Mortgage technology

Stewart Mortgage Information, Houston, has launched Collateral Profile, an alternative real valuation product available through e-Title, SMI's national vendor management company.The new valuation tool uses the expertise of local real estate professionals in conjunction with online data sources to render a valuation. "The product analyzes data from three comparable data sources and generates a desktop report providing basic information on the subject property, including neighborhood conditions, and also provides a value range for the subject property," said Kevin Gugenheim, SMI's president and chief operating officer. E-Title offers settlement services to lenders, including insured and uninsured title products, centralized closing and settlement solutions, and automated and traditional valuation products. SMI can be found online at http://smi.stewart.com.

ATM Corp., a Pittsburgh-based provider of settlement solutions, has joined forces with Equifax to launch a national settlement services company. The companies said that Equifax Settlement Services will provide a complete set of mortgage settlement offerings, including title, closing and appraisal services. "The introduction of Equifax Settlement Services enables us to provide a centralized resource to meet the growing settlement needs of our mortgage lending customers," said Dann Adams, group executive, Equifax North America Information Services. "This new venture is an important step in establishing Equifax's comprehensive suite of end-to-end mortgage solutions." ATM Corporation is the holding company for Vision Global Solutions, which helps lenders build settlement service subsidiaries.

The mortgage lenders that will stay in business are those spending on tech right now, said MBA chief economist Doug Duncan at a press briefing at the MBA tech conference now underway in San Diego.While the cost per loan spent on production technology rose year over year from an estimated $99 for 2004 to $119 for 2005, he said the smart companies are choosing to reinvest in technology between the end of the refinancing boom and the time when declining loan volumes put the brakes on new technology projects. The MBA MISMO e-mortgage group announced several new releases, including an e-mortgage closing guide, and an e-closing cost benefit analysis white paper showing how to calculate the ROI for e-closings. Responding to growing concerns over security, MISMO also issued a white paper on data security.

GMAC Residential Funding, Minneapolis, has launched an enhanced version of its Assetwise Compliance Engine.The latest version has been integrated with ComplianceAnalyzer, a compliance tool developed by ComplianceEase, a Bay Area-based company. GMAC Residential Funding lending partners that use ComplianceEase will be able to access the Assetwise Compliance engine as part of their ComplianceEase subscription. ComplianceEase users will now be given an option to receive a free Assetwise Compliance Engine findings report. The complimentary report will indicate if the loan may be eligible for purchase by GMAC Residential Funding. "Our partnership with GMAC Residential Funding has empowered mortgage lenders with an effective tool with which to determine loan compliance," said Dave Girling, executive vice president of ComplianceEase. "Our integrated compliance solution was developed to specifically address the needs of mortgage lenders by making the loan origination process more efficient, and by helping to increase profitability in an increasingly competitive market." For more information about ComplianceEase, visit http://www.ComplianceEase.com, while the website for the parent of GMAC Residential Funding, Residential Capital Corp. is located at https://www.rescapholdings.com.

Synergistic Technologies, MRG Document Technologies and World Wide Notary formed an alliance by which the three companies will jointly offer mortgage lenders an end-to-end e-mortgage solution.At the MBA tech show the companies said that they will combine their respective solutions and expertise in document preparation and delivery, document imaging and management and electronic signatures to streamline paper-based loan processes for mortgage lenders while providing them with a flexible, iterative e-mortgage migration strategy that includes automated loan processing workflow, online document sharing, secure, hosted document management, and electronic signing.

At the MBA tech show, Fiserv noted that both its easyLENDER and UniFi PRO loan origination systems have received certification for credit reporting and mortgage insurance application through the MXCompliance service, an eXtensible Markup Language-based compliance process developed by MISMO.MISMO, a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association, develops mortgage data-exchange and file-specification standards for lenders and mortgage technology providers. This move signals that Fiserv, one of the largest technology vendors in the mortgage space, is making efforts to endorse industry standards within their products to make it easier for users to integrate with other products and services. Other MISMO certifications are forthcoming including automated underwriting and e-mortgage certifications.

In more news from the MBA Tech Show, Calyx Software has embarked on a strategic mission to both support the MISMO standards and become a more fully integrated solution.Through the release of four products, DirectConnect, WebConnect, Loan Bridge and Point SDK, Point users will be able to use Point in a variety of ways to integrate other software solutions, connect to lenders and order various settlement services. The most recent of the three products, Point SDK, which will be released in June, is in direct response to the industry's need to integrate with various third-party solutions and providers. This new product will allow Point users to use a common SDK to create more seamless integrations. Vendors can also purchase the SDK, but it can only be used in conjunction with a Point owner's SDK.

