Mortgage technology

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.

Framing the investment as an endorsement of open standards in technology, First American has announced a $50 million capital infusion in San Mateo, Calif.-based Dorado and its Enterprise Lending System.The company said this "will help mortgage industry leaders transform mortgage origination from a compartmentalized process with frequent starts and stops into a highly integrated, open, and dynamic process that gives lenders more control over their businesses, enables faster time-to-close, and creates more efficiency in the market overall." ELS allows services from third-party vendors to be integrated directly into a lender's workflow. ELS and other Dorado technology platforms will now be integrated with First American Web Services and First American Fulfillment Services. First American said it plans to fund future Dorado acquisitions "as a means of further expanding this new origination vision." The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.firstam.com and http://www.dorado.com.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has signed the Arizona Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, which authorizes the storage of real property records, including mortgages, in electronic format.The act was adopted based on a model recording act of the same name drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 2004. It states that an electronic document satisfies a recording statute that requires a document to be an original, on paper or another tangible medium, or in writing, and that an electronic signature satisfies a recording statute that requires a document to be signed. The act also states that an electronic signature satisfies a requirement that a document or signature associated with a document be notarized, acknowledged, verified, witnessed, or made under oath by someone authorized to sign for the document so long as the electronic signature and all other information required to be included is attached to or logically associated with the document or signature. The Arizona URPERA goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2006.

LendingTree Settlement Services, Charlotte, N.C, has selected Pittsburgh-based ValuAmerica's Web-based ValuNet xsp software to manage its vendor management process.ValuNet xsp automates vendor selection and ordering, and provides real-time vendor performance scoring and reporting in order to increase operational efficiencies, ValuAmerica said. The implementation is scheduled to be complete in June 2005. LendingTree Settlement Services is a joint venture between LendingTree LLC and GreenLink LLC, an affiliate of Wachovia Corp. It offers settlement services such as appraisal, credit, flood, title, and closing services. ValuAmerica is a national provider of settlement services and supply chain management tools. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.lendingtree.com and http://www.valuamerica.com.

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization has announced the introduction of MISMO eXtensible Markup Language Compliance for credit reporting.MXCompliance allow implementers of MISMO's Internet-based XML standards to "reference requirements and take steps in becoming officially compliant" and to validate their XML, the Mortgage Bankers Association subsidiary said. There are three types of MXCompliance services: verification, import, and export. Verification is a service for businesses interested in buying certified products and services from organizations that claim to be MISMO-compliant, the organization said. The import and export services are used by applicants seeking certification (under MISMO standards) of their product or service interfaces. For further information on MXCompliance, visit http://mxcompliance.mismo.org.

Stewart Title has announced another step toward the electronic closing of real-estate finance transactions with the completion of the sale of a single-family home using its eClosingRoom, integrated into its SureClose online transaction management system at Stewart Title of Wichita Falls, Texas.The all-cash closing called for sellers and buyer to use a simple "click to sign" process and a "sign-once, apply-many" signature capture process to affix their electronic signatures to the documents, including HUD-1 statements, the attorney disclosure, survey documents, the privacy policy notice, the 1099 and 1099 certification, and a Stewart Title disclosure. The warranty deed and Affidavit as to Debts and Liens needed to be "wet-signed" to conform to Wichita County requirements, the company said. Sellers and buyer accessed their SureClose transaction file via a user ID and password-protected website to review documents in advance of the closing. The eClosingRoom system was developed with Silanis Technology. Stewart Title can be found online at http://www.stewart.com.

Dynatek has made plans for a phased launch of an improved version of its MORvision loan origination software that will be called MORvisionTi , the company said at its 13th annual user conference in Livonia, Mich.The new MORvisionTi will utilize new technologies like Web services/.NET, Smart Client, service-oriented architecture and n-tier functionality. The system will include a new business process management central module to streamline loan management, advanced product and pricing, e-mortgage ready capability, and an enhanced point-of-sale system. The Web Status Center to enable the user to accommodate Web services was the first deliverable of the new system. The next deliverable will be the POS component, which will include synchronized docked and undocked access to the software, improved loan selection, improved calculators, simplified data entry and advanced printing functionality. Dynatek can be found on the Web at http://www.dynatek.com.

