Mortgage technology

Empire Equity Group Inc., Montvale, N.J., has embraced Web-based technology by licensing Dublin, Calif.-based Ellie Mae's Encompass Anywhere product for its origination needs.When the deployment is complete by the end of the first quarter, all Empire branches will have switched to Encompass Anywhere from their current loan origination systems, the company said. The Web-enabled mortgage automation system allows Empire branches to view, manage, and distribute loan data electronically via any Internet connection. The company is seeking to simplify compliance oversight with the product as well. Ellie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.elliemae.com.

LoanCity, San Jose, Calif., has announced that it took just 48 hours to deploy the Xactly Incent sales compensation management system for its nationwide network of 200 sales professionals.San Jose, Calif.-based Xactly Corp. offers the Web-based on-demand system as a tool for motivating a sales force to increase sales because its real-time visibility offers them a transparent way of seeing how their efforts directly correlate with compensation. LoanCity, founded in 1987, was a Web pioneer for the mortgage industry. Offering independent mortgage brokers the full spectrum of loan programs through 15 regional processing centers, with all pricing and underwriting done through its proprietary automated underwriting system, LoanCity funded $7 billion in 2005. The companies can be found online at http://www.loancity.com and http://www.xactlycorp.com.

Countrywide Financial Corp. has chosen San Diego-based Akonix Systems Inc. to provide automated reporting and industry and corporate compliance for the instant messaging system it uses for real-time communications between its employees.The selection was prompted by various government and lending institution mandates. Akonix L7 Enterprise IM management gateway offers detailed, flexible usage polices, provides active filtering for inappropriate content and confidential information, and offers advanced logging, reporting, and compliance monitoring capabilities. Akonix touts L7 Enterprise as the first real-time security system for public and enterprise IM systems. The company offers a security center to provide real-time information about worms, viruses, and other vulnerabilities that target IM and P2P networks. Countrywide, based in Calabasas, Calif., uses the IBM Lotus Sametime IM system. The companies can be found online at http://www.akonix.com and http://www.countrywide.com.

LoanPerformance, a subsidiary of First American Real Estate Solutions, has announced the release of a new high-speed version of TrueStandings Securities Web-based service, which offers access to its mortgage- and asset-backed securities databases.The company said "dramatic improvements" have been made to the system's processing times and performance by implementing the Sybase IQ analytics server, which it said is designed to deliver "ultra-high-speed" business intelligence and reporting. The new version of TrueStandings Securities runs analyses and reports up to 100 times faster than previous versions, the company said. "This isn't just a case of a few show-stopping improvements," said Dan Feshbach, chief executive officer of LoanPerformance. "This is an across-the-board upgrade that provides a whole new, entirely different experience for users -- especially power users." The company can be found online at http://www.loanperformance.com.

Visionet Systems, Cranbury, N.J., has announced the opening of a new business process outsourcing center in Bangalore, India.The new BPO center focuses on loan review, underwriting verifications, lien release, default management, and investor accounting to mortgage lending and servicing organizations. "With seven of the top 10 banks using our solutions to drive outsourcing, Visionet Systems is focused on delivering mortgage-specific technology products that bring visibility to the outsourcing process," said Arshad Masood, president of Visionet Systems. Visionet also owns and operates BPO centers in Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan.

RealEC Technologies, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based provider of supply chain technology to the mortgage industry, has announced the release of a new software system designed to manage mortgage insurance ordering.The software includes a set of Provider Qualification Tools that enable lenders to designate which mortgage insurance company provides the optimal coverage (for the specific loan program or loan criteria) and ensures them that they will have access to mortgage insurance products even if one MI company is unavailable. RealEC said the automated tools can automatically re-route orders to ensure maximum availability. In addition, the company's Opportunity Cost Allocation Models allow the lender to further designate the allocation of MI orders based on the opportunity to receive an order instead of the acceptance of an order. "RealEC's newest set of decision tools provides a higher degree of automation, efficiency, and accuracy in the mortgage insurance process than is possible with other solutions," said Jason Nadeau, president of RealEC Technologies. The company can be found online at http://www.realec.com.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, Iowa, has announced the sale of an electronic mortgage to Freddie Mac that represents the first time a third-party custodian has been involved in an e-mortgage transaction on the MERS eRegistry.Wells Fargo said it was the first of several e-mortgages that it will process over the next several months with the aid of Greenlight Financial Services, Irvine, Calif., and a group of technology companies. The process began Dec. 14 with Greenlight's electronic origination of a single-family mortgage using Freddie's Loan Prospector.com, Wells Fargo said. Veri-docs.com, the settlement agent, used Fiserv Lending Solutions' e-lending platform to close the mortgage using the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization's SMART Doc category 1 electronic note (developed by VMP Mortgage Solutions). Fiserv Lending Solutions, the electronic vault vendor, provided the connection to the MERS eRegistry, and Wells Fargo Document Custody is the custodian of record, Wells Fargo reported.

