Mortgage technology

Danvers Savings Bank, Danvers, Mass., has signed up to employ Lake Mary, Fla.-based Fiserv Lending Solutions' easyLender LOS product.Danvers Savings is an $875 million mutual savings bank that serves the northeastern metropolitan Boston area via its 12 locations in three counties. Danvers Savings says it plans to use the easyLender Mortgage and easyLender Consumer/Commercial software products to automate all aspects of its mortgage, home equity, consumer, and commercial lending operations. Fiserv Lending Solutions, a unit of financial software provider Fiserv Inc., can be found on the Web at http://www.fiservlendingsolutions.com.

Credit Plus Inc., a credit information services company based in Salisbury, Md., has partnered with Document Systems Inc., Carson, Calif., in what amounts to a cross-marketing arrangement.Under the agreement, DSI -- a developer of software, tools, and Web-based systems for the production of compliant loan document packages -- will list Credit Plus as its preferred provider of credit information for its LoanMagic software. On the other side of the coin, Credit Plus has agreed to help market and distribute DSI's loan presentation system. Credit Plus can be found on the Web at http://www.creditplus.com, and DSI can be found at http://www.docmagic.com.

Just Valuation Inc., Altamonte Springs, Fla., and FNC Inc., Oxford, Miss., have announced a strategic alliance that will make JVI's residential appraisal and inspection services available through FNC's CMS collateral information management system.FNC's CMS is an origination decisioning system. JVI itself uses the CMS to manage appraisal and inspection orders, tracking, and delivery among its network of vendors. Through the alliance, other FNC CMS clients will be able to use their systems to order services from JVI. JVI (the majority partner of Southeast Alliance) has more than five years' experience as a management and marketing contractor for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's real-estate-owned inventory for Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as HUD REO appraisal oversight for 24 additional states. FNC is a collateral information management company that speeds loan decisions by converting paper to data. It can be found on the Web at http://www.fncinc.com.

BCE Emergis plans to downsize its Greensboro, N.C., office by this October, but denies reports it will exit the U.S. by the end of the year, MortgageWire has learned."We've announced to our employees in the Greensboro office that we are in the process of evaluating our invoicing product to leverage it as part of a broader payment solution," said Mark Boutet, vice president of communications at BCE. "As such, we're in the process of centralizing some development functions out of Montreal [BCE's corporate headquarters], where we have a core team of developers. We expect to accomplish this goal over a transition period bringing us up to October of '04." The number of people to be laid off was not disclosed as of MW's deadline. BCE said it plans to retain a Greensboro presence beyond October, but on a smaller scale. However, a credible industry source said BCE is expected to exit the U.S. market, perhaps as early as the close of this year. Nonetheless, BCE operates two other offices in the U.S., a sales office in Denver and an office in McLean, Va., where the company runs its e-lending product, which will both remain at full capacity in preparation for the commercial rollout of the company's e-lending product this May. "We are absolutely committed to the e-lending market in the U.S. and have approximately 70 employees in the McLean office," said Mr. Boutet. BCE's products enable lenders to make electronic transactions involving claims, loans, and payment processing. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.emergis.com.

BridgeSpan Inc., Frisco, Texas, has announced that the San Jose Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California has approved bidding procedures for the company's sale of assets.In an Order Establishing Bidding Procedures, Authorizing Termination Fee and Setting Dates, Deadlines for Hearing on Chapter 11 Plan Disclosure Statement, the court set April 14 as the deadline for submitting alternative proposals for the stock of BridgeSpan or its assets. Prospective bidders may receive a copy of the order and additional information by contacting Penn Ayers Butler of Brooks & Raub, the company's reorganization counsel, at PButler@reorglaw.com. BridgeSpan and BridgeSpan Title filed Chapter 11 petitions in January.

Ellie Mae Inc., Dublin, Calif., has appointed Gunnar Bergstrom, former president of Electronic Mortgage Services at BCE Emergis Inc., as vice president of business development for Lender Services.In his new role at Ellie Mae, Mr. Bergstrom will manage strategic lender relationships. "Bringing Gunnar onto our management team will help us expand our reach and serve the technology needs of the … wholesale and correspondent lenders," said Sig Anderman, chief executive officer of Ellie Mae. Ellie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.elliemae.com.

