Mortgage technology

Among North America's largest financial services firms, E-Loan ranked highest overall in online customer satisfaction in the first quarter and Fleet Bank ranked No. 1 among commercial banks, according to the Customer Respect Group.In other results of CRG's First Quarter 2005 Online Customer Respect Study, World Savings Bank scored highest among savings institutions, while Washington Mutual scored lowest, and A.G. Edwards topped the securities companies list, while Morgan Stanley scored lowest. Among companies operating almost exclusively through the Internet and telephone, E-Loan did best among Internet financial firms, and best overall. The study also indicated that 43% of surveyed firms share personal data with business partners or third parties, one of the highest industry percentages measured. That percentage fell from 59% in the second-quarter 2004 report, but is still much higher than the 24% all-industry 2004 average. CRG said the results are based on interviews of a representative sample of the adult Internet population, and analysis of more than 2,000 corporate websites. The company is an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their customers online.

Clayton, a provider of loan-level compliance data based in Shelton, Conn., and AllRegs, a publisher of searchable guidelines for residential mortgage lenders based in Eagan, Minn., have announced a full integration of Clayton's High-Cost Analyzer with AllRegs' online legislative database.After running a fully automated regulatory compliance test, users of High-Cost Analyzer can now directly access the complete text of high-cost and anti-predatory-lending legislation without leaving the summary screen of the application, the companies said. Clients can access the text of legislation when engaging in compliance discussions with brokers or secondary-marketing personnel. "This creates the right combination of automated analytic results and detailed drill-down capability for compliance personnel as they cope with the critical and complex task of assuring regulatory compliance," said Glenn Ford, chairman and chief executive officer of AllRegs. The companies can be found online at http://www.clayton.com and http://www.allregs.com.

Patrick Hartford, senior business analyst for VMP Mortgage Solutions Inc., St. Cloud, Minn., has been named vice chairperson of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization's eMortgage Workgroup.Mr. Hartford was elected to the one-year post by the work group, which consists of more than 60 individuals from key industry organizations. The company said Mr. Hartford has become an "influential voice" on matters related to electronic mortgages. He has led classes on e-mortgage technology for the Mortgage Bankers Association's CampusMBA, and has been a contributor to the eMortgage Workgroup since joining soon after it was established in 2001. The work group was created by MISMO to develop a fully electronic mortgage.

Employment in the overall mortgage industry hit a record 489,400 full-time positions in January, but broker jobs appear to be slipping.According to figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of "real estate credit" employees reached a record 366,300, but "mortgage and non-mortgage broker" jobs came in at 123,100 positions, the lowest reading since September of last year. (Added together, real estate credit employees and mortgage and non-mortgage brokers account for total industry employment.) In 2004 mortgage lenders funded $2.7 trillion in loans, according to National Mortgage News, the industry's second-best year ever. Employment in the industry is expected to remain strong as long as mortgage rates do not rise significantly. However, in the refinancing market -- where loan brokers play a more prominent role -- applications are continuing to decline. Two years ago the mortgage industry employed 421,000 full-timers.

ValuAmerica, a Pittsburgh-based developer of settlement services technology and a builder of large-scale vendor management captives, has introduced a Web version of its ValuNet platform.The new software, called ValuNet xsp, enables lenders, title companies, and other settlement services providers of all sizes to access technology and products previously available only to large vendor management captives, the company said. Specifically, it gives them access to embedded settlement services providers such as appraisers, abstractors, title underwriters, credit, flood, and tax services. In addition, the product features a 50-state, ZIP-code-specific bundled pricing calculator that allows lenders to offer customized settlement service packages. The company can be found online at http://www.valuamerica.com.

While Dublin, Calif.-based Ellie Mae has entered into a strategic and exclusive partnership with appraisal technology vendor a la mode, it will continue its existing ties with Appraisal.com.

Meanwhile, a la mode has announced several product updates that will tie its products together in a more collaborative fashion.For example, the company offers three website products -- AppraiserXSites for appraisers, MortgageXSites for mortgage brokers, and Agent XSites for real estate agents -- that will now be able to talk to each other more effectively and to push relevant data to mobile products that appraisers use in the field and to aurora, the a la mode appraiser desktop system. This integration will enable real estate agents to share listings and communicate more directly with brokers during the mortgage process, the company said at its first annual Appraiser Convention in Las Vegas. Brokers will also be able to market themselves to both real estate agents and appraisers to get more business. In addition, new listing styles have been added to make the websites easier to read and more user friendly, the company said.