When hurricanes and downturns in real estate prices raise risk-management issues for banks, the feedback will come much quicker now with the universal adoption of a new Bank Call Reporting System hailed by federal regulators.Members of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council attending a Jan. 18 meeting in San Jose, Calif., gave high marks to the new system, now in use by 100% of the 7,200 regulated financial institutions that make quarterly reports to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve Board, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Thanks to eXtensible Business Reporting Language, the FDIC is expecting to enjoy an estimated 70% savings in time spent handling information in quarterly reports from regulated lenders, according to Martin Henning, associate director of the FDIC's statistics branch. Before XBRL, Mr. Henning told MortgageWire, there was often a three-week lag in the time it took reported data to be made available to regulatory analysts. Now there is instant data validation. With XBRL tagging, data used for multiple purposes and analysis in different software formats no longer has to be rekeyed.

American Money Network LLC, a San Francisco-based Internet mortgage lead aggregator that manages LoanHounds.com, has announced that it is seeking a strategic partner to expand its business.The four-year-old company said it is seeking a partner with national licensing or Web traffic because, as a small private company, it is limited in its ability "to secure sizable Web media contracts with the major portals." AMN said it manages multiple online mortgage domains, including LoanHounds.com, and has a network of more than 60 national and regional networks. "We have the confidence of lenders and consumers," said the company's David Rosen. "Now we just need to find a partner who'll help us become a Tier 1 player." LoanHounds can be found online at http://www.loanhounds.com.

Mortgage Cadence, a Denver-based mortgage technology company, has launched Mortgage Cadence Symphony, a new ASP (application software provider) model for small and midsize lenders.The application consists of a preconfigured end-to-end platform for origination, underwriting, and processing that is supported by "a powerful workflow engine," a product and pricing decisioning engine, validations, full-document imaging, and reporting, the company said. Mike Detwiler, chief executive officer of Mortgage Cadence, said the company concluded from discussions with small and midsize lenders that they could benefit from technology similar to that used by larger lenders. "So we came up with a simplified offering that gave them advanced lending functionality without the high cost," he said, adding that the system's transactional basis enables them to better match revenue and expenses. The company can be found online at http://www.mortgagecadence.com.

Oklahoma City-based a la mode has announced the formation of the Appraisal Advocacy Coalition, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting and supporting residential appraisers.The announcement came at a la mode's Winter Convention in Las Vegas, and the company's founder and chairman, Dave Biggers, is donating "significant money and manpower to jump-start the new effort," the company said. However, the Washington, D.C.-based coalition will be separate from a la mode, a developer of software and online services for the real estate and mortgage industries. Ben Harris, a la mode's director of public affairs, said the coalition has been formed "to ensure that the single most important facet of the American economy doesn't fall prey to predatory lenders and shady 'appraisal alternatives'." The coalition can be found online at http://www.appraisaladvocacy.org, and a la mode can be found at http://www.alamode.com.

Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Milwaukee, has announced the acquisition of Myers Internet Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of Web-based point-of-sale systems for mortgage originators and real estate agents.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. MGIC said the Myers platform augments MGIC's eMagic portal, which offers originators, lenders, and vendors access to automated underwriting decisions, mortgage insurance, contract services, rate locks, and other services. "Myers is the top provider of websites for mortgage brokers in the mortgage industry and has made strong inroads with real estate agents," said Curt S. Culver, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of MGIC and its parent company, MGIC Investment Corp. "By acquiring Myers, MGIC can bring further efficiencies to mortgage lending." Myers will be a wholly owned subsidiary of MGIC, and will be called Myers Internet -- a MGIC company. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.mgic.com and http://www.myers.com.

