Mortgage technology

Veros, Santa Ana, Calif., has released the results of its quarterly forecasting of the nation's real estate markets, predicting the 10 hottest and coldest markets for the next 12 months.According to Veros, the 10 markets in its coverage area that will see the greatest home price appreciation over the next 12 months are: Seattle, with an 11% rate; San Bernardino County, Calif., 9%; Jacksonville, Fla., 9%; Raleigh/Durham, N.C., 8%; Tampa, Fla., 8%; Tucson, Ariz., 7%; Riverside County, Calif., 7%; Oakland, Calif., 7%; Los Angeles, 7%; and Nashville, Tenn., 7%. Among the markets expected to show the least home price appreciation over the next 12 months are: Sacramento, Calif., minus-2%; Memphis, minus-1%; Boston, 0%; Cleveland, 0%; and Detroit, 0%. Veros also released performance statistics for its forecasts for each of the previous three years, indicating that its automated home valuation analytics are highly accurate. Veros, a risk management and collateral valuation services vendor, can be found on the Web at http://www.verovalue.com.

E-Loan, an online consumer-direct lender based in Pleasanton, Calif., has introduced BuilderFocus, a program that it says provides homebuilders a streamlined and flexible loan process from application to funding.The program allows homebuilders to work with dedicated account managers and provides noncommissioned loan consultants, guaranteed on-time closings, and verified pre-approvals, E-Loan said. In addition, BuilderFocus offers competitive rates and extended lock programs with a one-time, 30-day "float down," as well as a promise of no lender fees and no hidden costs, the company said. More information on the program can be found online at http://www.eloan.com/builderfocus.

MindBox, Greenbrae, Calif., has launched MindBox Power Portal, a customizable website technology for electronic commerce transactions that allows lending institutions to quickly launch private branded websites for automating the underwriting and approval of mortgage loan applications.With MindBox Power Portal, brokers, loan officers, and other originators can submit specific borrower and loan information to a website for automatic analysis. For every loan submitted, multiple loan scenarios are automatically generated by MindBox's deal-structuring capabilities and displayed by the Power Portal. Power Portal supports multiple channels of business -- including wholesale, correspondent, retail, and affinity -- and can be implemented as a stand-alone e-commerce site or integrated into an existing website. The product features, among other things, user authentication for secure, authorized transactions; pipeline management that allows users to view the status of their loans; credit interface and analysis for real-time, accurate scoring; and electronic integration into the lender's back office. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.mindbox.com.

Freddie Mac has announced the selection of JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services to provide transaction processing and recordkeeping services for its approximately $700 billion portfolio of mortgage-backed securities and short-term assets.Freddie Mac said the decision to outsource the functions is part of an effort to upgrade its technological capabilities and streamline its operating infrastructure. JPMorgan Worldwide will provide administrative and settlement services for Freddie's estimated $700 billion retained portfolio of longer-term assets (chiefly Freddie Mac-issued MBS) and an estimated $70 billion liquidity and contingency portfolio of short-term assets, the government-sponsored enterprise said. Freddie senior vice president Joseph Rossi said the move would simplify the company's operating environment and enable it to manage its investment assets at the Federal Reserve Bank and the Depository Trust Co. more efficiently. He praised JPMorgan's "state-of-the-art systems," scalable infrastructure, and technology management experience with governments and central banks. The companies can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com and http://www.jpmorgan.com.

The eMortgage Workgroup of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization has unanimously passed a motion to develop implementation guidance for creating electronically signed PDF documents using the Adobe PDF 1.6 specification.The announcement is a follow-up to MISMO's May 3 statement on e-mortgage activities as they relate to the possible formal adoption of the Adobe PDF format. A motion to include data mapping guidance as well as e-signature guidelines was voted down. A MISMO spokesman told MortgageWire that the motion was defeated because if it had passed, classic PDF would be a competitor to the category-one SMART Doc, and historically MISMO has never endorsed proprietary technology as part of its open standards. MISMO deferred judgment on Intelligent PDF until Adobe posts a worldwide patent license letter on the product. MISMO can be found on the Web at http://www.mismo.org.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based e4e, a provider of "on tap" mortgage business services, has announced a "captive-plus" system that allows midsize lenders to choose from a variety of acquisition, processing, customer care, and servicing capabilities.The system will "substantially improve" profitability, reduce risk, and create a variable-cost environment, providing a "sustainable competitive advantage" that will enable midsize lenders to compete on a level playing field with large lenders, the company said. "Since 2000, e4e has been managing processing operations that support captive offshore centers of large lenders," said Vaibhav Tewari, e4e's president of financial services. "As the business environment continues to change, we've seen the growing need to allow mid-tier lenders the benefits of a captive environment without the resource costs necessary to set up an offshore captive operation." The company can be found online at http://www.e4e.com.

