Mortgage technology

Integra Software Systems, a provider of mortgage origination software based in Brentwood, Tenn., has acquired the assets of Financial Compliance Corp. for an undisclosed amount."We are finding that more lenders, especially banks, want one software partner to handle their overall lending processing needs," said Integra president Jerry Pratt. Tim Bartek, senior vice president of sales-marketing for Integra, said the acquisition "is going to be a tremendous, immediate complement to our Destiny mortgage loan origination system, which is among the most robust in the industry. Now, we can also address lenders' other software needs -- beyond residential mortgages." Integra said it will immediately begin marketing FCC's WinBanker and WinDeposit as standalone products, and plans eventually to integrate key features into the Destiny software. The company also announced that Jim Williams, formerly president of FCC, has joined Integra, bringing over 30 years of experience in software development for banks and other lenders.

Zenta, a knowledge and business process outsourcing company based in New York, and Ellie Mae, Dublin, Calif., have entered into an affiliated partner agreement to offer Zenta's Broker Services through Ellie Mae's ePASS Network Web portal.Zenta Broker Services is a hybrid onshore/offshore service delivery platform that provides a low-cost alternative to in-house loan processing. Zenta said the platform has been designed to provide rapid turn times on loan processes and to comply with strict quality guidelines to improve processes by eliminating defects in the loan processing service. By combining Zenta's loan processing approach with Ellie Mae's Encompass Mortgage Management software, "users will get faster, higher-quality, and more-secure transfer of data and documents," the companies said. The companies can be found online at http://www.zenta.com and http://www.elliemae.com.

Bank of the West, one of the nation's 25 largest banks, is automating its commercial loan origination process using ILog JRules, a key offering in ILog's Business Rule Management System product line.The announcement comes after an 18-month search and implementation process. Bank of the West said it expects to compress the average approval time to five hours from the three-to-five days it now takes with a manual process, significantly increasing its service level. The bank pilot-tested 300 users out of a total population of 1,000 salespeople and business bankers who would ultimately use the system, taking eight weeks to "work out the kinks and deal with any unforeseen issues." The bank said it expects to do its full production rollout by the end of August. Bank of the West can be found online at http://www.bankofthewest.com, and ILog can be found at http://www.ilog.com.

Interactive communications specialist Varolii Corp. has announced that BOK Mortgage, a division of $18 billion multibank holding company BOK Financial, is now using Varolii's interactive collections system to reduce its mortgage delinquency ratio.Since adding Varolii to its mortgage collections process, BOK Mortgage has realized a 12% reduction in its mortgage delinquency ratio, according to the announcement. BOK Mortgage leverages the Varolii platform to automate much of the communications process around early-stage delinquencies, enabling the company to focus its contact center resources on more complex, high-priority accounts. Seattle-based Varolii can be found online at http://www.varolii.com, and BOK Financial can be found at http://www.bokf.com.

Starting July 22, Fannie Mae's automated underwriting system will alert lenders if the collateral for a mortgage is located in an area where house prices are declining.In such cases, Fannie's Desktop Underwriter will send a message to lenders that they need to carefully review the appraisal to ensure its accuracy and require additional information from the appraiser, if necessary. Appraisers should describe market trends and the effects it will have on the value of the property, Fannie says in an announcement to its seller/servicers. "It is unacceptable for the appraiser to ignore these issues and not report the factual property value trends and market conditions," Announcement 07-11 says. The government-sponsored enterprise can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Capital Markets Cooperative, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., has announced an alliance with Fannie Mae aimed at providing CMC members greater benefits when selling loans to the secondary market.CMC members will now have access to Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter platform in addition to advantageous pricing, increased flexibility in methods of execution, and a variety of loan products and value-added services, CMC said. "[O]ur clients now have greater flexibility and receive better pricing on the loans they sell upstream to Fannie Mae," said CMC president Tom Millon. "They'll also pay lower fees to use Desktop Underwriter." CMC, a provider of services aimed at reducing risk and maximizing profits for mortgage bankers, can be found online at http://www.capmkts.org, and Fannie Mae can be found at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Visre Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced that it will provide appraisal software firms, automated valuation model providers, and mortgage lenders immediate accessibility to millions of auditable residential photos through its Residential Appraisal Image Library.Geo-coded to property addresses, Visre can deliver singular 2-megapixel parcel photos as well as larger panoramas blended from multiple photos to showcase subject properties, comparable properties, and neighboring parcels. Historically, calls to include imagery in AVMs have been slow to materialize as providers have only recently begun exploring how valuations can be photo-enhanced without affecting critical response times. Offering benefits to appraisal software developers and AVM providers, Visre's RAIL solution provides clients an API for rapid software integration. Visre said it sees street-level video as the next step in evolving property appraisals. The company can be found online at http://www.visre.com.