Technology Investment Capital Corp., Greenwich, Conn., has announced the completion of a $15 million senior secured loan to MortgageIT Inc.MortgageIT is a full-service residential mortgage bank that originates mortgage loans via retail and wholesale offices and the Internet. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.ticc.com and http://www.mortgageit.com.

RealEC Technologies, Santa Ana, Calif., has announced a strategic alliance with appraisal-technology provider ACI to improve appraisal delivery on behalf of lenders, appraisers, and appraisal management companies.The companies said the collaboration includes the use of RealEC's seamless connections and ACI's universal appraisal delivery system that incorporates automated rules, custom forms support, secure digital signatures, and an Extensible Markup Language exchange toolkit to bridge any loan origination or automated underwriting system. The standard ACI appraisal file includes the report, addendum, sketch, limiting conditions, photos, maps, and electronic signature, which gives the appraiser the opportunity to proof the report and attach an electronic signature before transmitting the completed report to RealEC. RealEC Technologies is a majority-owned subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial with significant equity ownership by Stewart Title Co. and LandAmerica Financial Group. RealEC and ACI can be found online at http://www.realec.com and http://www.aciweb.com.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the acquisition of the 45% of Hansen Quality Loan Services Inc. -- a provider of collateral score products and automated valuation models to the mortgage and investment banking industries -- that it did not already own.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. FNF said Hansen's collateral score products include quality control of closed-loan appraisals, loan portfolio assessment for securitization or sale, collateral evaluation at the outset of the underwriting process, and risk analysis in the extension of credit. "Hansen has been a strong contributor to our real estate information services group since the acquisition of a majority interest by Fidelity National Information Solutions in May 2002," said William P. Foley II, FNF's chairman and chief executive officer. The company can be found online at http://www.fnf.com.

The city of St. Louis has begun recording loan satisfactions via a "level 3" electronic recording initiative using technology from U.S. Recordings, a Saint Paul, Minn.-based company that provides mortgage recording systems.U.S. Recordings' InteleDocPlus was the system used to submit documentation electronically, and Fidlar Software's iDocument XF was used as the receiving system. U.S. Recordings can be found online at http://www.usrecordings.com.

Image Recognition Integrated Systems Group, a technology provider based in Brussels, Belgium, has released three new products designed to move paper documents and forms into a digital format.The products, though not geared only to the mortgage industry, are being used heavily by mortgage companies, according to IRIS. The first product, Readiris Pro 9 Corporate Edition, is a tool that converts documents, files in Portable Document Format, and business cards into electronic documents. IRISPdf 2.5 Server is the new version of I.R.I.S. Production OCR Server. It's a networkable application that can be used to store scanned documents in a specific folder and convert them to .pdf or .rtf format. Finally, Formiris Pro 5.1 is a software suite that captures, sorts, and identifies all types of documents and forms entering a company or organization, irrespective of their size, layout, and contents. IRIS can be found on the Web at http://www.irislink.com.

Del Mar Database, the San Diego-based provider of DataTrac, a mortgage system that connects mortgage applications of the lender's choice through data input and management, has named three new vice presidents.Lisa Oelsner has been appointed vice president of product marketing and will work closely with newly appointed vice presidents and business managers Dan Stern and Rob Pommier. Del Mar said Ms. Oelsner has more than 15 years of management and marketing experience. She spent 10 years at Fannie Mae in various roles, including project manager, senior information technology consultant, and manager of business planning. Mr. Stern and Mr. Pommier have a combined 30 years of experience in operations and management, the company said. Del Mar can be found on the Web at http://www.delmardb.com.

GHR Systems Inc., Wayne, Pa., has appointed former Fiserv executive Ted Morse senior vice president of sales and business development for its Mortgage Automation Solutions division.Mr. Morse joins GHR from Fiserv, where he spent the past five years as senior vice president of sales, marketing and business development. GHR provides browser-based and client server platforms and applications for originating, processing, and closing loans for the residential mortgage, consumer, and small business lending industries. GHR can be found on the Web at http://www.ghrsystems.com.

