Mortgage technology

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.

The adoption of electronic mortgages is being limited by the small number of investors who will buy e-mortgages in the secondary market, but all that may change next year, according to speakers at the Mortgage EC Conference in Las Vegas.Tim Anderson, executive vice president of Dexma, said people will realize the intrinsic benefits of transacting electronically. He predicted that investors might even start offering incentives. "In 2006, I predict an investor will actually offer 1/8th of a point if the mortgage is electronic," Mr. Anderson concluded. Minneapolis-based Dexma can be found on the Web at http://www.dexma.com.

Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Calabasas, Calif., unveiled the company's position on how it will leverage the Web next year to expand its market share at the SourceMedia-sponsored Mortgage EC Conference in Las Vegas.According to the USC Center for Digital Future, 75% of Americans have access to the Web. In addition, 80% of consumers report being online, says a recent Doubleclick Survey. As a result, Countrywide will dedicate 30% of its marketing budget to direct online marketing, according to Bruce Cornelius, executive vice president of the company's consumer markets division. The goal is to become, by 2010, a diversified financial services company serving the needs of households, investors, and institutions, with mortgage lending at its core, Mr. Cornelius said. Countrywide can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Houston-based Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp. has used proprietary extensions to its technology tools to accommodate an ever-changing mortgage market, Allied chief information officer David Langston told the recent 7th Annual Mortgage EC Conference in Las Vegas.Allied, the largest broker/banker in the country, runs many technology applications, and Mr. Langston contended that the tools used by Allied aren't updated fast enough to allow such a large company to operate efficiently. As a result, Allied has created proprietary extensions to Del Mar Database's DataTrac product to allow for the bundling of services and to its LOS Calyx Point to allow it to operate in a centralized fashion. Since the updates were made, Calyx has released a comparable product and Del Mar will take advantage of its parent company, Fiserv, to offer bundled services with version 8.0. Mr. Langston reported that Allied will evaluate both upgrades to see which better fits the company's needs, the proprietary extensions or the product enhancements from Calyx and Del Mar. Allied can be found online at http://www.mortgageasap.com.

Archive Systems, Fairfield, N.J., has announced an agreement with Ryan Beck & Co., an investment banker and broker based in Florham Park, N.J., to provide Archive's comprehensive process automation service to manage all client documentation.Aspen 360 Broker/Dealer Edition offers a services-based system for Web-based image hosting and workflow management. "This service will transform Ryan Beck's previous paper-based, manual process into an automated solution that manages the flow of all client documents in a fully redundant, Web-based environment," Archive Systems said. Ryan Beck will be able to use remote document capture through scanning gateways to scan documents directly into the Aspen system. "Archive Systems offers the only comprehensive 'software-as-a-service' model with the flexibility to roll out a solution enterprise-wide," said Nick Leone, senior vice president and director of operations at Ryan Beck. The companies can be found online at http://www.archivesystems.com and http://www.ryanbeck.com.

Financial Industry Computer Systems Inc., Dallas, has announced new upgrades to eStatus, a residential mortgage loan servicing product that provides online customer service for borrowers.The upgrades to eStatus (which interfaces in real time with Mortgage Servicer, the FICS residential mortgage servicing system) enable lenders to present "a more unified branding message" on their websites and to create a more user-friendly environment for borrowers, FICS said. A lender can reduce incoming call volume by sending a standardized e-mail message to borrowers encouraging them to view statements and notices on the lender's eStatus website, according to FICS. "Because documents are available for display in eStatus as soon as they are generated in Mortgage Services, borrowers always have access to up-to-date information about their loans," the company said. FICS can be found online at http://www.loanware.com.

ComplianceKeeper.com, Hunt Valley, Md., has announced the release of what it describes as the first online system designed exclusively to help mortgage companies manage state regulatory requirements for licensing and educating mortgage professionals.Users of the new system can "instantly access detailed information on active and pending licenses in the company, including a profile of the individual holding the license and the number, type, and expiration date of the license," the data-tracking technology company said. An interactive desktop screen enables users to view data on the number of licenses that are 30, 60, and 90 days from expiration, and the system sends automatic e-mail alerts to notify customized lists about forthcoming license and education renewal deadlines, ComplianceKeeper.com said. The company can be found online at http://www.compliancekeeper.com.

