Mortgage technology

Jackson & Associates Inc., an Orange County, Calif.-based law firm, has announced that it will replace its OnDemand case management platform with Symphony, which it calls "the first comprehensive solution" for real-estate-owned legal process management.Now in the final phase of beta-testing, Symphony provides full management capabilities for evictions, post-foreclosure bankruptcy matters, and litigation, as well as enterprise-level resources for broker management, cash-for-keys/cash-for-trash offer management, and attorney/broker grading, the law firm said. "The legal matters that arise in the REO industry are complex, and there has been a need for a more cohesive and comprehensive approach to managing the entire process," said Robert Jackson, president and senior managing attorney of the law firm, which provides legal services and legal process management to the REO industry. " .... As much as 40% of an REO asset portfolio can be tied up in possession-related matters, and simple workflow and tracking systems don't go far enough in delivering the complete solution that's needed."

Mortgage Benefits Corp., Redwood City, Calif., has announced an agreement with eAppraiseIT LLC to offer discounted fees on property appraisal services to members of MBC's MortgageChoice Plan group mortgage benefit.MBC said benefits will include discounted fees, guaranteed cash credits toward nonrecurring closing costs, a choice of loan products from over 100 wholesale lenders, a self-service Web portal, a searchable agent database, a help center, and consumer protection. "Plan members will receive substantial savings, and The Mortgage PPO providers will benefit from unique products and standardization throughout the network to achieve better service levels," said Marsha Tiller, MBC's founder and president. The companies can be found online at http://www.mortgageplans.com and http://www.eappraiseit.com.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced a partnership between its LSI Credit Services division and Impac Lending Group to allow LSI's mortgage credit reports to be seamlessly ordered or re-issued through ILG's automated lending system.The Impac Direct Access System for Lending enables brokers to import applicant information directly from various loan origination systems or to enter the information manually into an electronic 1003 form, Fidelity said. Users can select LSI as the credit vendor and order credit reports that will download directly to the system. LSI will provide users of the Impac system with a Three-in-One Credit Report that incorporates data from the nation's three credit bureaus, Fidelity said.

Washington, D.C.-based iComply Inc. has announced the introduction of version 2.0 of iComply, which it terms a next-generation online mortgage compliance subscription service.Version 2.0 adds new navigation, more convenient tools, and a 10,000-document library, according to iComply, an affiliate of Lotstein Buckman LLP, a Washington-based law firm that serves the mortgage industry. Users of the system log in to a "dashboard" that contains the latest news, a continually updated log of the latest changes to iComply, and notes that can be shared among team members, the company said. It also facilitates direct contact with the iComply support team. The new 10,000-document library provides integrated, direct access to laws and regulations from every state, iComply said. Lotstein Buckman can be found online at http://www.lotsteinbuckman.com.

LendingTree Inc., Charlotte, N.C., has announced the acquisition of iNest, a referral network based in Bloomingdale, Ill., that specializes in serving builders and buyers of newly constructed homes.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. LendingTree said iNest will remain an independent brand, but that its services will be integrated over time into RealEstate.com, an operating business of the online lending and real estate exchange. Through its patented Featured Builder program, iNest provides a directory of more than 500 builders and over 8,000 new-home communities in 20 states, LendingTree said. "Consumers who purchase a home from one of the company's featured builders are able to use iNest's cash-back coupon to receive a 1% rebate on the base price of the home," LendingTree said. The companies can be found online at http://www.lendingtree.com and http://www.internest.com.

Dexma and Prime Alliance Solutions have announced the creation of Prime Alliance Services Co., citing an effort to deliver loan fulfillment coordinated with other mortgage services.Prime Alliance is a partnership between Boeing Employees' Credit Union and Dexma that originates roughly $2 billion in loan volume a month -- about the same volume as a top-15 retail lender -- for affiliated credit unions. By guaranteeing volume for a preferred network of service providers such as credit, appraisal, flood, and title companies, Prime Alliance Services offers to negotiate favorable rates and bundle services on behalf of affiliated credit unions, creating savings the CUs can pass along to their members. The companies said the new entity has already negotiated contracts with several providers, including First Lenders Data and Automated Collateral Solutions. Minneapolis-based Dexma can be found on the Web at http://www.dexma.com.

