Mortgage technology

RealEC Technologies, Santa Ana, Calif., has released a new product called SolutionSelect, which is designed to advance lender appraisal settlement service and vendor management.SolutionSelect integrates existing and new RealEC functionality such as predefined provider workflows, collaborative file management, electronic fee negotiation, rules-based product data reviews, and customized data warehousing and analysis, the company said. The first available module of SolutionSelect is a rules-based appraisal management system that enables lenders to create an appraisal upgrade designed to cascade automatically through available automated valuation models and appraisal offerings. RealEC is a majority-owned subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial with significant equity ownership by Stewart Title Co. and LandAmerica Financial Group. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.realec.com.

WellFound Technology, a provider of business integration systems with a focus on the financial services industry, and Decade Systems, a provider of integration and business connectivity software to the mortgage industry, have announced a merger.The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The merged company will be known as WellFound Decade Corp. WellFound Decade's flagship product, the Mortgage Integration Foundation, allows customers to integrate systems (including loan origination systems), users, and external partners to produce an end-to-end mortgage lending system, the company said. WellFound Decade's new management team is composed of members from both WellFound Technology and Decade Systems. Gerry C. Nelson, Decade's founder and chairman of the board, and Brian K. Fitzpatrick, Decade's chief executive officer, will serve as chairman and president, respectively. WellFound's founder and president, Roddy Henderson, will serve as vice chairman, and WellFound CEO Paul R. Gain will serve as CEO of the merged company. The new company can be found on the Web at http://www.wellfounddecade.com.

The LSI division of Chicago Title Insurance Co. has launched the home equity component of eLenderSolutions, its Web-based point-of-sale title insurance platform, according to Chicago Title.Chicago Title, a subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial Inc., said the system is designed to expedite home equity closings by leveraging LSI's recently developed Home Equity Loan Policy to provide lenders with loan closing, ancillary product, and insurance offerings needed for same-day home equity closings. The POS tool "instantaneously delivers recordable property vesting information, tax and assessment information, and legal descriptions nationally," Chicago Title said. "Additionally, the system provides point-of-sale quotes on an individual-product or bundled-fee basis for the HELP policy, property reports, credit reports, flood certification, valuation products, mortgage tax, and recording services."

LSI Credit Services, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc. based in Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the launch of Fidelity National Identity Sentinel, identity-theft protection services that lenders can provide directly to consumers.The Web-based tools allow consumers to monitor their credit history in real time and protect themselves from identity theft by notifying two of the three national credit bureaus online of any erroneous credit activity, the company said. Identity Sentinel provides lenders with credit services that can be marketed under their own brand, enabling them to build customer loyalty while creating a new revenue channel. "By offering these services on their website, lenders can help their customers identify unauthorized increases in debt or credit limits, applications for new credit, and other suspicious activity," LSI said. Customers can sign up for a Fraud-Watch Credit Monitoring feature that will alert them via weekly e-mail updates of any credit-related activity. More information on Identity Sentinel can be found online at http://www.myidentitysentinel.com.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Empower, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc. and a provider of mortgage origination software, has released a new module designed to add point-of-sale functionality to the application.Empower Point of Sale Desktop is a front-end module that provides users with "seamless integration into the Empower enterprise suite," the company said. The product has integrations to FNF products and services such as flood determinations, real estate tax service, automated valuation models, credit reports, and the MSP, a loan servicing platform. In addition, the product is approved for use with industry standard services offered by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and others, Empower said. More information about the FNF family of companies can be found at http://www.fnf.com and http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

LION Inc., Seattle, has entered into an agreement to acquire Tuttle Risk Management Services, a provider of mortgage pipeline risk management services based in San Rafael, Calif.Under the terms of the agreement, TRMS shareholders will receive $2.7 million in consideration, made up of 3.1 million restricted shares of LION common stock and promissory notes (due in 2007) in the principal amount of about $1.3 million, LION said. LION paid no cash in the deal. TRMS recorded unaudited revenue of $6.2 million in 2003 and $4.7 million in revenue for the first nine months of this year. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of both companies. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.lioninc.com and http://www.trmshedge.com.