Two wholly owned subsidiaries of Stewart Title Co. -- Landata Systems Inc., a technology provider, and Stewart Realty Solutions, formed two years ago to take online transaction management to the real estate and mortgage industries -- will be merged to form Stewart Transaction Solutions, Houston.Stewart Title said key technologies to be handled by the new company include the SureClose online transaction management system; the eClosingRoom electronic closing platform (developed by Stewart Title and Silanis Technology); the AIM for Windows title production system; and the TitleSearch title plant, document imaging, and search analysis systems. Mike Davis, president of Landata Systems, will serve as chief executive officer of Stewart Transaction Solutions, and Travis Wright, CEO of Stewart Realty Solutions, will serve as the new company's president and director of business development. Mr. Davis will remain as chief information officer of Stewart Title's parent company, Stewart Information Services Corp. The new company can be found online at http://www.stewarttransactionsolutions.com.

Mortgage companies shed 200 employees in November, according to the latest national employment report, ending a 20-month hiring spree that added over 53,000 full-time employees to their payrolls.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employment in the mortgage industry slipped from 533,900 in October to 533,700 in November. The last hiccup in hiring occurred in August 2004 when employment slipped by 100 positions in September 2004. The Mortgager Bankers Association says it expects to see more declines this year in mortgage industry employment as origination volumes decline from 2005 levels. However, the contraction in employment could be offset because purchase mortgage originations, which are labor-intensive, are expected to remain at high levels, MBA financial economist Jay Brinkmann pointed out. And loan officers can still do fairly well with lower volumes because the average loan size has risen substantially over the past few years. "So we might not see some of the same shrinkage" in loan officers and mortgage brokers as in the past, Mr. Brinkmann said.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd, Richmond, Va., has acquired privately held MindBox LLC, a provider of decisioning mortgage applications, for an undisclosed sum.The acquisition dictates that MindBox become part of MDA's Financial Services business in the United States and continue its operations as a separate business unit under the leadership of Richard Barfus, MindBox's president and chief executive officer. MDA said it will bring, concurrent with the transaction, all of its U.S. financial services business -- Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MSB), DataQuick, and MindBox -- under a unified leadership team.

Data-Vision Inc., Mishawaka, Ind., says it plans to expand its products and staff in 2006 to meet increased mortgage industry demand.The mortgage technology provider said it is planning many enhancements to its RemoteDocs system, including the continued streamlining of the sending and receiving process. Further enhancements are also in the works for the LoanQuoter system, Data-Vision said. John Dempsey, Data-Vision's vice president of sales, said the company will also continue various innovations adopted in 2005, such as so-called webinars and user groups to test company software and services. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.d-vision.com.

Mortgage Lenders Network USA Inc., Middletown, Conn., has launched a new website for consumers seeking to apply for a mortgage loan and obtain financial tips and advice.At the new website, consumers can view various educational resources, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development's mortgage glossary, mortgage insurance information, and MLN's "Guide to Homeownership." The site also includes detailed background information about MLN and the company's professional mortgage consultants. Visitors can also apply for a loan online or schedule an appointment with one of MLN's consultants. The new website can be found at http://www.mlnapproves.com.

Ellie Mae Inc., a provider of mortgage technology based in Dublin, Calif., has embarked on a strategic partnership with Tallahassee, Fla.-based Multi Financial Services Co., providers of Trakker Loan Servicing Software.As a result of the agreement, Ellie Mae will feature direct integration from its Encompass Mortgage Automation System to Trakker. The integration of Encompass and Trakker responds to broker demand to service loans. Trakker Loan Servicing Software is an end-to-end system that enables companies to easily service conventional and nonconventional loans. Ellie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.elliemae.com.

Del Mar Database, San Diego, has announced the release of InTrac, a front-end point-of-sale application for small and medium-size mortgage lenders.The application is an optional add-on to a lender's DataTrac software, Del Mar's flagship back-office automation system, the company said. Del Mar said it will continue supporting POS integrations with other software vendors. "The third-party POS systems work very well for many lenders because they are simple and easy to use, and most originators are already familiar with them," said John Walsh, president of Del Mar Database. "However, the very simplicity of the solutions also requires lenders to impose business rules for managing their business outside of their technology. .... InTrac provides a powerful POS option to lenders needing a more sophisticated solution." The company can be found online at http://www.delmardb.com.

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., San Diego, has adopted the "next-generation" risk management framework from Zementis to beef up the service and quality of its nonprime automated underwriting system.According to Accredited, the system will reduce manual intervention in the underwriting process and improve feedback to brokers by assessing the risk of a loan application in real-time. Zementis Inc., also based in San Diego, offers its Adaptive Decision Engine as a statistical and analytical system that uses predictive modeling powered by advanced neural network technology. Founded in 1990, Accredited is a nationwide lender that originates, finances, securitizes, services, and sells nonprime mortgage loans. The companies can be found online at http://www.accredhome.com and http://www.zementis.com.