Mortgage technology

Cogent Economics has used its annual symposium, held recently at the Nikko Hotel in San Francisco, to sound a "clarion call" for enterprise-wide quality-control systems.Keynote speaker James Robinson discussed the three pillars of the Basel II capital adequacy II framework -- minimum capital requirements, the supervisory review process, and market discipline requirements -- as a mandate for enterprise QC rather than the relegation of QC to "a small department in the basement." Though the Basel Accords will primarily affect larger institutions, he said smaller banks and mortgage lenders will have incentives to adopt advanced approaches to risk assessment to pass regulatory muster and enjoy increased investor confidence in their loan originations. Symposium attendees also were briefed on plans to migrate the entire code base of CogentQC from FoxPro to C# (a language for Microsoft's .net platform) and to ease connectivity to SQL databases by the fourth quarter of this year. Cogent can be found online at http://www.cogentqc.com.

Wachovia Mortgage, the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, has launched Palisades Technology Partners' Impact Mortgage Services Suite, a fully automated, Web-based loan origination system."Palisades' Impact Loan Processing System delivers a robust lending platform that we integrated tightly into our infrastructure," said Laurie Smith, director of lending technology for Wachovia. "We are particularly excited about the potential for extending our use of Impact's components for loan pricing, fee calculations, and compliance as Web services." The company said the project required the development and implementation of interfaces to many downstream systems, including Wachovia's in-house point-of-sale system, using a MISMO-like Interface Manager and standard messages over an IBM MQ protocol. (MISMO is the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.) The implementation will also facilitate the electronic delivery of documents leveraging Wachovia's Electronic Forms and Image Archive infrastructure.

Ellie Mae, Dublin, Calif., has acquired Michigan-based Lasso Technologies, a developer of Web-enabled applications, to be able to offer its Encompass point-of-sale software as an application service provider.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Lasso used to offer Encompass on an ASP basis as a third-party service, which is why the acquisition was such a good fit, said Jonathan Corr, senior vice president for products at Ellie Mae. As a result, Ellie Mae is launching Encompass Anywhere, a new Web-hosted solution of its flagship loan origination and management system. Lasso management will be absorbed into Ellie Mae, the company said. Ellie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.elliemae.com.

HomesByOwner.com, Memphis, has announced an alliance with RealBird Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of online maps and GIS tools for the real estate industry.HomesByOwner.com offers for-sale-by-owner businesses national exposure and a customizable website to serve the local FSBO market. RealBird's online mapping service features street, aerial, and topographical maps with interactive hotspots linked to photos, websites, or virtual tours, as well as driving directions. "With RealBird Maps we have raised the perceived value of our service, and will attract more homebuyers and sellers because they have now a better way to sell or buy a home," said Wayne Strobel, president of HomesByOwner.com. "RealBird is the only affordable, fully customizable online mapping service that was also very easy to integrate with our website and database of listings." The companies can be found online at http://www.homesbyowner.com and http://www.realbird.com.

Dynatek Inc., Livonia, Mich., has completed a system-to-system plug-in for Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector.com automated underwriting system within its MORvision offering.Dynatek used the latest technology specifications available from Freddie Mac to design a plug-in that would eliminate duplicate data entry, offer increased flexibility, and allow the transfer of loans from the online version of Loan Prospector to MORvision. The improvements ultimately provide faster, more accurate underwriting responses for MORvision users, according to Freddie Mac. Dynatek can be found on the Web at http://www.dynatek.com.

The MLS Systems and Solutions group of Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, Jacksonville, Fla., has announced an agreement with ShowingTime to provide access to the latter's Web-based property-showing management system.Under the arrangement, Fidelity's multiple-listing service customers can enable their broker and agent users to gain direct access to the property-showing system, ShowingAssist. "In our experience, we've found MLSs receptive to adding showing technology to their sites," said Scott Woodard, ShowingTime's chief executive officer. "ShowingAssist expands the toolkit they can offer to members and becomes an important timesaver in the showing appointment process." For showing agents, access to ShowingAssist through their MLS system enables them to view available showing times for listed properties and submit showing requests 24 hours a day, Fidelity said. The companies can be found online at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com and http://www.showingtime.com.