Dublin, Calif.-based Ellie Mae has announced that it will integrate its three loan origination tools (Encompass, Genesis, and Contour) as well as its ePASS portal exclusively to a la mode's appraisal products.Through the partnership, Ellie Mae said its users will be able to order appraisers directly via an integration with a la mode's AppraiserXSite network of appraiser websites. The appraiser will then be able to push back the completed report through its individual XSite website (provided by a la mode) to its Ellie Mae clients, resulting in the automatic population of the data into the loan origination system without any rekeying. The announcement was made at the first annual a la mode Appraiser Convention in Las Vegas. Ellie Mae can be found online at http://www.elliemae.com.

The chief executive officer of Oklahoma City-based a la mode inc. has told appraisers that his company would "never partner with an automated valuation model provider" and declared himself to be "the appraiser's advocate."Speaking at the first annual a la mode Appraiser Convention in Las Vegas, David Biggers emphasized that he is not after a piece of the appraiser's fee because he wants appraisers to prosper so they can continue to invest in his company's offerings. Mr. Biggers suggested that one way for appraisers to halt the increasing acceptance of AVMs is to copyright their reports to make it impossible for their data to be stolen and used to create a competing product, such as an AVM. With the release of a la mode's aurora product, the appraiser will be able to apply for a copyright from within the system. (For more details, see the Feb. 28 issue of National Mortgage News.) The company can be found on the Web at http://www.alamode.com.

Commercial Defeasance LLC, Charlotte, N.C., recently added two new calculators to its website.The Return on Equity and Sensitivity calculators complement the Quick Quote defeasance cost calculator, providing borrowers with analytical tools to help them decide whether to defease their securitized commercial mortgages. (Defeasance is a substitution of collateral in which a portfolio of government securities replaces the property as the collateral.) The Return on Equity calculator enables borrowers to compare the cost of defeasing and obtaining a new loan at current interest rates, obtaining mezzanine financing and refinancing at maturity at prevailing rates, and doing nothing and refinancing at maturity at prevailing rates, the company said. The Sensitivity calculator allows borrowers who are not ready for defeasance to anticipate future shifts in the yield curve and simulate the effects of higher or lower yields on government Treasuries. The company can be found online at http://www.defeasewithease.com.

LoanPerformance, a San Francisco-based provider of residential mortgage data and analytics, has announced the release of version 3.1 of its RiskModel forecasting tool for mortgage defaults, losses, prepayments, and delinquencies.RiskModel 3.1 features new statistical models for alternative-A and prime loans and delivers "dramatic improvement" in performance based on back-tests of over 4 million loans and over 1,700 securities, the company declared. Among the enhancements to the tool are: the addition of 12-month loan payment history as an optional input; the addition of a new payment shock variable for adjustable-rate mortgages; and explicit modeling of teaser rates and of the impact of housing price appreciation on prepayments. "Our goal is to predict the future rather than match or 'over-fit' the past," said Ralph DeFranco, the product manager of RiskModel. The company can be found online at http://www.loanperformance.com.

LSI Credit Services, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has released a new point-of-sale website designed to provide originators with increased efficiency and effectiveness in credit services ordering and management processes.The new site provides originators with easy access to LSI Credit Services' products and credit reports and improved ordering functionality for its supplemental credit service offerings, LSI said. An online chat feature has been added to enable customers to discuss questions on products or services with a member of the customer service team in real time. In addition, originators will be able to access LSI Credit Services' accounting department through the chat feature to address online billing questions. Several administrative features have also been incorporated, such as a management reporting feature to provide clients with information, including the number of credit reports ordered, report turn-around times, and management summaries, LSI said. The site also includes a tracking feature that organizes product and service fees by borrower and a component that enables administrative users to add and delete users as needed. The new website can be found online at http://www.lsicredit.com.

Freddie Mac has announced that it will change Loan Prospector to give lenders greater certainty on pricing for A-minus and Caution loans.The changes will enable lenders to use the Loan Prospector Level returned on the Loan Prospector Feedback Certificate to determine their A-minus fees, since the Loan Prospector Level is identical to the fee rate used to calculate the A-minus post-settlement delivery fee that will appear on the monthly invoice, according to Freddie. In addition, the new post-delivery A-minus fee assessment process will cut the time lenders spend reconciling fees for loans sold to Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprise said. The changes are scheduled to take effect May 1.