JSSmith Mortgage, a six-month-old mortgage company in Scottsdale, Ariz., is forming a joint venture with West USA real estate offices in the greater Phoenix area.Smith Mortgage and West USA will be partners in the new venture, to be called TLC Mortgage, which will originate loans on behalf of the realty firm's clients. With more than 2,000 agents in Arizona -- and five branches in the Phoenix metro area -- West USA is considered the state's largest brokerage firm and ranked sixth in size nationally. "We chose to team up with JSSmith Mortgage because of that company's deep expertise in creating mortgage joint ventures," said Caly Fouts, president and founder of West USA. Jeffrey Smith, who founded the company bearing his name in January, has helped create more than 100 mortgage joint ventures around the country and is considered a national expert on the matter. "Having a mortgage solution on site will only enhance [the realty firm's] customer service," Smith said.

LoanPerformance, a San Francisco-based provider of residential mortgage data and analytics, has announced the release of TrueStandings Securities 2.0, a Web-based mortgage reporting and analysis application.Version 2.0 features a Java-based user interface, Internet access, and full navigation using hyperlinks, and offers clients full access to "the mortgage industry's leading nonagency mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities databases," the company said. The new version provides faster refresh rates for its Web pages, an enhanced design for a "more intuitive user experience," and improved process and workflow for building and managing customized reports, LoanPerformance said. The company, a subsidiary of First American Real Estate Solutions, can be found online at http://www.loanperformance.com.

Mortgage technology veteran Tim Anderson has joined Stewart Transaction Solutions, Houston, as vice president of business development for the lender channel.Mr. Anderson most recently served as executive vice president of business solutions for Dexma, one of the first companies to support a paperless origination process using Web services. His background also includes work with DocuTech, Ignition Mortgage Technology Solutions (a wholly owned subsidiary of Freddie Mac at the time), Alltel Information Services (now Fidelity Information Services), and HomeSide Lending (now Washington Mutual), where he ran the e-commerce division. Mr. Anderson founded the eMortgage Alliance, which supports MISMO standards for delivering legal paperless processes. "Tim's knowledge and expertise will be invaluable in leading our business development initiatives for e-mortgages and Stewart's overall vision of the paperless real estate transaction," said Travis Wright, president of Stewart Transaction Solutions. The company can be found online at http://www.stewarttransactionsolutions.com.

Ellie Mae, Dublin, Calif., has announced the formation of a partnership with ComplianceEase, Burlingame, Calif., to offer free, automatic compliance audits to mortgage brokers using Ellie Mae's Encompass Mortgage Automation System.The compliance check, which is free of charge with every loan submission to one of the 45-plus lenders available on the ePASS Network, will work to ensure that loans comply with federal regulations and state and municipal predatory-lending laws, Ellie Mae said. (The acronym stands for Electronic Processing and Submission System.) "Compliance is essential these days, so having a compliance check built into a loan origination system provides great benefits to mortgage brokers," said Jonathan Corr, Ellie Mae's chief strategy officer. The compliance check provides an easy-to-understand "pass" or "fail" designation, but originators who want additional details on loans that failed can get an instant, in-depth report for a nominal fee, Ellie Mae said. The companies can be found online at http://www.elliemae.com and http://www.complianceease.com.

Del Mar Database, a unit of Fiserv Inc. based in San Diego, and Overture Technologies, a developer of decisioning technology headquartered in Bethesda, Md., have partnered to offer product eligibility, pricing, and automated underwriting technology to small and midtier lenders.Beginning this summer, Del Mar will launch a new family of Web-based decision support products powered by Overture Technologies: PriceTrac, a product pricing and eligibility application; and DecisionTrac, an automated underwriting system. PriceTrac is a rules-based loan program eligibility engine that delivers acceptable products along with fully adjusted prices to originators based on borrower information. DecisionTrac extends the qualification determination by requiring a complete 1003 dataset, automatically pulling a credit report, allowing for liability management, and running the content through the rules engine. The result is a list of the lender's loan programs that are approved, those that are close calls, and those that are not eligible. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.delmardb.com and http://www.overturetechnologies.com.

Freddie Mac has announced changes to its Loan Prospector automated underwriting service and its Home Possible affordable mortgage products that it says are designed to help more low- and moderate-income borrowers qualify for mortgages eligible for purchase by Freddie Mac.The government-sponsored enterprise said it expects more mortgages submitted to LP to get an "accept" response as a result of the revisions. Moreover, the GSE is waiving the LP assessment fee when a "caution" is returned on the first submission of a conforming, conventional mortgage. (Freddie said such responses are triggered by higher-risk mortgages that the GSE purchases as well as by loans that don't meet its loan purchase guidelines.) Paul Mullings, senior vice president of single-family sourcing at Freddie Mac, said the announcements "are the latest installment on the pledge we made to our lender customers to buy more of the loans they originate and give them new ways to build their market share with Loan Prospector." Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., and Fidelity National Information Services Inc. have announced a merger agreement under which FNF will be merged into FNIS, which will be the surviving entity.The merger agreement, previously reported as a proposal, will be consummated after the closing of a securities exchange and distribution agreement between FNF and Fidelity National Title Group Inc., FNF's majority-owned title insurance subsidiary. Under that agreement, FNF will contribute substantially all its assets and liabilities (other than its ownership interests in FNIS) to FNTG in exchange for shares of FNTG's class A common stock, the companies reported. Immediately after that exchange, FNF will convert its class B common stock of FNTG into shares of FNTG class A common stock and distribute all the class A shares as dividends to FNF stockholders. These transactions will leave FNF with an approximately 51% ownership in FNIS as its only asset prior to the merger, the companies said. William P. Foley II, FNF's chairman and chief executive officer, will become executive chairman of FNIS.

