Mortgage technology

Ocwen Financial Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., has announced the introduction of 24-hour mortgage loan processing and closing services for mortgage lenders and brokers.Ocwen said its loan processing services (including all back-office activities) are aimed at originators who want to shorten the closing cycle, reduce expenses, and improve accuracy. Ocwen executive vice president W. Michael Linn said Ocwen's document imaging technology ensures clean loan packages and enables lenders and brokers to reduce the time from application to close by a week or more. "Because we also perform due-diligence services, we understand how important it is to produce clean loan files," he said. "After the lender or broker supplies the mortgage application, we image all supporting loan documents. This allows Ocwen personnel across multiple time zones to multitask on a single file, eliminating bottlenecks and speeding the entire process." Ocwen can be found online at http://www.ocwen.com.

Texell Interactive Media, Jim Thorpe, Pa., has announced that it will conduct live podcasts at the Mortgage Bankers Association's 92nd Annual Convention & Expo and at SourceMedia's 2005 Tech Awards Ceremony, both in Orlando, Fla.Rick Grant, Texell's president and chief executive officer (and a former managing editor of Mortgage Technology magazine), will do a limited number of podcast interviews with participants at the convention, slated for Oct. 23-26, at the Texell and Martopia booth. (Martopia, a Texell affiliate, is the official marketer for the 2005 Tech Awards.) Texell will also record podcast interviews Oct. 23 with the winners of the tech awards that will be available the next day at http://www.mortgage-technology.com/awards. Texell can be found online at http://www.texellmedia.com.

Rick Grant, a mortgage industry journalist and former managing editor of Mortgage Technology magazine, has announced the launch of Texell Interactive Media Inc., a firm specializing in interactive communications such as Internet-based audio shows called podcasts.The firm also offers such products as insider Web logs, electronic white papers, video blogs, and interactive video. "Podcasts, blogs and other technology-based communication tools are ideal for interacting with employees, partners, customers, and prospects," said Mr. Grant, Texell's president and chief executive officer. Texell, which is based in Jim Thorpe, Pa., is an affiliate of Martopia, a nationwide marketing and public relations firm specializing in the financial services industry. The company can be found online at http://www.texellmedia.com.

BasePoint Analytics, Carlsbad, Calif., has announced the general release of FraudMark, a new fraud detection product for mortgage lenders, investment banks, and due-diligence firms.The company said FraudMark uses patent-pending technology that combines behavioral trends for applicants, brokers, and appraisers with historical patterns of fraudulent and nonfraudulent loan applications. This enables the product to provide a "much higher degree of predictiveness" in identifying which applications have the greatest risk of fraud and to cut the overhead cost of retrieving expensive data to match against loan applications, according to BasePoint. "The credit card industry has driven down fraud losses by 70% through the use of pattern recognition technologies," said Tim Grace, president of BasePoint. "The analytic advancements of FraudMark now enable the mortgage industry to go beyond this and provide mortgage lenders the ability to cost effectively score all of their loan applications in real time, drive down their fraud losses, and increase overall production." The company can be found online at http://www.basepointanalytics.com.

Wolters Kluwer Corporate & Financial Services, New York, has acquired Entyre, a provider of Web-based compliance solutions to the mortgage lending industry.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Entyre, located in Ann Arbor, Mich., earlier this year introduced eMortgage-X4, a data and document management and delivery software platform. The eMortgage-X4 application allows for intelligent rules setting, compliance testing, and a means for electronic collaboration and communication among the numerous stakeholders in the mortgage origination and closing process. Wolters Kluwer also owns VMP Mortgage Solutions, PCi, and Bankers Systems. The Entyre business will become a part of the Financial Services customer unit of Wolters Kluwer. Wolters Kluwer can be found on the Web at http://www.wolters-kluwer.com.

ERS Group, an economic and financial consulting subsidiary of Dallas-based SourceCorp, has announced the release of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act peer data and rankings in RiskExec regulatory compliance software.ERS said it believes its release of the HMDA Peer Databases and Rankings makes it the first firm in the nation to provide its financial clients with a "full review of lending and competitive performance" in the 2004 home mortgage market. The company said the RiskExec software includes geocoding, mapping, edit-check management, regulatory filing, interactive maps, peer rankings, and executive and regulatory reporting for all facets of HMDA, as well as the Community Reinvestment Act and the Home Ownership Equity Protection Act. ERS and SourceCorp can be found online at http://www.ersgroup.com and http://www.srcp.com.