An army of Freddie Mac-ers is scouring the vendor halls at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference now underway in San Diego.Freddie is using the conference to pursue its new strategy of meeting its technology needs with out-of-the-box products. Pegging this "sea change" to its previous policy of building in-house, Freddie Mac officials said this new initiative would be matched by an effort to broaden its search for new technology personnel beyond the Beltway to markets such as Chicago, where it already has regional offices. Freddie tied the new initiative to its embrace of e-mortgages and service-oriented architecture. The company's website is http://www.freddiemac.com.

INREEX, formally the International Real Estate Exchange, announced that its stock has begun trading as a Pink Sheet issue under the symbol IRXI.INNREEX, based in London, describes itself as a real estate prediction exchange to meet the needs of global real estate investors. "Our goal as a company is to efficiently create an online real estate speculation exchange," said Paul Rozenberg, CEO of the company. He said the system is designed to be as close as possible to stock market trading. The electronic exchange trades contracts of all 50 U.S. states as well as a USA contract reminiscent of a stock index. The contracts are based on official home price index data published by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The company's trading technology allows investors to log in from anywhere in the world and buy, sell or short housing markets in the U.S.

Responding to widespread interest in technology that improves the correspondent-investor transaction, Irvine, Calif.-based Commerce Velocity has announced the launch of a correspondent module that enables lenders to accept and then automatically decision and price loans submitted in flow, batch, or bulk mode.The module lets lenders offer their sellers customized portal views featuring simultaneous side-by-side spot, commitment, and bulk pricing capability. The module's customizable pipeline views highlight "next step" activities for each unique role/user, and allow lenders to monitor activity for correspondents, investors, and third-party service providers. Commerce Velocity said an unnamed Wall Street conduit will be implementing the system this spring, with another lender scheduled to implement in June. The company will be demonstrating the module at the MBA Technology Conference March 29-31 in San Diego. It can be found online at http://www.cvelocity.com.

International Document Services Inc., Salt Lake City, and Byte Software, Kirkland, Wash., have announced an alliance that offers mortgage professionals new options for legally compliant closing documents.The partnership creates "a seamless interface" between the idsDoc closing system and the BytePro loan origination system, the companies said. IDS president Curt Doman said the interface "will give Byte's customers a fully customizable document system, providing more time to originate loans." The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.idsdoc.com and http://www.byte-cbc.com.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions has deployed NeighborhoodHomeSales.com, a Web-based lead generation product.The tool is powered by Fidelity's proprietary property database, which contains over 120 million real estate property records nationwide. The product is designed to enable real estate professionals to put a home evaluation link on their website to provide their customers with automatic valuations from NeighborhoodHomeSales.com. Fidelity said it believes that the service will increase Web traffic to Realtors' and brokers' websites so they can determine whether visitors are in the market to buy or sell a home. The leads received from this service can automatically populate into Fidelity's ManagementCenter product to increase pull-through. Fidelity can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com.

Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, a division of Fidelity National Information Services Inc., has announced an agreement with RE FormsNet LLC to facilitate direct integrations between Fidelity's transaction management technology and RE FormsNet's ZipForm and WINForms real estate form applications.Fidelity said the integration will allow real estate professionals to minimize key strokes by transferring or copying data from their listing or sales contract form to Fidelity's TransactionPoint transaction management platform, where key transaction-related events and documents may be created and tracked. The integration will facilitate the seamless flow of information and enhance customer service levels and communication, Fidelity said. RE FormsNet is a joint venture between the National Association of Realtors and Real Estate Business Services Inc., a subsidiary of the California Association of Realtors.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based WellFound Decade has merged with Lydian Data Services, Boca Raton, Fla., to form Lydian Technology Group.WellFound Decade is an integration and architecture company that services some of the top mortgage lenders. Lydian Data Services offers end-to-end outsourced systems with a specialty in conduit services and closed-loan review for top mortgage aggregators and Wall Street companies. The marriage of the two companies will allow Lydian Technology Group to "reduce the fragmentation by doing data normalization," William Decker, chairman and chief executive officer of Lydian Data, told MortgageWire. "We've had to normalize the data for our institutional investor clients for some time now. WellFound Decade is a step ahead in their ability to do data extraction. We can now be a receiver of the data, and WellFound Decade can go out and get that data to us." As part of the merger, WellFound Decade's president, Brian Fitzpatrick, and its CEO, Paul Gain, will retain their positions in Lydian Technology. (For more details, see the March 13 issue of National Mortgage News.)

