Mortgage technology

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.

According to the first Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) technology study previewed at this year's MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo, Phoenix, lenders are going to invest heavily in technology throughout 2004. Overall IT spending averaged $140 million, according to the study. This spending represented a significant increase over expenditures made in 2002. Between 2002 and 2003 there was a 24% increase in operating expenditures and a 153% increase in capital expenditures. Looking forward into 2004, the amount of investment in technology is nothing short of phenomenal. On average a 12% increase in the operating budget of last year is expected this year and a 47% increase in capital expenditures.

London Bridge Group has acquired the rights to market MortgageHub's lending wholesale/correspondent Web service platform as a component of BridgeLink network.The agreement allows London Bridge to offer connectivity to a network of lenders and third party vendors. London Bridge is a provider of business software and e-commerce technology solutions. MortgageHub is a provider of mortgage frontline systems and has clients like GMAC Mortgage Corp., Wachovia Bank, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and others.

As part of a panel discussion held at this year's MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo, Phoenix, the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Org. (MISMO) announced that the next step to promote industry adoption of the standards will include the development of MX Compliance Service.This product will act as an independent certification process to ensure that those companies claiming to be MISMO compliant are what they say they are. The first phase of the product is expected this summer. The next step is to test SMARTDoc eMortgage files. The second phase is expected to roll out later this year.

The Tampa, Fla.-based Liberty Home Loans plans to use GHR Systems, Inc. loan origination system to process and close its residential mortgages, GHR reported at the Mortgage Bankers Association's national technology conference in Phoenix.GHR will provide Liberty with its interactive, secure wholesale origination website, which automates the mortgage origination process and enables a broker to manage all aspects of a lead from prospecting through submission, GHR said. Liberty also will utilize GHR's call center, a Web-based mortgage origination system for retail lenders that delivers sales and loan functionality to loan officers and origination support personnel.

DataQuick, San Diego, has acted as a reseller of automated valuation models (AVMs), and has now stepped up to produce its own AVM solution called the Valuator.At this year's MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo, DataQuick director of valuation products Randy Ilas sat down with National Mortgage News to explain why he feels the company is ready to take this next step. He explained that "AVMs are only as good as the data that produces them." Mr. Ilas said that "the company's heritage in fielding this data will help them in rolling out their own AVM product." DataQuick can be found on the Web at www.dataquick.com.

As part of a panel discussion held at this year's MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo, Fannie Mae managing director, eMortgage solutions Charlotte Haberacker said that the company is a real believer in this approach to conducting business.Also as part of the panel numbers were crunched by other participating lenders to show the real benefits. For one, a spokesperson from Navy Federal Credit Union, Vienna, Va. said that the company saves $240 per loan. That savings is expected to be even greater for larger lenders that deal with more parties, i.e. mortgage brokers, processors, etc., during the course of the process.

In the next 30 to 60 days, the firm "a la mode," based in Oklahoma City, plans to release Mortgage XSites, a product designed to make it possible for small- to mid-size brokers, loan officers and other lender representatives to create a customized website that includes workflow options.At the MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo, Phoenix, Matt Bar, the company's communications director, told MortgageWire that users can customize their own website in 15 minutes using the product. It includes a wizard that can input customized logos, animation and music on desired pages within the newly designed site. Currently the product has been in beta testing for the past six weeks and includes 20 pages of content including valuable forms like the 1003 and others. A price point for the product has not been released as yet. a la mode can be found on the Web at www.alamode.com.

The implementation of electronic signature technology that has led to 75% to 95% closed loan ratios for online mortgages at Guaranty Bank was a centerpiece at Saturday's eLynx user conference held in Phoenix, just prior to the 2004 MBA national technology show.The uSign automation, which was built in compliance with the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, was designed to deliver disclosure packages and other loan documents online without incurring mail and courier fees or experiencing delays in receiving signed documents. Powered by Silanis, the technology allows borrowers to view documents at their convenience before signing electronically. eLynx first introduced its uSign electronic signature technology at the 2003 MBA Tech conference. In 2003, some 20% of the Guaranty Banks's total loan origination volume was sourced to the Internet. To increase its percentage of online business - and the closed loan rate for Internet borrowers - Guaranty began using uSign in December 2003 at its mortgage company, Guaranty Mortgage.

An offering that includes all the products and services to enable presentation of mortgage application documents for review, acceptance, and approval over the Web was among the flurry of announcements Silanis made at the MBA tech show in Phoenix.The eDisclosure offering, which was built on Silanis' ApproveIt Web server, was designed to present electronic disclosures to borrowers for immediate review, acceptance and approval, and can eliminate five to seven days from the mortgage origination process, according to Silanis. The company also released its eMortgage Impact Study at the conference. The study, an industry-specific service designed to help lenders determine the value associated with eMortgage initiatives, discusses compliance issues involved in the automation of the mortgage origination process, offers tips on an optimal implementation strategy, and details cost savings and performance improvements.