Loveland, Colo.-based Kroll Factual Data Inc. has announced the acquisition of National Flood Research Inc., Boulder, Colo., a national provider of disclosure products to the mortgage, real estate, and insurance industries.The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. NFR has a staff of 47 and has specialized in flood hazard disclosure since the early 1990s. It offers a portfolio of flood hazard services, including basic and life-of-loan flood certification, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act/census information, and portfolio review, KFD said. It also provides information on environmental and other natural hazards, such as earthquake fault zones, wildland fire hazards, dam inundation areas, and Superfund sites. NFR's founder, Lloyd Noel Meador, will continue as divisional vice president of Kroll's Background Screening Group. KFD, a subsidiary of Kroll Inc., can be found on the Web at http://www.krollfactualdata.com.

AppIntell Inc., St. Louis, has changed its name to AppIntelligence Inc.The company is a provider of data integrity, fraud prevention, risk assessment, and compliance tools for the residential lending industry. The renamed company said the AppIntelligence name better reflects the company's leadership role in mortgage fraud and compliance applications intelligence. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.appintelligence.com.

TransUnion Settlement Solutions, Wilmington, Del., has announced the release of StreamLoan Title, an alternative title insurance-backed product designed to streamline closing for home equity lenders.Specifically, the offering enhances TransUnion's end-to-end real estate settlement offering. TransUnion said the application provides lenders with a Master Title Insurance Loan Policy that protects each security interest created through their qualifying residential home equity loan program. StreamLoan Title is underwritten by a title insurance policy and offers collateral protection that is acceptable for the risk involved. An individual loan certificate is issued for each loan that is underwritten to the approved guidelines and procedures, and serves as evidence of the lender's title insurance coverage, the company said. TransUnion can be found on the Web at http://www.transunion.com.

Clayton, a provider of automated compliance software, and AllRegs, a regulatory content provider for residential mortgage lenders, have announced a partnership that will facilitate access to AllRegs' legislative database by users of Clayton's High-Cost Analyzer.The High-Cost Analyzer is a Web-based application that uses standard loan data to calculate whether a loan exceeds thresholds for so-called high-cost or predatory loans under various federal, state, and local laws. During the analysis, the user can "drill down to both the summary and full text of the legislation, greatly reducing the time and effort involved to research legislation," the companies said. Clayton, based in Shelton, Conn., can be found online at http://www.clayton.com, and AllRegs, based in Eagan, Minn., can be found at http://www.allregs.com.

LoanCity, an online wholesale lender based in San Jose, Calif., has announced enhancements to its line of alternative-A mortgage products.The enhancements include an 80/20 purchase option, streamlined documentation requirements, flexible qualifying options, and competitive pricing, the company said. "We're committed to offering the edge that brokers need to be profitable," said Rick Soukoulis, founder and chief executive officer of LoanCity. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.loancity.com.

LendingTree Inc., Charlotte, N.C., has acquired HomeLoanCenter.com, an Internet direct mortgage lender based in Irvine, Calif.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close within 90 to 120 days. "This acquisition will help us increase our profit per customer, have greater input over the consumer experience, more efficiently cross-sell our offering, and gain market share," said LendingTree founder and chief executive officer Doug Lebda. HLC founder and CEO Anthony Hsieh called the deal "a win for consumers" and, along with company president Tomo Yebisu, he will remain with the company. LendingTree can be found on the Web at http://www.lendingtree.com.

In a decision rendered by U.S. District Judge Susan Illstion, Calyx Software, San Jose, Calif., has been given the OK to file a second amended complaint against Dublin, Calif.-based Ellie Mae alleging copyright infringement and unfair competition.According to Calyx, the amended complaint elaborates on its claim that Ellie Mae deliberately copied Calyx's Point product when creating screens for its Encompass program in an attempt to attract Calyx users. The amended complaint also accuses Ellie Mae of unfair advertising in marketing its Encompass offering. The court said that Calyx "had sufficiently pled that the screen displays in its software had acquired distinctiveness and that Calyx had sufficiently met the distinctiveness requirement for a trade dress cause of action." Calyx started the suit back in May when it alleged that Ellie Mae had perpetrated copyright infringement, false designation of origin, and violations of the California Unfair Competition laws. The case was filed in the Northern District of California. Ellie Mae could not be reached for comment by MortgageWire's deadline.

