Mortgage technology

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.

LendingLogix, a new mortgage consulting firm, has been launched in Dallas by Dave Williamson and Scott Baller as a sister firm to AppLogix, a custom software development company.LendingLogix offers to provide strategic and tactical services to mortgage banking companies, addressing areas such as business process management, technology evaluation and implementation, planning for electronic mortgages, and business scorecards. LendingLogix said it will begin offering lenders an introductory process assessment package in February. Mr. Williamson, a frequent mortgage industry speaker formerly with Fiserv and The Performance Group, was a featured panelist at SourceMedia's recent Mortgage EC Conference in Las Vegas.

Tim Doyle and Kathy Gibbons have been named senior directors in government affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, and Katie Schwarting has been named senior director in commercial real estate finance.Mr. Doyle, previously a director in government affairs, was the staff representative to the MBA's Residential Loan Production Committee. He has also been the association's chief liaison with the Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Rural Housing Service. Ms. Gibbons, previously a director in government affairs, has been involved in issues relating to the secondary market, the nonagency mortgage-backed securities market, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Ms. Schwarting, previously a director in CRE finance, has been involved in the Asset Administration and Loan Origination committees of the Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Board of Governors, among other activities. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Costa Mesa, Calif.-based ibank has created a commercial lending search engine that allows small businesses to find lenders and brokers based on four search criteria.The criteria act as a filter, which allows lenders to target their marketing dollars only to those small businesses seeking their products, iBank said. The new engine allows small businesses to search up to 85 different types of small-business loan, equipment leasing, and commercial and home mortgage loan. Lenders can reach these small businesses in three ways: the Organic Lender List, which is composed of information taken online from lender websites by the iBank website's Web crawler; the Classified Campaign Lender, composed of lenders who pay for placement in the classified section of the search engine; and the Premier Campaign Lender, which consists of lenders who have taken a more active approach by registering with iBank's website and creating targeted campaigns that deliver hot prospects directly to their computers each day. The company can be found online at http://www.ibank.com.

FutureNet Realty Technologies, Wexford, Pa., and Allpointe Mortgage, Pittsburgh, have announced a joint venture, FutureNet Mortgage, to provide a no-mortgage-fee, no-cost loan product over the MyFutureNet.com online real estate sales platform.FutureNet said its patent-pending "list-to-close" technology will handle the entire transaction from listing through closing. The system is being tested internally, and it is scheduled for live beta-testing early next year. FutureNet Mortgage searches for the best rates among dozens of top lenders, and a dedicated mortgage adviser brings them to the applicants. "At the core of this process is the TrueClose Web-based loan origination platform, which streamlines the process with online document management allowing [FutureNet Mortgage] to expedite the mortgage process and share these gained efficiencies with the consumer," FutureNet said. The companies can be found online at http://www.myfuturenet.com and http://www.allpointe.com.

Oklahoma City-based a la mode inc. has released FleXApp 1003, an online mortgage loan application system for mortgage brokers and loan officers, as a standalone product.FleXApp 1003 lets brokers provide customer service, a secure environment, and around-the-clock application availability and status updates to borrowers. FleXApp 1003 is housed on a la mode's servers, and the administration interface is accessible from any computer. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.alamode.com.

Del Mar Database, San Diego, has released BusinessTrac, a business management dashboard for small and medium-size mortgage lenders.BusinessTrac integrates with DataTrac, Del Mar Database’s flagship back-office automation system. BusinessTrac allows lenders to track workflow performance around the clock across their entire enterprise, with the ability to drill down through production channels. The product allows users to track their business performance by providing summary and detailed views of real-time information, including loan production, pull-through by product and source, and analysis of product and originator profitability. Del Mar can be found on the Web at http://www.delmardb.com.

PCLender.com has announced that it is integrating the VirtualLoanFolder system of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.-based PaperClip to offer its customers online document management and electronic delivery capabilities.By the end of the year, PCLender's customers will be able to access all the tools they need to manage their electronic loan documents within PCLender's Web-based loan origination system, the company said. PaperClip's VirtualLoanFolder ASP-based imaging and document management system will be integrated into PCLender, offering users the tools to operate without paper through the PCLender interface. Customers will be able to drag and drop electronic documents into electronic loan folders, input them into the system via scanning, receive them as an electronic fax, or save them into their hosted virtual loan folder. PaperClip can be found on the Web at http://www.paperclip.com.