Mortgage technology

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced an agreement to acquire Service Link LP, a title insurance agency and provider of title and closing services to national lenders, for an undisclosed amount.The purchase will also include Asset Link, a company owned by Service Link that manages and disposes of real estate owned. "The acquisition of Service Link provides FNF and its title insurance subsidiaries with centralized title and closing capabilities and improved direct access to national lender accounts for both refinance transactions and emerging lender-driven purchase transactions," said FNF president Raymond R. Quirk. "Service Link will operate as a distinct brand under our Chicago Title subsidiary and will establish underwriting agreements with the FNF family of title insurance underwriters." FNF can be found online at http://www.fnf.com.

Melville, N.Y.-based American Brokers Conduit has launched a website that offers mortgage brokers a new set of tools and resources that allow them to manage the loan process online from locking to pipeline status.In addition, marketing materials can be individually customized for brokers to use for customer retention purposes, the company said. ABC, the wholesale division of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., a mortgage real estate investment trust, is the 13th-largest mortgage wholesaler lender in the nation. At the end of the first quarter, ABC had a network of over 8,000 wholesale brokers, an increase of over 40% since the end of the fourth quarter and up from 2,839 brokers at the beginning of 2004. The new website can be found at http://www.abconduit.com.

Chicago-based TransUnion Settlement Solutions has released Pre-Decision Qualifier, which offers a value range for a property before a full appraisal has been ordered.PDQ delivers property characteristics for up to 15 recent neighborhood sales, a notation indicating irregular sales history, and recent transaction history, the company said. The product is designed to be used by lenders to determine whether there is a need for a full appraisal before investing in a local appraiser. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.transunionssi.com.

Mavent Inc., Irvine, Calif., has launched Mavent Compliance Console (MC2), a Web-based portal that allows lenders, loan purchasers and other mortgage-related businesses to submit loan data for a complete compliance review.With MC2, mortgage professionals can submit loan data on a manual, batch, or combined basis to the Mavent Expert System, Mavent's flagship automated compliance software that collects and processes electronic loan data against a legal rules repository. In addition, MC2 offers several proprietary features and workflow methodologies that enable users with limited or no access to electronic loan data to input information for a review, Mavent said. MC2 also includes a reporting tool that provides mortgage businesses with detailed information on both a loan-level and aggregate pipeline or pool basis. Mavent can be found on the Web at http://www.mavent.com.

South Florida-based Homekeys has announced the introduction of ValueSearch, a patent-pending online tool that enables homebuyers and real estate investors to identify potentially undervalued properties.This will give real estate investors the same ability that stock investors have had for years, the company said. "ValueSearch is the first application that extends automated valuation model technology from a single property to a set of search results," said Manuel Iraola, Homekeys' president and chief executive officer. "Most real estate sites enable you to find properties by location and features such as number of bedrooms and baths. ValueSearch enables you to refine search results by displaying properties that are potentially a good value, where the asking price is near or below the estimated value." Homekeys can be found online at http://www.homekeys.net.

The First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., has announced the promotion of Roger Hull, the company's chief information officer, to executive vice president.The company said the promotion came in recognition of "the key role [Mr. Hull] has played in developing and integrating First American's technology and business strategies," specifically the First American Web Services offering that now provides the backbone for delivering First American's products, services, and processes. Before joining First American, Mr. Hull's 25 years of information technology experience included serving as senior technology officer for Coldwell Banker from 1992 to 1998, when he took on that same role for First American Title Insurance Co. Mr. Hull was the subject of a feature interview in the January/February 2005 issue of Mortgage Technology magazine, a MortgageWire affiliate.

To expand its wholesale lending initiative and help its originators price loans more efficiently, Chicago-based Guaranteed Rate has picked MortgageHub's LoanFactory decisioning, product, and pricing engine and Wholesale Internet Lending applications.Conshohocken, Pa.-based MortgageHub offers a Web services platform to deliver Internet-based systems for wholesale, retail, and servicing functions. Guaranteed Rate will use the wholesale system to start serving 100 brokers immediately, with the intention of expanding to 500 by year-end, the company said. The MortgageHub wholesale system offers to eliminate costly paper, fax and phone communications between wholesaler and broker. Guaranteed Rate can be found online at http://www.guaranteedrate.com.