Clear Capital, Truckee, Calif., has released a new valuation tool that combines a property inspection with an automated valuation model score.The product allows for supportable human adjustments to an AVM value conclusion for a more refined and confident value outcome, the company said. The property inspection component is designed to answer six questions about a property in comparison with others in the neighborhood, including: the condition of the roof; the condition of the paint/siding; the condition of the landscaping; the quality of the view; the functional utility of the lot; and the lot location. The report also includes verification if the subject resides in a ZIP code that falls within an area declared a disaster area by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, additional narrative information on the subject property, and two photos of the subject. Clear Capital can be found on the Web at http://www.clearcapital.com.

First Franklin Financial Corp., San Jose, Calif., has built and implemented the first major operating components of its integrated origination network, named ION.Designed to offer a scalable solution for growing technology needs, ION will allow First Franklin to centralize all mortgage data and standardize the way that its systems retrieve, manage, filter, and secure data across the company's integrated applications, the company said. ION is designed to give the user access to First Franklin's primary applications: the automated underwriting, loan origination, and customer relationship management systems. First Franklin can be found on the Web at http://www.ff.com.

MRG Document Technologies, Scottsdale, Ariz., has formed a strategic partnership with Imagine Solutions, Dallas, designed to further automate the post-closing process.The new partnership will allow intelligent bar coding and enhanced data sets provided by Imagine technology to be incorporated into MRG's loan documents. In the end, the goal is to use this functionality to automate the post-closing process for users, who also have the ability to customize the product for their own purposes. MRG can be found on the Web at http://www.mrgdocs.com.

Cenlar FSB, the nation's third-largest subservicer of mortgage loans, will use Fiserv's technology to support home equity lines of credit.Cenlar, of Ewing, N.J., has selected the MortgageServ loan servicing platform to manage HELOCs, Fiserv said. Last month, Cenlar said the addition of line-of-credit subservicing to its service offering was driven by increased demand for open-end products and growth opportunities for HELOC lending in a rising rate environment. Cenlar senior vice president George Schwartz said MortgageServ supports "the ability to preserve multiple brand identities." Fiserv, headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., can be found on the Web at http://www.fiserv.com.

Wilmington, Del.-based TransUnion Settlement Solutions, a subsidiary of global information solutions company TransUnion, has acquired AccuPost Corp., a Denver-based technology and outsource services provider of post-closing solutions.The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition allows TransUnion to expand its post-closing services by leveraging AccuPost's platform to deliver mortgage assignment and release processing, document retrieval, portfolio due diligence, document imaging, and government insuring services, according to TransUnion. The acquisition is also said to address the current post-closing needs of subprime, direct, and wholesale lenders whose large broker networks create challenges for lenders and trustees trying to maintain a chain of title by combining the product offerings of both companies. TransUnion can be found on the Web at http://www.transunion.com.

Document Processing Systems Inc., Novi, Mich., is touting the implementation of what it terms the first fully paperless, electronic mortgage closing, using the patent-pending DPS eMortgage Studio system.The DPS eMortgage Studio was used by all parties -- the lender, the document the provider, the title company, the settlement agent, the notary, and the borrower -- to electronically create, execute, register, and store all documents for the settlement. "This process represents a giant leap forward in the way mortgage loans are settled," said DPS president Paul Rakowicz. The loan was originated by a DPS partner, 1st Advantage Mortgage LLC of Chicago. Immediately after the borrower, the notary, and the settlement agent electronically signed the documents, 1st Advantage registered the loan on the MERS eRegistry, making it immediately available on the secondary market. Because of the registration, the loan is the first truly uniform electronic note that can be bought and sold on the secondary mortgage market, DPS said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.directdocs.com.

PCi Corp., Boston, has released what it is calling the HMDA Wiz, an enterprise system for lenders who need to achieve compliance with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.Recent amendments to HMDA's Regulation C require lenders to report significantly more client information than ever before. To simplify this process, HMDA Wiz automates the compliance process from beginning to end. Among other things, PCi said, the product identifies and collects accurate HMDA data from disparate loan origination systems; automates the distribution of editing and clean-up responsibilities; pinpoints the most precise geocodes available; analyzes business and market trends; accesses in-depth analysis on data; and determines the origin of inaccurate data to develop future procedural improvements. PCi can be found on the Web at http://www.pciwiz.com.