Dorado Corp., a mortgage technology provider based in San Mateo, Calif., has entered a strategic alliance with First Canadian Title.Under the agreement between the two companies, First Canadian Title will be the exclusive distributor of Dorado's Enterprise Lending System to mortgage lenders and banks in Canada, and the Canadian company will not distribute any other companies' loan origination technology. "Dorado's on-demand loan origination technology is a complementary component to Canadian Title's end-to-end integrated lending solution," said David Wybrow, senior vice president of First Canadian Title.

Large lenders eager to leverage service-oriented architecture to extend their return on investment from legacy systems, take note: Los Gatos Calif.-based Fiorano Software Inc. has announced a collaboration with mainframe integration specialist GT Software, Atlanta.Technical support staff from GT Software will facilitate enterprise integration of mainframe assets for customers of Fiorano SOA 2007, the companies said. The collaboration is intended "to simplify SOA-based integration in extremely complex environments, enabling developers to establish services more easily and integrate mainframe data of all types into the Fiorano platform," they said. The platform utilizes 60 pre-built business components and data adapters to build fully functional workflows, addressing the mortgage-creation process from first application to post-closing and delivery. The companies can be found online at http://www.fiorano.com and http://www.gtsoftware.com.

Jess Hartmann has been named president of Mortgage Coach, a provider of mortgage planning software based in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Hartmann was most recently the chief executive officer of ISD Corp., a software development and services firm. Before joining ISD, he was the senior vice president and chief information officer at New Horizons, which Mortgage Coach said is the largest information technology training company in the world. The company pointed to Mr. Hartmann's "proven track record" of expanding companies and said it plans to use his expertise "to further penetrate the mortgage market and capitalize on the vast potential caused by the growing trend toward mortgage planning." Mortgage Coach can be found online at http://www.mortgagecoach.com.

Irvine, Calif.-based Mortgage Coach and Strategic Equity, Bellevue, Wash., have teamed up to create Equity Optimizer, a Web-based tool to help teach borrowers the importance of mortgage planning rather than simply acquiring a loan based on interest rates and fees.Equity Optimizer is based on Mortgage Coach's Marketing Machine, and features Steven Marshall's six-step scripted process to guide mortgage planners in the initial stages of educating potential borrowers on the principles of mortgage planning. Mr. Marshall is a mortgage planner and the founder of Strategic Equity. The program also features the tools already available on the Mortgage Coach Marketing Machine system, featuring the Personalized Mortgage Plan, the Annual Equity Review, and the Periodic Mortgage Review. Each of the products is supported by advice-delivery tools and printable marketing pieces that include explanations of Mortgage Coach's patented reports. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.mortgagecoach.com and http://www.strategicequity.com.

In response to growing demand for reverse mortgages, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Minneapolis, is equipping lenders with a new line of electronic documents they can use to help comply with regulatory requirements tied to Home Equity Conversion Mortgages.A HECM, the most common form of reverse mortgage in the United States, allows borrowers aged 62 or older to convert the equity in their homes into income through a lump sum, monthly payments, or a line of credit offered by lenders. The WKFS line of electronic upfront disclosures and closing documents for HECMs allows lenders doing business in the top 10 states underwriting HECMs to create compliant document packages. The top 10 states are: California, Florida, Texas, New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. The company plans to expand its HECM document line to other states based upon lender demand. WKFS can be found on the Web at http://www.wolterskluwerfs.com.

Former Guardian Mortgage Services executive Mary Kladde has gone out on her own to form Titan Lenders Corp., a closing, post-closing, and mortgage fulfillment services provider based in Denver.Titan services will act as a variable-cost alternative for mortgage bankers, brokers, and investors to increase their loan-closing capacity while reducing risk, errors, and overhead costs, the company said. Titan offers an established service model, extensive industry experience, and customized solutions automated by Cerberyx, a contemporary Web-based technology platform designed specifically for its processes, according to the company. Built upon the eSys Technologies platform for managing cost and increasing productivity for next-generation lenders, Titan's Cerberyx application is a Web-based information management tool providing a window into a lender's entire pipeline from application through sale of the loan.