Advancing the cause of enabling electronic recordation of lien releases and other documents, St. Paul, Minn.-based US Recordings announced that it has expanded its footprint to serve another six counties via its InteleDoc Plus Multi-Level eRecording Platform.InteleDoc Plus imports data directly from mortgage databases to automatically create documents specific to each state. Boasting a fourfold increase during 2005, the company said it will expand to numerous counties during 2006. The system was created in 2003 and now offers templates for lien releases in all U.S. jurisdictions. Partnering with several software companies, U.S. Recordings' InteleDoc Plus was the first to record electronically in several Midwest counties as well as Florida, New Jersey, Utah, and Washington. Slightly more than 200 county recording authorities account for 80% of recordations nationwide.

ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Ann Arbor, Mich., has announced that its Affinity Lending Group is offering discounted mortgage closing costs and a private-label version of Mortgage.com to AT&T employees.AT&T employees can now get access to information through the company's intranet on a variety of AAMG's mortgage products and services, such as its Guaranteed OneFee Mortgage, and receive a $300 discount on the mortgage closing costs, according to AAMG. In addition, AT&T employees have access to interest rate quotes and mortgage calculators, can submit mortgage applications online, and can use a dedicated 800 number to contact AAMG customer service representatives. The companies can be found online at http://www.abnamro.com and http://att.mortgage.com.

First American Real Estate Solutions, Anaheim, Calif., a provider of property information and services, has formed a strategic alliance with -- and purchased a minority interest in -- ComplianceEase, a provider of regulatory compliance and risk management technology based in Burlingame, Calif.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. As part of the strategic partnership, ComplianceEase's flagship product, ComplianceAnalyzer, will be tightly integrated into First American's mortgage technology platforms to provide lenders and investors with an automated compliance system, First American said. ComplianceAnalyzer automatically performs critical checks and calculations necessary to ensure compliance on every loan that is originated or purchased. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.firstamres.com and http://www.complianceease.com.

Harbourton Mortgage Investment Corp., Santa Rosa, Calif., has selected the Portellus Broker Portal to serve its broker network at the point of sale.The system has been customized to HMIC's specific program offerings, and will be private-labeled as HELPS (Harbourton Electronic Loan Processing Solution). HMIC will also be using the Portellus loan origination, business rules management, and automated underwriting systems. The portal, scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter, will give brokers real-time access to pricing, pre-qualifications, credit/debt management, and automated credit approvals at the point of sale. According to HMIC, the system includes automated best-fit product and pricing determination, the ability to pull/re-pull credit, debt management and deal structuring, up-to-date pipeline loan status, rate-lock capability, and AU approvals complete with pricing, underwriting conditions, and exceptions. Portellus Inc.. Irvine, Calif., bills itself as a leader in the application of Service Oriented Architecture for the mortgage banking and insurance industries. The companies can be found online at http://www.hmic.com and http://www.portellus.com.

The volume of online wholesale mortgage lending exceeded that of online retail lending by nearly three to one in 2004, according to TowerGroup, a financial services research and consulting firm based in Needham, Mass.Online wholesale lending grew from 15.0% of total mortgage origination in 2001 to 20.5% last year, while retail online lending rose from 3.5% to 7.3% during the same period, TowerGroup said. The systems that support online wholesale lending -- such as website hosting, loan product and price management, and third-party settlement services -- "have become mission-critical for virtually all wholesale lenders, regardless of size," the company said. A new report by TowerGroup, "Wholesale Mortgage Lending: Online Lending Adoption, Lender Segments and Technology," looks at the growth of online lending and analyzes wholesale lending segments by lender size and product type. The company can be found online at http://www.towergroup.com.

Spectrum Equity Investors has announced the completion of an $84 million recapitalization of Mortgagebot, Cedarburg, Wis., that will give Spectrum a majority stake in the mortgage technology company.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Michael Kennealy and Benjamin Spero of Spectrum will join Mortgagebot's board of directors as a result of the recapitalization. "Mortgagebot is a perfect fit for Spectrum, given our firm's focus on recapitalization of profitable software and information services companies with strong growth potential and recurring-revenue business models," said Mr. Kennealy, a Spectrum managing director. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.spectrumequity.com and http://www.mortgagebot.com.

Three companies from the credit reporting sector -- Bixby Consulting, Fair Isaac Corp., and Gallagher Financial Systems Inc. -- have completed the compliance certification process under the recently launched MISMO XML Compliance for credit reporting, according to the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.MISMO said MXCompliance allows implementers of its Internet-based XML standards to reference requirements and take steps toward becoming officially compliant, as well as validate their XML. There are three types of MXCompliance services: verification, import, and export. Verification is a service for businesses interested in purchasing certified products and services from organizations that are certified as MISMO-compliant. For a nominal fee, the verification service ensures that vendor products and services have maintained compliance with the products that were MXCompliance-certified. The import and export services are used by applicants seeking certification of their product or service interfaces under MISMO standards. MISMO is a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In using mortgage keywords to get high search-engine ratings, Internet specialists like E-Loan and LendingTree continue to make a strong showing against big banks like Wells, Chase, and Citi, according to Novato, Calif.-based SEMphonic, a search engine analytics firm.For the top 50 mortgage-relevant keywords on both Yahoo and Google, SEMphonic's MarketScan tool showed E-Loan and LendingTree ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. The top 10 companies were: eloan.com, lendingtree.com, bankrate.com, lowermybills.com, quickenloans.com, nextag.com, mortgage101.com, comparefreequotes.com, homestore.com, and interest.com. These top 10 companies made up 38% of all paid and unpaid mortgage keyword listings showing up on Yahoo and Google. Countrywide and Bank of America ranked No. 13 and No. 14, respectively.