The Miracle DocPrep platform of MRG Document Technologies, Dallas, is now available through a direct interface with BytePro, the latest version of Byte Software's loan origination system, according to MRG.The interface provides mortgage lenders and brokers with closing documents for prime and subprime loans, home equity lines of credit, option adjustable-rate mortgages, and other lending products, MRG said. When users request loan closing documents through the interface, the data are transferred to MRG and the document packages are prepared and sent back to the user, the company said. "This interface is a tool that enhances the lender's workflow process," said Terry King, group chairman of MRG. "Offering MRG's document preparation services through BytePro enables mortgage lenders to more efficiently request and deliver loan products to their customers." The interface was developed as part of a continuing alliance between MRG and Byte Software, based in Kirkland, Wash. The companies can be found online at http://www.mrgdocs.com and http://www.byte-cbc.com.

PNC Bank, a member of The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., has selected San Mateo, Calif.-based Dorado Corp.'s Dorado Unified Point of Sale as the bank's new wholesale home equity channel.PNC Bank, the nation's 15th-largest home equity lender, is developing a broker network across its consumer banking region. The Dorado Unified Point of Sale application, leveraging Dorado ChannelMaster and PriceMaster, will provide a network-based, on-demand avenue for PNC brokers to originate, price, and submit home equity loans and lines of credit at the point of sale. Dorado can be found on the Web at http://www.dorado.com.

New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif., has announced the adoption of FraudMark, an application by BasePoint Analytics, to supplement the company's mortgage fraud prevention efforts.New Century, a real estate investment trust, said the agreement with BasePoint will allow the REIT to significantly improve its pre-funding fraud detection and prevention and reduce review costs for potentially fraudulent applications. New Century described FraudMark as an application scoring system that "combines the predictive power of loan applicant data with the proven pattern-recognition analytics of BasePoint's fraud modeling technology." BasePoint will also provide fraud consulting services. The companies can be found online at http://www.ncen.com and http://www.basepointanalytics.com.

Bankrate Inc., New York, has announced an agreement to acquire Wescoco LLC (d/b/a FastFind), a San Francisco-based aggregator of Internet leads for mortgages and other financial products, for $10 million in cash.Thomas R. Evans, president and chief executive officer of Bankrate, said the company plans to leverage its Internet traffic to enhance FastFind's lead-generation platform. "The online mortgage industry represents an enormous, emerging, and addressable market," Mr. Evans said. "We believe we are strategically positioned to take advantage of the shift of spending from traditional outlets to the Internet." Bankrate also announced the acquisition of MMIS/Interest.com, a publisher of mortgage guides based in suburban Chicago, for $30 million in cash. Bankrate can be found online at http://www.bankrate.com.

Digital Risk LLC, Dallas, and MortgageFlex Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., have announced an agreement to integrate Digital Risk's Integrity Verification Enterprise system with LoanQuest, the loan origination system from MortgageFlex.The companies said the new application gives MortgageFlex lenders and customers an automated system integrated into their desktop loan processing, providing fast and accurate verification of personal identity, income, occupancy, and collateral information. "As the residential real estate business has expanded in recent years, so have fraudulent attacks on lenders, surpassing the ability of existing tools to defend against them," said Lester Dominick, chairman and founder of MortgageFlex. "This integration will give lenders unique access to fraud prevention and loss mitigation solutions." Features include occupancy and instant income verification, as well as access to existing IRS and Social Security Administration data.

Ellie Mae has timed the 2.8 release of its Encompass loan origination system to incorporate the mandated 2006 version of Fannie Mae's 1003 loan application form.Unveiled at the Western Regional Mortgage Brokers Conference in Las Vegas, the newest version of Encompass features enhancements for new business development, loan processing, electronic document management, and administration. It also includes new prequalification and loan comparison tools, an employment verification service, and a simplified appraisal ordering function. Users can conduct a comprehensive prequal with a single form featuring "easy-to-interpret visual cues" showing whether the borrower is qualified or pending qualification, Ellie Mae said. The 2.8 release is scheduled to be available by the end of November. Ellie Mae received a 2005 Mortgage Technology commendation from Mortgage Technology magazine, a MortgageWire affiliate. The company can be found online at http://www.elliemae.com.

NetBank Inc., an Atlanta-based online bank, has reported a mortgage-related net loss of $1.4 million ($0.03 per share) for the third quarter, compared with net income of $4.0 million ($0.09 per share) a year earlier.NetBank said the results include a pretax provision of $3.5 million related to a group of conforming mortgages with an outstanding balance of $13 million. "The company believes certain misrepresentations may have been made by one or more of the parties involved during the loan application process," NetBank said. Mortgage production totaled $3.8 billion in the third quarter, a rise of 9.0% from that of the second quarter, the company reported. The performance of servicing assets went from a loss of $2.3 million in the second quarter to pretax income of $130,000 in the third quarter "as higher rates and improving valuations for mortgage servicing rights led to prior impairment expense recovery," NetBank said. The company can be found online at http://www.netbank.com.