Freddie Mac and VMP Mortgage Solutions Inc., a Bankers Systems Inc. company, have formed a joint initiative designed to provide mortgage lenders with tools that develop bilingual, state-specific security instruments, notes, and other mortgage documents in English and Spanish.The initiative will also provide bilingual consumer education brochures that address the mortgage process. The companies said the documents will include a primer on the importance of credit and flow into a series of bilingual brochures that explain the lending process. The educational materials will be based on content from Freddie Mac's CreditSmart Español consumer financial literacy curriculum. The materials will be provided by VMP to lenders and by Freddie Mac to community organizations. The materials will also address common misconceptions about banking and homeownership, as well as help consumers better understand their rights and responsibilities, the companies said. The forms will be available in both printed and electronic formats. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.freddiemac.com and http://www.vmpmtg.com.

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization has announced plans to develop a multiservice response that would make it easier to bundle existing standards in one transaction and separate plans to release a way to test e-mortgage standards.Both initiatives are expected to be delivered to market by MISMO by the end of the year, according to Gabe Minton, vice president of industry technology at the Mortgage Bankers Association, MISMO's parent organization. Under the MultiService Request/Response delivery, the user would be able to seamlessly integrate the MISMO standards without having to cross-check for every sector of the process. A more basic compliance tool to test the actual datasets is expected at the MBA Tech Show this March, with the more complicated e-mortgage compliance tool to come by the end of the year, Mr. Minton told the Fourth Annual NHEMA E-Commerce Roundtable in Costa Mesa, Calif. NHEMA -- the National Home Equity Mortgage Association -- can be found online at http://www.nhema.org.

ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Ann Arbor, Mich., has announced that Ford Motor Co. now offers a private-label version of AAMG's Mortgage.com to its employees.Under the arrangement with AAMG's National Lending Center Affinity and Relocation Lending division, Ford employees can access various mortgage lending products and services at a discount through Ford's Intranet, including AAMG's guaranteed OneFeemortgage. OneFee guarantees, at the time the loan's interest rate is locked, all the typical lender-related fees associated with obtaining a mortgage loan, AAMG said.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the addition of new reporting capabilities and a search feature to its BuyBankHomes.com Web portal on foreclosed properties.The new reporting capabilities enable financial institutions to obtain information on their listed properties, including the number of times a property has been displayed or e-mailed to an interested party. The search feature allows brokers to locate properties that have not been distributed to other brokers or agents, FNF said. The portal can be found at http://www.buybankhomes.com.

CreditXpert Inc., a credit analysis and management provider based in Towson, Md., launched a tool for finding inaccuracies in credit files and giving the user the ability to act on them.Specifically, CreditXpert Detective scans an individual's credit data to reveal potential inaccuracies and recommends specific updates that will most significantly improve the person's credit score. It also automatically generates customized instructions and dispute letters. Using the tool's recommendations and guidance, users can uncover their credit scores. CreditXpert Inc. can be found on the Web at http://www.creditxpert.com.

Bank of America is closing its private-label residential outsourcing unit, Financial Services Solutions, a joint venture operation that is partly owned by title insurance giant Fidelity National Financial.FSS president Greg Sullins told MortgageWire that, "our first task will be to shut down and take care of our one client." FSS employs about 400 and has offices in California, Kentucky, New York and North Carolina. Mr. Sullins said Bank of America has made a decision "to focus on its core business," noting that the decline in conventional residential production was a key factor in the move. (Loan volumes continue to be healthy in the non-conforming market but BoA exited that business several years ago.) FSS was launched in April 2003 during the height of the production boom. The biggest players in private-label outsourcing niche include PHH Mortgage, Countrywide and Nexstar Financial.

The Mortgage Bankers Association plans to release a commercial version of the data set standards used in the residential market to facilitate the transfer of information between the various players in the lending transaction.Speaking at the group's Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multifamily Housing Conference in San Diego, Chairman Michael Petrie said the MISMO-like platform would allow commercial lenders and their trading partners to swap information using consistent definitions. It will save money by reducing the need for repeated manual input, increasing reporting accuracy and bolstering investor conference, Mr. Petrie told the conference's opening session. He also told the meeting that the commercial sector must be more vigilant than ever. "We've never before been subject to so much regulation," he said. To make sure the industry's voice is heard, the MBA intends to boost its grassroots, Web-based Capital Assets program to 10,000 members and fatten its political action committee to the tune of $1.3 million. About 4,500 people are registered for the meeting, "the largest number (of commercial real estate executives) assembled in one place at one time," according to MBA President Jonathan Kempner.