ILOG, a provider of software components and services based in Mountain View, Calif., has introduced ILOG JRules 4.6, an offering in ILOG's Business Rule Management System product line.The new product includes enhancements that enable policy managers and business analysts to manage complex rule sets and modify them using a spreadsheet-like interface. ILOG can be found on the Web at http://www.ilog.com.

TowerGroup, Needham, Mass., has released a new report designed to track what it expects to be the leading-edge technologies in the mortgage industry throughout this decade.According to the research, TowerGroup believes that the four technology categories that will have the largest impact on the automation of the mortgage lending process in this decade are: enhanced automated underwriting and credit scoring technology; enterprise document management; business process management; and electronic mortgage closings. In new research titled, "Mortgage Technology: The Next Big Thing(s)," Craig Focardi, a senior analyst in the Consumer Lending & Bank Cards practice at TowerGroup, identifies the drivers that will influence mortgage information technology developments and spending for the balance of the decade. TowerGroup can be found on the Web at http://www.towergroup.com.

IntraPrise Solutions Inc., Newton, Pa., has acquired the business of Merit Dynamics Inc., a provider of loan product information to the mortgage industry based in Cape May Court House, N.J.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Merit maintains a searchable database of product specifications from more than 120 investors and over 2,200 separate products turning investor product manuals into a standardized database accessible to any authorized user with a Web browser. In the future as part of the acquisition, ISI's software products will integrate with Merit Matrix. ISI provides software systems and managed services for the financial services industry. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.intraprisesolutions.com and http://www.meritdynamics.com.

FirstPoint Inc. has acquired Prymak Inc., both based in Greensboro, N.C., and announced that it will operate Prymak as a wholly owned subsidiary, keeping all local employees and operations intact.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Prymak is a technology development and consulting company founded in December 2000. It provides the mortgage banking industry with software design, project management, and implementation services. Prymak's software includes a Web-based mortgage and consumer loan origination application, along with a toolkit for custom development by clients. FirstPoint provides credit information, collection, and management services. The companies can be found online at http://www.firstpointresources.com and http://www.prymak.com.

Framework Inc., Tarrytown, N.Y., and Document Systems Inc., Carson, Calif., have announced the integration of Framework's LendWare credit fulfillment platform and DSI's FillMagic document processing engine.The Extensible Markup Language integration of the LendWare Document Manager and FillMagic, an enterprise application for the creation of mortgage forms and document packages, provides lenders with automation, fulfillment, documentation, compliance, and delivery capabilities, the companies said. The interface is in place at two of the top 10 banks. Framework, a provider of enterprise software for financial institutions, can be found on the Web at http://www.lendware.com. DSI, a developer of software, tools and Web-based systems for the production of compliant loan document packages, can be found on the Web at http://www.docmagic.com.

Rob Kessel, Marc Felisky, Lindsay Hill, and Glen Brown have formed a new company called Compass Analytics LLC, San Francisco, that will provide outsourced hedge management services and license its pipeline risk management analytics to customers.Compass also announced the addition of its 12th pipeline risk management client. Compass said its analytics product includes pipeline valuation, sensitivity, and execution of all mortgage products with enhanced capabilities for hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages and jumbo and alternative-A products. Other features of Compass's analytics are flexible coverage and pull-through modeling; profit margin and hedge cost modeling and definition; hedge analytics; flexible reporting; accounting support, including FAS 133; and fallout and profitability analysis. Compass can be found on the Web at http://www.compass-analytics.com.

Wachovia Corp., the fourth largest bank holding company in the U.S., has selected Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based Palisades Technology Partners' Impact Mortgage Services Suite for implementing their new loan origination system. The system, scheduled for implementation across Wachovia's lending network, was selected to shorten loan application processing time, increase capacity and improve efficiency at Wachovia. The system includes components for pricing, fees, compliance and mortgage calculations. Palisades can be found on the Web at http://www.ptpusa.com.