRG Document Technologies has entered the loan modification space. Lenders using MRG's MIRACLE ONLINE document preparation systems can now request modification agreements via the Internet. By requesting loan modifications online, lenders can now instantly create changes to their loan document packages if workouts are necessary. These modified agreements. This also enables lenders to remain in compliance with changing lending legislation and requirements. Modifications made by MRG users typically include changes to note and security agreement rates and terms.

Acris Solutions, a Web-based provider of electronic imaging, document management and loan delivery solutions for the mortgage industry, now provides process workflow for lenders of all sizes. Making the announcement at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual conference at San Francisco's Moscone Center, Acris Solutions president Richard Johnston describes the new workflow capability as an important control and security measure for companies making the transition from paper-based processes to image-based lending. "It's not a question of 'if' lenders are going to make the transition to image-based lending, but a question of 'when,'" Mr. Johnston says. The technology includes making certain that steps are taken in the process to maintain control of the workflow to avoid duplication of effort and keep service levels high.