Mortgage technology

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."

Denver-based Mortgage Cadence implemented its end-to-end LOS at Global Home Loans in just six months, and now it has topped that by going through the same cycle at RateStar Inc. in just 60 days, according to Mortgage Cadence.Homeowners Loan Corp. launched Mortgage Cadence in early 2004 as a plan to increase its internal efficiencies and extend them throughout its entire enterprise, including its wholly owned subsidiary, RateStar. HLC chief technology officer Paul Sadler said it took "a lot of hard work" to get RateStar up and running in 60 days. "Part of the success of this implementation is because we're very familiar with the Mortgage Cadence product," Mr. Sadler said. "We've been using it on the back end since 2004 and are now rolling it out to the front end." Nonetheless, Mr. Sadler said that even someone completely unfamiliar with Mortgage Cadence should be able to do a successful implementation within 90 days.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based WellFound Decade Corp., a provider of business integration software, has launched InvestorExpress, a product that permits mortgage sellers to electronically deliver mortgage loan data to their investors, including Countrywide.Countrywide's correspondent customers are the first to benefit from InvestorExpress, which enables the electronic delivery of loans to Countrywide with 98.5% accuracy, according to WellFound Decade. InvestorExpress automatically extracts committed loan data from the seller's system, translates the data into the investor's format of choice, and securely delivers it for upload into the investor's system. (For more on the benefits of this interface, see the March 28 issue of National Mortgage News.) WellFound Decade can be found on the Web at http://www.wellfounddecade.com.

Fidelity National Field Services Inc., a unit of Fidelity National Financial, Jacksonville, Fla., has introduced a state-specific, Web-based contractor assessment program for property preservation contractors.The Contractor Qualification Assessment program will "validate the industry proficiencies of more than 1,000 independent property preservation contractors managed by Fidelity National Field Services nationwide," according to the parent company. FNF said the program is based on lender and investor guidelines and "best practices" in the industry. It consists of questions relating to lender and investor requirements and state-specific requirements involving services such as conveyance preparation, lock changes, eviction attendances, and pool coverings, the company said. Fidelity National Field Services can be found online at http://www.fnfieldserv.com.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the introduction of the Offer Management System, a tool designed to enable brokers and agents to initiate offers and counteroffers for bank-owned property online or to respond to counteroffers online.The tool is being launched by Fidelity National Asset Management Solutions, a division of FNF. For brokers and agents, the Offer Management System is designed to replace the manual e-mailing and faxing of offers and negotiations, FNF said. "All offer and negotiation information entered into the system will automatically populate into FNAMS's case management system, providing property owners with real-time access to the status of property negotiations and expediting the entire negotiation process," the company said. The automation of negotiations will be carried out directly through the FNAMS website, which can be found online at http://www.fnams.com.

Fidelity National Financial, Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the addition of online bidding capabilities to BuyBankHomes.com, FNF's Web portal dedicated to marketing properties that have completed the foreclosure process.The new feature offers interested parties a convenient way to place online bids on foreclosed properties that will be presented at live onsite auctions, the company said. "BuyBankHomes.com's online bidding capabilities enable buyers and investors to be represented at the live auction by proxy, which will result in a one-time bid being submitted on their behalf at the appropriate point in the live auction process," FNF said. The company can be found online at http://www.buybankhomes.com and http://www.fnf.com.

Anti-fraud automation leaders Sysdome, Calabasas, Calif., and AppIntelligence, Weldon Spring, Mo., have come together to form one anti-fraud juggernaut.ISO, which acquired AppIntelligence earlier this year, has acquired Sysdome for an undisclosed sum. Sysdome and AppIntelligence will be combined into a single new division called ISO Mortgage Analytics. The combined entity boasts a mortgage client list of over 1,000 institutions and a full suite of products to combat most known types of mortgage fraud. MortgageWire has learned that Kevin Coop, president of Sysdome, will be the new president of ISO Mortgage Analytics. Despite the overlap, the company plans to maintain both product offerings. For more information, see the March 21 issue of National Mortgage News.

Irvine, Calif.-based Portellus has just announced its entry into the market for wholesale origination websites with a feature-rich broker portal module.The new offering boasts a "very customizable" front-end user interface coupled with Portellus' existing loan file workflow and advanced business rules management system, the company said. Portellus' Mortgage Solutions Framework offers a complete suite of mortgage processing modules that can be implemented individually or integrated, extending from point of sale to secondary marketing and servicing. The system can be brought in-house or used on a hosted basis. To enable easy customization, user interface screens are built independently of validation, decisioning, and workflow logic. Features includes broker portal administration, risk-based pricing, and broker-specific promotions. The company can be found online at http://www.portellus.com.

RamQuest Software, Plano, Texas, has announced the formation of a strategic partnership with LandAmerica Financial Group and Old Republic National Title Insurance Co. under which the latter two companies have purchased minority equity interests in RamQuest.RamQuest, which provides software for the land title industry, said the partnership combines its technological expertise with the "strategic insights and knowledge" of LandAmerica and Old Republic. It said key members of its management team, including chief executive officer Mark McElroy, chief operating officer Neil E. Syken, and chief financial officer Steven P. Terry, will remain with the company. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.ramquest.com, http://www.landam.com, and http://www.oldrepublictitle.com.