GHR Systems Inc., Wayne, Pa., has announced the introduction of the Enterprise Reporting System, which is designed to create instant reports with research capabilities and graphical analysis.ERS also provides historical and real-time views into a lender's organizational, branch, and loan officer pipelines. GHR Systems said users can obtain quantifiable feedback with ERS, linking strategy, performance, and management decisions. The ERS works with any GHR product and can also integrate data from any non-GHR system. Specifically, GHR's ERS system allows users to access, manipulate, and change the layout of information in real time, providing an engine capable of detailed analysis and reporting, the company said. As an online analytical processing system, ERS can also gather information from one or more source systems and provide enterprise reporting. GHR can be found on the Web at http://www.ghrsystems.com.

In order to round out its mortgage platform, Bear Stearns has started a wholesale division called Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage Corp. and on April 18 plans to roll out a technology interface called BearDirect.net that will provide an online underwriting decision engine for mortgage brokers.The move is part of a larger effort to expand the company's mortgage franchise by capturing origination volume, fixed-income president and co-chief executive officer Warren Spector said in a recent webcast investor presentation. Also adding to Bear's volumes recently has been an expansion of its product guidelines in the conduit area, according to people familiar with Bear's strategy. (For more information, see the April 18 issue of National Mortgage News.)

PCi Corp., a Boston-based provider of lending compliance systems, has released suggested guidelines on how to handle the reporting of new pricing data under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.For the first time, financial institutions were required under HMDA to report rate spreads for approved mortgage loans, along with corresponding data such as lien status, PCi noted. "The new HMDA pricing information is creating significant uncertainty among lenders," said PCi president Raffi Festekjian. "Because so many lenders are coming to us seeking guidance, we want to share the basics of a practical strategy to best conduct HMDA pricing analysis in a manner that works for each lender." The company recommends a number of steps, including breaking down the data geographically and by business lines; refining analysis in areas with a high risk profile; and providing context for pricing patterns by citing factors such as credit, collateral quality, ability to pay, and debt load. PCi can be found online at http://www.pciwiz.com

Fidelity National Financial, Jacksonville, Fla., has launched an enhanced version of its BuyBankHomes.com website portal for selling bank-owned homes.The online portal is dedicated to marketing properties that have completed the foreclosure process. Fidelity said the redesigned user interface offers a clean, intuitive environment for both experienced bank-owned property investors and consumers new to the market. Fidelity said the new site incorporates Intelligent Map Searching, so that users are no longer required to be familiar with specific property location data such as city or ZIP code. The layered map feature allows users to start with a broader area, like a state, and zoom in on local markets. The site also features new bidding capabilities for live, online auctions.

First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., has announced an agreement to purchase LoanPerformance, a San Francisco-based advanced analytics supplier.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction, expected to close in April, is subject to the approval of LoanPerformance's shareholders. LoanPerformance offers risk analytics for benchmarking, predictive modeling, and market and securities analysis. It uses an industrywide cooperative database of more than 100 million loans contributed by the leading mortgage servicers, securitizers, and portfolio lenders in the United States. The companies can be found online at http://www.firstam.com and http://www.loanperformance.com.

Document Processing Systems, San Francisco, recently released the eDisclosures module of DPS eMortgage Studio, not the eMortgage Studio system itself, as MortgageWire incorrectly reported.The new module enables lenders and brokers to electronically deliver secure good-faith estimates and truth-in-lending documents, among others, that can be digitally signed, printed, and securely downloaded by the borrower, DPS said. It is the fourth component in eMortgage Studio, which can execute digitally signed, electronically MERS-registered loans. "With this expansion of the DPS eMortgage Studio, originators of all sizes can finally set enterprise-level standards for disclosure delivery and tracking," said DPS president Paul Rakowicz. "Now originators can assure legal compliance while also providing a simple-to-use method for delivering and tracking disclosures both online and via call centers." The company can be found online at http://www.documentprocessing.com.

The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp. has developed an automated underwriting system so that community-based NeighborWorks organizations can originate first and second mortgages and sell them to Fannie Mae.Most NeighborWorks loans are seconds that cover downpayment and closing costs for low-income homebuyers who are getting a first mortgage from a private lender. The NeighborWorks revolving loan fund financed $61.4 million in seconds over the past two years, with an average loan size of $14,550. Starting May 15, NeighborWorks organizations will have the Web-based underwriting system to originate these loans, which Fannie agreed to purchase on a flow basis. "If this gets perfected, it will be open to a broader circle of providers" that offer similar programs to facilitate the home purchase process, NRC chief executive Kenneth Wade said. NRC, working with its secondary market arm, Neighborhood Housing Services of America, developed the AU system. NHSA will service the loans as an approved Fannie seller/servicer.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has launched an online resource center it describes as a one-stop shop to help the industry combat mortgage fraud.The Mortgage Fraud Against Lenders Resource Center will be a central repository for information about fraud against mortgage lenders, the MBA said. The resource center will include such information as fraud-alert updates on emerging fraud schemes, a Lender Tool Box to help lenders protect themselves against fraud, and a resource library of reports and Web links. Jonathan L. Kempner, the MBA's president and chief executive officer, said the association wants the center to become "a virtual meeting place for lenders to share information and resources to protect their companies from being victimized by mortgage fraud against the real estate finance system." The center can be found online at http://mbafightsfraud.mortgagebankers.org.