RealEC Technologies Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., has announced that its business-to-business exchange has surpassed 31 million orders processed since its 1998 launch.The company also announced it has surpassed 2,000 participating lenders (including 17 of the top 20). On a monthly basis, the RealEC Collaborative Partner Network now processes more than 300,000 loans, 600,000 orders, 2 million documents, and 7 million "unique loan fulfillment events." Jointly owned by Fidelity National Information Services, Stewart Title Co., and LandAmerica Financial Group, the RealEC Exchange now bills itself as the industry's largest interconnected network of lenders and settlement service providers. The company can be found online at http://www.realec.com.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the acquisition of Applied Financial Technology, a provider of risk analytics, analysis, and data for the mortgage industry.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Fidelity said AFT's qualitative analytics can be fully integrated into various third-party systems and are used by brokers, banks, and investors to price, fund, trade, and hedge mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. "The importance of the analytic component that AFT will provide to FIS customers cannot be overemphasized," said Greg Whitworth, president of FIS Loan Portfolio Solutions. "In today's environment, lenders, loan servicers, and investors alike must incorporate meaningful analytics in the pricing and ongoing evaluation of loan performance." The company can be found online at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

Byte Software has launched a new software development kit designed to make it easier for companies to integrate to their loan origination software.The SDK will allow Byte clients and third parties to develop customized applications between BytePro and BytePro Enterprise, the company reported at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers annual conference in Seattle. Specifically, software engineers will be able to import or export data in and out of BytePro using industry standards, including Fannie Mae and MISMO file formats. Custom add-ins can also be inserted directly within BytePro menus to allow users to complete core tasks without having to leave the application. Kirkland, Wash.-based Byte Software can be found on the Web at http://www.bytesoftware.com.

Jamison Law Group, Los Angeles, has announced the launch of Credit CRM, an out-of-the-box software and training system designed to empower mortgage originators to offer credit repair services to Americans with poor credit.Credit CRM includes full credit training as well as a credit and sales software system, unlimited telephone support, and a full Internet-based marketing system. Credit CRM is offered to businesses and individual entrepreneurs who are looking to start a credit repair business, and is often used as a supplemental business opportunity for mortgage professionals. The system provides Web-based sales management modules, over 20 hours of credit repair training, and a full marketing program. The announcement came at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers annual conference in Seattle. Jamison Law Group can be found on the Web at http://www.jamisonlawgroup.com.

In a move to enable affiliated credit reporting agencies to help borrowers raise their credit scores, Credit Systems Design has announced that it will make the credit analysis system Deal Maker Score available to its broad base of credit reporting company clients.The announcement came at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers annual conference in Seattle. CSD's affiliated credit reporting agencies service the mortgage industry's lenders and brokers on CSD's UltraAMPS mortgage processing system. By providing access to Deal Maker Score, CSD said it is making it easy for mortgage originators to show borrowers how they can raise their credit scores to a target score. CSD, which provides the technology that enables credit reporting companies to deliver merged credit reports to their clients, can be found online at http://www.creditsystemsdesign.com.

Proposed legislation to mandate that mortgage professionals sign off on borrower suitability as a solution to curbing predatory practices "won't work in the real world," the new president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, George Hanzimanolis, has told the NAMB annual conference in Seattle.Mr. Hanzimanolis commended politicians for trying to come up with a solution for the problem, but says requiring brokers to sign off on borrower suitability is just not the answer. "When the broker takes an application, they have a limited amount of information on the borrower," Mr. Hanzimanolis said. "There are too many unknowns for anyone to determine long-term suitability. How am I supposed to predict if the borrower will maintain employment, won't get a divorce, won't suffer a death in the family, won't become unexpectedly sick? This is sexy on the Hill, but it won't work in the real world." The NAMB can be found online at http://www.namb.org.

Reverse mortgage specialist Lender Lead Solutions, Melville, N.Y., has announced the launch of its Reverse Mentoring Program, offering on-site training and additional advisory services to help mortgage brokers develop reverse mortgage operations.According to the announcement at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers' annual convention in Seattle, the curriculum will include "content to address the unique aspects of the senior marketplace and the reverse mortgage product, including in-depth review of all legal, compliance, and quality control procedures." The program will also include sales training focused on the special requirements of selling to seniors and the need for outside counseling, plus comprehensive instruction on loan flow, processing, settlement, underwriting, appraising, closing and funding, post-closing, and servicing functions using the company's STORM wholesale technology platform. Lender Lead Solutions can be found online at http://www.lenderleadsolutions.com.