Leveraging the powerful Alterian Engine and database, Alterian has announced a partnership with the Intellidyn marketing firm to offer mortgage industry customers a "hands-on" analytics platform that lets them manage marketing campaigns onsite.Through the Alterian Marketing Suite, Intellidyn's financial services customers will be able to access data "on more than 112 million households as well as Intellidyn's proprietary derived variables, gaining deeper insights into banking, lending, and insurance segments," Alterian said. Customers will also be able to implement multichannel campaigns "straight from their desktops" while keeping their data behind secure firewalls, the company added. Intellidyn bills itself as a provider of advanced analytics and multichannel and database marketing services for customer acquisition and retention strategies in the banking, lending, and mortgage industries. Alterian, based in Bristol, U.K., can be found online at http://www.alterian.com, and Intellidyn, based in Hingham, Mass., a Boston suburb, can be found at http://www.intellidyn.com.

Standard & Poor's has started a Web-based service that provides day-end pricing for international, fixed income securities, among them European and U.S. commercial and residential mortgage-backed securities. "The traditionally opaque fixed income sector is in the midst of transformational change, brought on in part by advances in technology," said Frank Ciccotto, senior vice president at S&P. "With this Web-based offering, we underscore our commitment to helping the industry achieve new levels of efficiency and transparency." S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Martopia has partnered with RGC Communications to offer a new online service that helps wholesale lenders assist their brokers with marketing efforts.The two companies said their Broker Marketing Engine aims to help lenders attract and retain mortgage brokers. Michael Hammond, vice president of business strategy at Martopia, said, "The Broker Marketing Engine program enables authorized brokers to utilize a password-protected website and customize marketing materials with their colors, photos, logos, contact information and text choices." Martopia said initial selections include brochures, sell sheets and direct mail pieces that address common topics of interest to the mortgage broker's target audiences. The broker can then order printing and even upload a mailing list and request mailing services right from the website, according to Martopia. Martopia and RGC Communications plan to demonstrate their Broker Marketing Engine at the upcoming 2006 National Association of Mortgage Brokers Annual Convention. Martopia can be found on the Web at http://www.martopia.com.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the launch of eRelease Payload, an automated utility designed exclusively for the company's mortgage servicing package clients.The eRelease product line is an end-to-end lien release processing system, and the launch of eRelease Payload provides the added functionality of automated order placement into eRelease when the loan payoff transaction occurs, the company said. Using the utility to place orders eliminates the inconvenience, time delays, and risk of using multiple queries to aggregate order placement data. "Prior to Payload, our eRelease clients created their own upload files to place orders using multiple reports or manual entry of MSP data," said Clay Cornett, president of Fidelity National Default Solutions. "The process was cumbersome and increased our clients' exposure to potential penalties and litigation due to misplaced orders and incomplete files." FNIS can be found online at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

Today there are far more identities of U.S. residents on record than there are actual residents -- and the bad news is that 2006 is likely to be the worst year ever for identity theft, according to a company called Edentify.The good news is that actual losses from identity theft are continuing to fall, as consumers and lenders become aware of identify theft-related fraud at earlier stages, the Bethlehem, Pa.-based company says. Edentify offers patented measures for companies and individuals to prevent identity theft, including an "identity escrow account" that enables consumers to maintain ownership of their own biometric identity verification for every financial transaction they do. Though the mortgage application is a gold mine of borrower information, the mortgage industry is better than most at protecting borrower information, an Edentify spokesman said. The company can be found online at http://www.edentify.us.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., Richmond, Va., has announced the acquisition of MSTD Inc., a Baltimore-based provider of Web-based technology to the mortgage servicing industry.MSTD is an application service provider whose flagship product, BackInTheBlack, combines rules-based decision engines with embedded workflows and integration of all third-party providers and services used by lenders managing delinquent loans. "Our default management clients are increasingly challenged with delinquencies and foreclosures, as well as with an increased focus on regulatory compliance and loss litigation," said Albert V. Will, executive vice president of lender services for LandAmerica. "Blending the capabilities of LandAmerica Default Services with the technology expertise and products of MSTD enables LandAmerica to offer the mortgage industry the best and most integrated servicing solution in the marketplace." LandAmerica can be found online at http://www.landam.com.

MILA, Mountlake Terrace, Wash., is introducing daily online Web training for its proprietary decisioning and loan management technology, AccessPoint.Along with the training, MILA has recently introduced co-browsing, which allows a broker to invite a MILA associate into his system to help drive the process in real time. When combined with communication tools such as live chat and e-mail, co-browsing will empower MILA's brokers to move loans even more efficiently through AccessPoint, the company said. AccessPoint has been designed as a platform that brokers and small mortgage bankers can use to manage their entire business, from marketing, product selection, and rate locks to fraud prevention, settlement service fulfillment, and document preparation. MILA can be found on the Web at http://www.mila.com.