"No massive layoffs" for the mortgage industry was the bottom line in MBA economist’s Douglas Duncan’s 2005 forecast delivered at the MBA technology conference in Orlando.Predicting $2.5 trillion total production for the year with interest rates topping off just north of 6%, Mr. Duncan quoted the Fed verdict of "robust underlying productivity growth" in support of his forecast. On the tech front, Hollister Group principal Rita Ballesteros, offered highlights of the second annual MBA Technology Study, showing modest gains in tech spending for 2004 over the previous year. The study showed LOS imaging and GLB as top priorities for lenders in spending technology dollars, with 92% of lenders saying they now use imaging at some stage of the process.

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization will have a compliance effort for credit reporting transactions completed by April with other MISMO Workgroups still handing in specs to define MISMO compliance across the board throughout the year.At press time the remaining workgroups within MISMO were working on specifications that would determine the minimum requirement for MISMO Compliance to be able to deliver a full compliance tool at a later date. Going further, SMART Doc and e-mortgage compliance services are expected by year’s end, according to the MBA.

In a move to broaden their reach to the small-to medium-size lender market Fiserv has acquired Del Mar Database, San Diego, the two companies said.Del Mar will continue to be run independently with no management changes, according to John Walsh, Del Mar Database president. Mr. Walsh said the acquisition will "add a lot of credibility to Del Mar." Leslie Muma, Fiserv president and chief executive officer, said the acquisition is a key milestone in the company's goal of "building the most complete technology solution for the lending industry." The actual price and terms of the deal were undisclosed. Del Mar can be found on the Web at http://www.delmard.com.

Dorado Corp. chose an exclusive opening-day dinner at the 2005 Mortgage Bankers Association technology conference in Orlando, Fla., to unveil its new Enterprise Lending System, which offers centralized viewing and control for any loan in all channels through a single point-of-sale.The ELS on-demand POS capabilities are scheduled to launch in the second quarter of this year. ELS can be used to integrate and augment all Dorado product components through a unified POS, using SOA to enable “rapid, cost-effective integration of people, information, systems and services across multiple technology platforms, business channels and partners,” the company said. ELS has well-defined, interoperable service interfaces to let one instance of a service be leveraged across the enterprise and be called upon at any time in the process by business users. Dorado officials told invited lenders at a Citrus Club dinner in downtown Orlando that the layered, service-oriented architecture of ELS will enable new vendor services to be quickly and easily added to a lender’s process flow so that lenders can adopt a best-of-breed vendor strategy. Dorado can be found on the Web at http://www.dorado.com.

WellFound Decade, Jacksonville, Fla., and PaperClip Software, Hackensack, N.J., have partnered to offer the mortgage industry what they're touting as the first simultaneous data and document delivery application, the companies told attendees at the Mortgage Bankers Association National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference & Expo.Through this alliance, lenders can deliver both docs and data to their correspondents electronically with two clicks. Specifically, PaperClips’s imaging VirtualLoanFolder product will integrate with WellFound Decade’s InvestorExpress data delivery system to make the full transmission possible.

First American RES has chosen the 2005 MBA technology conference in Orlando to issue a challenge: Try to get its new LoanIQ tool to miss detecting a fraudulent loan.Boasting a 90% detection-success rate, First American invites lenders to submit the addresses for their early-pay defaults involving fraud, mixed in with some performing loans and some non-fraud loans that went to REO status in order to confirm that LoanIQ can pick out the instances of fraud. A lender submits the property address, the borrower's names, sellers' names, requested loan amount, estimated value, sale price or appraised value, and whether or not the property is classified as new construction or previously occupied. LoanIQ responds with a value in one of three categories: "Satisfactory," "Unsatisfactory" and "Marginal."