Fair Isaac Corp., Minneapolis, has announced that its Enterprise Decision Manager system is available for use as a foundation for developing a customizable automated underwriting solution for mortgage bankers of all sizes.The system enables mortgage lenders to standardize lending decision management and strategy refinement across originations and secondary-marketing initiatives, including point-of-sale marketing decisions, cross-sell and up-sell offers, score-based processing, best-fit product selection, risk-based pricing, and best execution. Fair Isaac said the system features a decision engine that can incorporate credit, collateral, and fraud decisions to properly underwrite against multiple investor guidelines while accelerating lending processing cycles. The decision engine's open platform generates decisions based on a multitude of available internal and external data sources, including seamless interaction with e-commerce credit and mortgage banking exchange networks. Fair Isaac can be found on the Web at http://www.fairisaac.com/mba.

Fiserv Integrated Loan Services, Rocky Hill, Conn., has announced the formation of a valuation services division through the merger of its own valuation services with those of two other Fiserv companies: Case Shiller Weiss and Lenders Financial Services.The division, ILS Valuation Services, will be managed by Walter Morgan, who will be the organization's executive vice president. CSW, based in Cambridge, Mass., is a developer of home price indices and of CASA, an automated valuation model and collateral scoring system. LFS, based in Agoura Hills, Calif., is a provider of broker price opinions, fee appraisals, title services, property inspections, and related services. Fiserv Integrated Loan Services is a unit of Fiserv Lending Solutions. Fiserv can be found on the Web at http://www.fiserv.com.

Framework, a Tarrytown, N.Y.-based technology company, was acquired last year by Bank of America, but now BoA has decided to cut its losses and shut the company down by the end of this year.A spokeswoman for BoA confirmed in an interview with Mortgage Wire that the lending institution has decided to close down the technology company. Framework provided an e-business platform in the form of its configurable enterprise software, called LendWare. With LendWare Workflow 3.0, Framework upgraded its Web-based software service component to enable the sharing of configuration and run-time information between different workflow engines. Earlier in the year the company announced plans to release an out-of-the-box version for smaller lenders because larger lenders were reluctant to buy bank-owned technology. (For more details, see the Nov. 8 issue of National Mortgage News.)

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Pasadena, Calif., the holding company for IndyMac Bank, has reported pro forma net earnings of $56.4 million ($0.88 per share) for the third quarter, compared with net earnings of $49.7 million ($0.87 per share) a year earlier.The company said earnings were reported on a pro forma basis rather than under generally accepted accounting principles in order to provide comparability with its earnings reports in previous quarters. (The difference between GAAP and pro forma earnings in the third quarter stems from the implementation of SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 105 and purchase accounting adjustments related to IndyMac's acquisition of Financial Freedom Holdings Inc., the company said.) IndyMac produced a record $10.3 billion of mortgage loans in the third quarter, up 21% from the level of a year earlier, the company said. "The results this quarter were very strong due to solid execution on our two key strategies: to use our thrift portfolio capabilities to generate increased earnings and to increase market share as the mortgage industry transitions to a more normal post-refinance boom level," said Michael W. Perry. IndyMac's chairman and chief executive officer. IndyMac can be found online at http://www.indymacbank.com.

Fitch Risk, an affiliate of Fitch Ratings that provides risk technologies and services, has announced an agreement under which Freddie Mac will license Fitch Risk's OpVar software.The company said Freddie Mac will use the software's operational risk data collection, analysis, and reporting to improve Freddie's risk management capabilities. Fitch Risk said OpVantage, its operational risk division, is the first company to market operational risk software. The company can be found online at http://www.fitchrisk.com.

Fidelity Information Systems, Jacksonville, Fla., is investing millions of dollars to enhance its home equity line of credit servicing functionality.Fidelity said about half of its Mortgage Servicing Package customers currently have the HELOC functionality installed in their organizations. MSP is used to service some 30 million mortgage loans. As part of the enhancements, Fidelity said it intends to provide MSP users with credit card interfacing for HELOC loans. Fidelity said Dovenmuehle Mortgage, EMC Mortgage, Navy Federal Credit Union, and Aurora Loan Services are among the firms capitalizing on the HELOC benefits.

GatorSystems, a Pittsburgh-based unit of Fiserv Lending Solutions, has announced the introduction of GatorSearch, a Web-based abstracting platform designed to streamline the title examination process.The company said the system, developed in collaboration with New York-based Realty Data Corp., enables users to execute self-service title searches, thereby reducing the turnaround time associated with traditional abstracting. Those who don't choose to run reports from their own computers can use the system's Examination Network, a team of professional abstractors able to return a comprehensive report within eight hours of receiving the order, according to GatorSystems. "GatorSearch fundamentally changes the way title companies and vendor management companies can do business," said Christopher Behning, senior vice president and chief technology officer at General American Corp., of which GatorSystems is a division. Fiserv and GAC can be found online at http://www.fiserv.com and http://www.gac.com.