Fiserv Inc., Brookfield, Wis., has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of the eLending U.S. operations of Emergis Inc., Montreal, Quebec.Emergis disclosed on its website that the purchase price is US$13.75 million in cash. The eLending Emergis operation enables mortgage lenders to obtain third-party services needed to process, close, and fund mortgage loans via the Internet. In addition, it provides the capability to manage, electronically sign, and store mortgage documents in a secure electronic environment. Fiserv said the eLending U.S. Emergis technology includes the Vendor Services Exchange component on which Fiserv's Electronic Partner Connection operates as a private-label system. The Electronic Partner Connection is an electronic network that provides mortgage originators with a single online point of entry for the order and delivery of any mortgage-related products or services. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.fiserv.com and http://www.emergis.com.

Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Experian has positioned itself as a major consumer-direct player on the Internet with the acquisition of LowerMyBills.com for $330 million and the launch of Experian Interactive.The deal also calls for an additional $50 million performance-related compensation over the next two years. LowerMyBills is a mortgage-lead generator that assists consumers with debt consolidation and other financial decisions. All employees and management for LowerMyBills.com will be retained, Experian said. Consumer Interactive will combine the acquired entity with its Experian Consumer Direct, MetaReward, and Affiliate Fuel business lines.

MERS, the industry-owned system for tracking ownership of mortgage loans and servicing rights, has registered 30 million loans, according to the organization.MERS said it hit the 30 million mark, a 35% increase from one year earlier, on April 6. Decision One Mortgage, a Charlotte, N.C.-based division of the HSBC Group, registered the 30 millionth loan. The company has over 200,000 loans registered on MERS. Electronic registration eliminates the need for paper assignments when trading loans and servicing rights. MERS can be found on the Internet at http://www.mersinc.org.

NetBank Inc., an Atlanta-based online bank, has reported a mortgage-related net loss of $2.0 million ($0.04 per share) for the first quarter, compared with net income of $9.4 million ($0.20 per share) a year earlier.The production of conforming mortgages totaled $2.1 billion in the quarter, a decline of 8.6%, and the production of nonconforming mortgages totaled $630 million, a decline of 18.4%, the company reported. "The current-period loss is largely centered in our nonconforming mortgage operation," said Douglas K. Freeman, NetBank's chairman and chief executive officer. ".... More aggressive pricing industrywide and higher-than-normal provision expenses pushed results well below the level our other developing lines of business can offset today. We consider the prevailing nonconforming business conditions atypical. We are fully committed to the nonconforming operation and believe in its ability to contribute significant profitability to our bottom line in normal conditions." The company can be found online at http://www.netbank.com.

The MLS Systems and Solutions group of Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, Jacksonville, Fla., has released an updated version of its Paragon MLS system, a Web-based multiple listing service platform.Enhancements include updates to the Comparative Market Analysis, Associated Documents, and Listing Photo Management features. The CMA updates have enhanced the feature's user interface, improving its workflow functionality, the company said. In addition, comparative graphs and charts will now be included in the CMA feature. The Associated Documents feature enables any documents related to a specific listing, such as inspection or disclosure reports, to be stored as part of that listing in the Paragon system. Lastly, updates to the Listing Photo Management feature include a new drag-and-drop interface. Fidelity also announced that the application can now be accessed from any browser-enabled device, such as a Wireless Application Protocol-enabled mobile phone or a personal data assistant. The FNF family of companies can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com and http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

Del Mar Database, San Diego, has released its Hosted Solution Suite, providing application service provider access to its entire product line.The Hosted Solutions are designed for lenders that require centralized data access for remote users, have limited information technology resources, prefer lower upfront costs, and seek rapid implementation. Del Mar announced the new offering at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Secondary Marketing Conference in San Francisco.