Myers Internet, San Jose, Calif., has released the latest version of its online loan application."Customers that visit our client websites can now not only complete an application online, but also print the application and disclosure documents and fax or mail them into their company," said Myers chief executive officer Warren Myer. "The disclosure documents are pre-populated with information from the loan application." A new calculator for consumers to determine their monthly income has also been added. The update will be delivered free to all existing clients and will be a part of Myers' Executive, Standard, and Automated website packages. Myers, which hosts 5,000 mortgage websites, can be found on the Web at http://www.myers.com.

ERS Group, Knoxville, Tenn., has announced the release of software tools to help financial services firms determine their regulatory compliance guidelines under various pieces of mortgage-related federal legislation.The Web-based RiskExec is designed to help financial firms improve productivity by reducing their data management burdens and enhancing communication among their compliance team members, the company said. It consists of software tools "developed specifically for financial services firms and their management teams covering [Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, Community Reinvestment Act], and high-cost loan analyses," said Cary Collins, a principal at ERS Group. "We help clients better manage regulatory and compliance risks by monitoring their ongoing lending processes and by providing appropriate compliance and executive-level reporting on these processes." The company, a subsidiary of Dallas-based SourceCorp, can be found online at http://www.ersgroup.com.

Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Experian-Scorex has announced the release of ScoreRight, a credit simulation tool.ScoreRight provides a side-by-side comparison of an applicant's credit information from all three credit reporting agencies, a tradeline level view of the applicant's accounts, and the ability to simulate credit-related actions to help educate applicants about what they need to do to help their credit rating, the company said. Experian-Scorex can be found on the Web at http://www.experian-scorex.com.

Wholesale Access Mortgage Research & Consulting, Shaker Heights, Ohio, has released preliminary results of its Mortgage Brokers 2004 Study.The study found that all brokers accounted for 68% ($1.8 trillion) of last year's total origination activity, and that the mean brokerage firm produced $32 million, with an average of 8.7 employees. The study also found that conforming loans accounted for 46% of brokers' volume; that the most-used wholesalers are Countrywide, for conforming loans, and National City, for subprime loans; and that brokers in general are heavy users of technology, which has allowed them to reduce their firm size and still keep their volume up. The completed study will be available in late July. Wholesale Access can be found on the Web at http:/www.wholesaleaccess.com.

The nation's first offshore, around-the-clock electronic mortgage processing service has been announced by Miami-based E-OPS.The company said originators fax, upload, or enter data into the E-OPS Web-based system and offshore processors handle all pre-closing processing tasks. E-OPS said it is the first contract processing company to provide online virtual access to customer files with real-time feedback between the loan officer, customers, and third parties. For its offshore processing, E-OPS has signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Wipro BPO, a business unit of Wipro Technologies. "We are processing loans approximately 40% faster than any other available alternative thanks to around-the-clock processing, skilled processors, and cutting-edge technology," said Joe Machado, chief executive officer at E-OPS. "Wipro BPO is a key element of our strategy, and we're impressed with their understanding of our business and ability to optimize the process to drive down costs and turnaround time." The companies can be found online at http://www.eops.cc and http://www.wipro.com.

Fiserv Lending Solutions has announced that Albuquerque, N.M.-based Charter Mortgage has selected Fiserv's UniFi PRO Mortgage eX loan origination software system to extend its relationship with Fiserv and embrace the electronic mortgage.Lyle Greenberg, Charter's vice president of mortgage operations, said the company found itself needing to take better advantage of modern technology, especially in the areas of databases, the Internet, and integration with other systems and services. Charter Mortgage is New Mexico's largest mortgage company and is the only company originating and servicing residential and commercial mortgages in the state.

The Prime Alliance Services, Minneapolis, has reported the successful implementation of its Loan Fulfillment Center in six credit union customers.The Loan Fulfillment Center, a Web-based mortgage fulfillment system, has been successfully deployed at Boeing Employees' Credit Union, Bellco Credit Union, and Bethpage Federal Credit Union and will shortly be implemented at Wright-Patt Credit Union, Lockheed Federal Credit Union, and America First Credit Union, Prime Alliance said. In related news, Prime Alliance Services Co., a partnership between Dexma, Inc. and Prime Alliance Solutions, also reached an agreement with The First American Corp. to offer title insurance and services to Prime Alliance members. A key feature of the Loan Fulfillment Center is its integration with external partners involved in the mortgage process, enabling credit unions to take advantage of preferred pricing on mortgage services negotiated on their behalf, according to Prime Alliance. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.primeallianceservices.com.