RealEC Technologies, a Houston-based electronic exchange for mortgage fulfillment transactions, has announced that its business recovery preparations are expected to ensure minimal, if any, interruption in service if Hurricane Rita makes landfall near its main data center in Houston.RealEC said it has fully engaged its established business continuation plan, including the deployment of several teams to Dallas, Austin, Texas, and Santa Ana, Calif. "These teams have been organized to respond immediately should the data center operations need to be redirected to RealEC's redundant data center in Austin, Texas," the company said. RealEC added, however, that such a redirection is not expected because its Houston facility includes an on-site generator, flood controls, and redundant Internet connections. The company can be found online at http://www.realec.com.

To serve its 5,000 loan officers in 600 offices nationwide, Houston-based Allied Home Mortgage has picked Seattle-based Entellium's Pro-Activity customer relationship management product over Salesforce and other leading CRM products.An Allied spokesperson cited ease of use and low cost of ownership as reasons for picking Entellium. Pro-Activity automates user-selected reports and instantly sends pre-formatted and merged documents, such as contracts, proposals, invoices, and follow-up materials, to designated contacts. Entellium says the product is the most user-centric CRM system on the market, backed by 43,000 hours of usability research. Allied, the nation's largest privately held mortgage company, handles as many as 12,000 loans per month.

Fidelity National Information Services' Hansen Quality, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc. based in Jacksonville, Fla., has launched HQ FraudID report, an automated fraud screening tool with a focus on identity fraud.HQ FraudID report searches over 70 potential risk indicators to determine the level of risk associated with each potential borrower. This includes multiple verifications of the borrower's name, address, Social Security number, and phone number, as well as other pertinent information. The results of the verifications are summarized and assigned an Identity Fraud Score, which indicates the severity of risk factors detected for identity theft, intentional misrepresentation, fraud, or elevated credit risks. The Fidelity family of companies can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com.

Buffalo, N.Y.-based Appraisal.com and ACI, Palm Coast, Fla., have worked together to develop what they say is a seamless bridge between ACI's appraisal desktop software and the Appraisal.com National Appraisal Network.Real estate appraisers who use ACI or Lighthouse-enabled appraisal software can now process, retrieve, and provide status updates on appraisal orders from Appraisal.com's Nationwide Appraisal Network without leaving their desktop, the companies said. Appraisers using this new technology can prepare and process reports and upload completed appraisals with both a traditional portable document format (PDF) and a full Extensible Markup Language (XML) data stream directly into the Nationwide Appraisal Network for delivery and storage. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.appraisal.com and http://www.aci.com.

Ocwen Financial Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., has announced the introduction of 24-hour due diligence services to mortgage-backed securities investors on a loan-by-loan, mini-bulk, bulk, and portfolio basis.Ocwen's due diligence facility receives physical files from mortgage originators and uses high-speed scanners to image all documents. "The combination of Ocwen's 24-hour global workforce, document imaging capabilities, and advanced workflow management technology enables us to complete the due diligence processes in record time with less expense and greater accuracy," said Ocwen president Ron Faris. "This shaves days -- if not weeks -- off the traditional paper due diligence process and raises the bar on customer service." Mr. Faris said Ocwen's imaging capabilities, workflow management, and Six Sigma process design "allow us to multi-task on a single file, eliminating bottlenecks and speeding the entire process."

First American subsidiary Loan Performance has announced SecondLook, a new tool aimed at mortgage lenders and investors worried about undetected second loans and piggy-backs.Backed by the data-collection might of First American, SecondLook offers one-time, monthly, or quarterly monitoring of additional liens to uncover the existence of post-origination second mortgages, the company said. It also makes available a daily update of new liens with alerts to servicing and portfolio managers with the monthly or quarterly monitoring service. SecondLook combines the resources of LoanPerformance's home equity line of credit and second-lien loan database with First American RES's property database, which covers 97% of all real estate transactions in the United States, according to the company. First American's companion product LienWatch provides holders of junior liens with an automated method for monitoring a first lien's delinquency status. The company can be found online at http://www.loanperformance.com.