PaperClip, Hackensack, N.J., has launched an integrated document management and loan processing system called VirtualLoanFolder.com, the company announced at the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Convention in San Francisco.The product offers borrowers, originators, service providers and lenders a paperless processing solution that has conditions clearing, document management, workflow and secure document delivery functionality. In addition, the application is Web-based and linked directly to a user's loan origination software. PaperClip can be found on the Web at http://www.paperclip.com.

Oklahoma City-based a la mode has announced that it will offer electronic signature capability to all its real estate agent, broker, inspector, loan officer, and appraiser customers through the company's XSites Network.Specifically, a la mode signed an agreement to use Wave's eSign Transaction Management Suite, which allows users of XSites (formerly called the Mercury Network) to manage business processes and transactions online and create, sign, store, access, and manage the lifecycle of electronic records within a loan folder. The announcement was made at the Mortgage Bankers Association's Annual Convention in San Francisco. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.alamode.com.

Costs can be lowered as much as $249 per loan by adopting standards developed by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, according to a study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association at its annual convention in San Francisco.The study, the first-ever MISMO time-and-motion study to quantify the return on investment of adopting MISMO standards, found that 75% of the lowered costs directly benefit the lender, the MBA reported. Execution costs can be improved by 15.38 basis points, a 25% to 50% pickup in lending margins, or $450 for the average loan. As for time savings, lender respondents reported that it was possible to process a loan 16% faster when using MISMO standards. Only 40% of lenders say they are using MISMO, but 40% to 50% say they plan to use the standards in the near future. The survey was sent to all MISMO participants and Campus MBA and MBA NewsLink recipients. It was also posted on the MBA and MISMO websites. In total, 45 lenders/servicers and 80 vendors/suppliers responded. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Tom Litke, executive vice president of marketing and product management of Woodstock, Ga.-based WellFound Decade, has told Mortgage Wire that the membership of the eMortgage Alliance is expected to hit 30 by the spring of 2005.The prediction was spurred by the announcement at the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in San Francisco that Bankers Systems Inc. and U.S. Recordings had joined the organization. Initially the eMortgage Alliance was designed to be an assemblage of technology companies that could combine their solutions to form a complete electronic mortgage. Now, the organization has changed its focus to support all companies that are compliant with standards developed by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization in the hope that the adoption of MISMO standards will spur more interest in attaining an e-mortgage. The Alliance can be found online at its new website at http://www.emortgagealliance.us.

Fair Isaac and Fidelity picked the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in San Francisco to announce an enterprise-wide licensing agreement to deploy Fair Isaac's Blaze Advisor as the core of Fidelity's rules-layered architecture, spanning Fidelity's entire suite of product offerings.The result is expected to be that Fidelity will enjoy reduced costs in managing all its systems and will increase its speed to market with new products. The Fidelity announcement noted that business rules are playing an increasing role in streamlining complex enterprise systems. Fidelity said it chose Blaze Advisor because it offered comprehensive implementation support.

Fidelity National Default Solutions, Jacksonville, Fla., has announced a strategic partnership between its NewInvoice division and Santa Ana, Calif.-based RealEC Technologies, an e-commerce exchange for real estate transactions that is majority-owned by Fidelity's parent company.The partnership will provide a single point of access for automated ordering, tracking, reconciliation, electronic invoicing, and payment of products and services for the origination and default markets, Fidelity said. The company said mortgage originators will now have access to electronic invoice management, and mortgage servicers will have access to the RealEC-connected service providers. Fidelity's parent company, Fidelity National Financial Inc., can be found online at http://www.fnf.com, and RealEC can be found at http://www.realec.com.

ComplianceEase, San Francisco, is touting product enhancements that it says will provide the industry's most comprehensive regulatory compliance system.The company says ComplianceAnalyzer will bring together automated loan-level anti-predatory-lending audits, secondary-market investor criteria, and consumer credit compliance in one convenient service. An additional product, ComplianceAnalyzer Plus, offers financial institutions loan-level insurance coverage up to the conforming loan limit, ComplianceEase announced at the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in San Francisco. ComplianceAnalyzer replaces the company's current anti-predatory-lending compliance system, PredatorAnalyzer. The company can be found online at http://www.complianceease.com.