Sun National Bank, Vineland, N.J., has announced the launch of a residential mortgage subsidiary, Sun Home Loans Inc., and its entry into the podcasting arena as a way of educating consumers about the mortgage process.Sun Home Loans will offer traditional and nontraditional mortgages, including two private programs -- SunPromise and SunKeys -- aimed at providing affordable mortgages for low- and moderate-income households. "Given New Jersey's current housing environment, we wanted to give consumers a very focused approach to obtaining a mortgage that best fits their specific needs," said Thomas A. Bracken, president and chief executive officer of Sun National. The bank's specialized subsidiary will make it a "one-stop mortgage resource," he said. Podcasting, which enables consumers to download audio files onto their computers or MP3 players, is "our way of stepping up to the times and giving consumers what they want, when they want it," said Brian G. Myers, president of Sun Home Loans. The bank can be found online at http://www.subnb.com.

LoopNet, an online commercial real estate marketplace, has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock.The San Francisco-based company said the number of shares to be offered and the price range have not yet been determined. LoopNet enables commercial real estate brokers, and other agents, to list properties for sale or lease. In addition, the company provides technology and information services to enable commercial real estate organizations to manage their online listings and property marketing. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.loopnet.com.

The Property Records Industry Association and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization have announced what they termed a "landmark alliance" that creates a seamless "plug and play" between PRIA and MISMO standards to streamline the property recordation process.PRIA president Mark Monacelli said the alliance marries his organization's recording standard with MISMO's closing standards. MISMO president Doug Duncan, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said "systemic changes" in the capital markets increase the need for efficient data interchange. "This alliance with PRIA spans both the commercial and residential industries and will provide both sectors with the framework for the efficient electronic delivery of public property records," Mr. Duncan said. MISMO, which was created by the MBA in 1999, is the standards development body for the real estate finance industry. PRIA and MISMO can be found online at http://www.pria.us and http://www.mismo.org.

At their 2006 Summit in Las Vegas John Bryant, SVP of banking at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, said that banking is one of two growth areas for the company this year, with the mortgage space being the most profitable division within the banking umbrella.In 2005 the WKFS brand was introduced, the company integrated its back-office operations, acquired doc prep vendor Entyre, launched new products such as SMART Doc delivery to Freddie Mac and a bilingual initiative, and adopted a Six Sigma approach. In 2006 Mr. Bryant shared three goals: first, the company intends to continue to invest in its existing brands; second, WKFS plans to increase its mortgage technology portfolio by embarking on several acquisitions and strategic partnerships; and lastly, WKFS will integrate its systems to allow for a more seamless environment to allow for more cross selling opportunities.

Horsham, Pa.-based GMAC Bank's wholesale lending unit launched a Web application called Get Scenario, available to its broker and correspondent customers, which enables users to enter loan level data attributes and almost instantly receive a list of eligible products for sale through GMAC Bank.Get Scenario was also designed for enhanced ease and efficiency in the loan registration process. First, GMAC Bank correspondents and brokers login to http://www.gmacbankwholesale.com. Second, users enter a few pieces of their customer's loan information, and a requested final rate or final price. From there, the Get Scenario application will provide a list of eligible products, which users can click on to get more information. Users then click on the price and are provided detailed pricing and loan attribute detail. Further, if GMAC Bank customers are not sure if the recommended product is the best option for their borrowers, they can alter the data and view another potential set of products. Lastly, when users find the product for their borrower they are most satisfied with, they can register and lock the loan directly from the application.

Interthinx, a provider of fraud prevention and decision support tools for the mortgage industry based in Calabasas, Calif., has integrated its fraud prevention systems with VueCentric’s loan origination system, Mortgage Dashboard.This partnership enables VueCentric to offer customers a seamless integration with Interthinx for automatic screening for potential fraudulent activity. Specifically, VueCentric integrated Interthinx’s DISSCO product, an electronic fraud prevention tool. Also, the interface includes Interthinx’s PredProtect, an anti-predatory solution that scores loan data elements against all predatory lending laws currently in effect, and HCLSM, a Web-based tool that scores loans in real time for federal, state and local conditions to identify high cost. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.interthinx.com and http://www.vuecentric.com.