Ingeo Systems Inc., Logan, Utah, and Cott Systems, Worthington, Ohio, have announced a strategic alliance that the companies say will streamline and automate transaction-based processes associated with the electronic recording of real estate documents.The partnership enables county recording offices to accept electronically prepared digital documents for official recording. The alliance combines Ingeo's eRecord service with Cott Systems' Resolution software, a suite of products designed for county clerks, recorders, and other elected officials responsible for the filing of land records. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.ingeo.com and http://www.cottsystems.com.

Livonia, Mich.-based Quicken Loans Inc. has selected The Loan Page, San Francisco, Calif., to generate pre-qualified customer leads and instant access to its products via the TLP website.TLP is an Internet mortgage lead generation firms in the United States. Since inception, TLP has transmitted over $50 billion in mortgage loan quote requests and has served hundreds of clients nationwide. "We've seen a dramatic increase in consumer, lender and partner adoption of online customer acquisition tools," said Kevin Akeroyd, CEO of The Loan Page, in a prepared statement. "Leveraging our technology, lenders and partners are adding to their bottom lines as easily as consumers are cutting their mortgage costs." TLP can be found on the Web at http://www.TheLoanPage.com.

HedgeStreet Inc., San Mateo, Calif., has announced the introduction of Housing Price Hedgelets, which enable its online investors to hedge, or speculate on the direction of, home values in major U.S. real estate markets.The company said it is the first U.S. government-designated online financial market that lets traders directly buy and sell "innovative financial instruments" based on economic events. The Housing Price Hedgelets are tradable as both yes/no and variable contracts with three-month and six-month durations. They are benchmarked against the median sales price of existing single-family homes reported by the National Association of Realtors for Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco, HedgeStreet said. "For most Americans, their home is their single largest investment and, as such, the desire to reduce risks surrounding that asset is important," said John Nafeh, the company's chief executive officer. "Housing Price Hedgelets provide a unique way for them to hedge against depreciation in the value of a home, or conversely, speculate on the degree to which housing prices will appreciate." The company can be found online at http://www.hedgestreet.com.

Tim Anderson, executive vice president of business development of Minneapolis-based Dexma Inc., has been elected to the Governance Committee of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.Mr. Anderson has over 25 years of mortgage banking technology and management experience and is credited with creating the eMortgage Alliance that supports MISMO standards for delivering legal paperless processes. MISMO was established by the Mortgage Bankers Association to coordinate the development and maintenance of Internet-based Extensible Markup Language real estate finance specifications. The Governance Committee is made up of 16 representatives from MISMO subscriber organizations, including two origination technology companies. Mr. Anderson will serve a two-year term.

Fidelity National Data Services, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc. headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., has launched Comp Locator, a sales-comparable search engine for appraisers and appraisal review companies.Comp Locator combines geographic definition capabilities with a simplified search process. The system includes an interactive map that enables searchers to select specific areas, enabling them to refine their selection to those areas. In addition, searchers are presented with up to 50 single-line sales comparables with prior sales transaction data. The system displays up to 15 sales comparables with complete property information. The FNF family of companies can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com and http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

First Advantage Corp., St. Petersburg, Fla., and First American Corp., Santa Anna, Calif., have signed an agreement whereby First Advantage, a risk mitigation and business solutions provider, will acquire the Credit Information Group, a First American company, in an all-stock transaction.First American and First Advantage originally announced a letter of intent for the transaction on March 22, and the agreement has now been approved by the boards of both companies and a committee of First Advantage's independent directors. Under the pact, First American and its First American Real Estate Solutions joint venture will contribute their mortgage, automotive, consumer and subprime credit businesses to First Advantage in exchange for approximately 27.8 million shares of First Advantage class B common stock, valued at $570 million (based on a price of $20.50 per share), the companies said. First Advantage will also issue 975,610 class B shares to First American in a $20 million debt-to-equity conversion. Additional shares of First Advantage class B common stock totaling approximately 1.27 million (valued at $26 million) may be issued to First American in connection with a prospective CIG acquisition. When completed, First Advantage's acquisition of CIG will increase First American's ownership interest in First Advantage from 67% to about 80%. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.fadv.com and http://www.firstam.com.