Prime Alliance Solutions, Inc., which serves over 600 credit unions nationwide and originated nearly $20 billion in loans last year, is implementing Dexma’s Emerging Market Toolkit, Dexma announced at the Mortgage Bankers Association's national technology conference.The toolkit translates mortgage documents into the borrower’s native language, enabling Prime Alliance credit unions to send their borrowers a translated initial loan approval letter listing the conditions required to close the loan. Spanish and its cultural variants will be available first, since Latinos are the largest minority group in the U.S., representing 13.5% of the population, the company reported. Prime Alliance members include several credit unions in states that have higher-than-average Latino populations, including California, Texas, Florida and Colorado.

MortgageWire has learned that Harland has shipped its Interlinq E3 loan production system, the long-awaited successor to MortgageWare.Some 30 lenders are scheduled to start implementation of E3 by the end of April, out of the 360 lenders that have purchased E3. Most of the first 30 implementations are customers upgrading from MortgageWare, which has been the system used more than any other by lenders since 1992, according to Mortech. E3 is a Web-based platform that has been touted as an open customizable system enabling business process management and XML-compliant integration across the mortgage supply chain and for interfacing easily with other systems. Thayne D. Atkinson, the management information system officer at Salt Lake City-based Security National Mortgage, commented, "I will be able to move electronic data into the system without fear of losing data integrity, since everything filters through the business logic before it's written in the database." He estimated that E3's ability to automatically route incoming broker loans to the correct branch and notify the correct person will save an average of 15 minutes per loan setup and communication time -- about 4,200 hours a year.

Cendant Settlement Services Group, a subsidiary of Cendant Corp. based in Moorestown, N.J., has signed up to use BCE Emergis' Emergis Vendor Services Exchange to conduct appraisal transactions electronically.BCE, Montréal, Québec, will develop a customized integration with Cendant's proprietary ordering system, enabling Cendant's mortgage originators and over 2,500 appraisers to connect online to place, receive, and manage the status of appraisal orders in a standardized format. BCE will also provide Cendant access to automated appraisal review engines that will improve error identification and enhance quality control. Cendant can be found on the Web at http://www.cendant.com/media, and BCE can be found at http://www.emergis.com.

AllRegs, an Eagan, Minn.-based online publisher of mortgage reference information, has begun the search for a new president/chief operating officer as a result of a consolidation of ownership by co-founder Glenn Ford."We're looking for a seasoned professional to take over the operational responsibilities of what is already a very successful company," said Mr. Ford, who was recently named chairman and chief executive officer. The company also announced the promotion of Douglas Smalley to vice president and chief technology officer and the reorganization of its advisory board. The following members have been added to the advisory board: David Matthews, former president of RBC Mortgage; Scott Cooley, founder of Contour Software; Joseph Doyle, president of TCF Mortgage; and Terry Schopfer, president of TenA Cos. AllRegs can be found online at http://www.allregs.com.

Calyx Software, a provider of desktop loan origination systems based in San Jose, Calif., and Advectis, Alpharetta, Ga., have released what they termed a tighter integration of their flagship products, Calyx Point and BlitzDocs.The integration comes as Advectis, a provider of paperless origination and loan archiving applications, joins the Calyx Preferred Point Partner program. With Advectis as a Preferred Point Partner, a broker will be able to access BlitzDocs from within Point to create electronic loan folders without re-keying any information already captured in Point, the companies said. Brokers will also be able to submit imaged documents to lenders for paperless underwriting. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.calyxsoftware.com and http://www.advectis.com.

Fraser, Mich.-based VMP Mortgage Solutions, a Bankers Systems Inc. company, has released VMP SMART Document Viewer, version 2.5.The new version features what VMP is dubbing an industry first -- a routine that checks documents for well-formed and valid Extensible Mark-up Language using the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization's data standards. The validation routine allows for lenders experimenting with e-mortgage technology to perform basic XML integrity tests on their data. (SMART stands for securable, manageable, archivable, retrievable, transferable.) VMP can be found on the Web at http://www.vmpmtg.com.

Integrated Loan Services, Rocky Hill, Conn., has released a product that allows clients to interface directly to ILS to place and display the status of their orders with the company.It provides a link that enables lenders who have Fiserv's UniFi PRO loan origination system to access the settlement services provided through ILS. There is no transaction fee for the service. ILS can be found on the Web at http://www.ils.com.

Palisades Technology Partners, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., has launched Impact Mortgage Services Components, which are designed to plug into point-of-sale and loan origination systems to streamline the delivery of new products and services.Specifically, the product includes pricing, fees, compliance, and mortgage calculation services. Palisades, which provides strategic consulting, eLending applications, and systems integration, can be found on the Web at http://www.ptpusa.com.

Touting itself as only the second vendor to do so, Data-Vision Inc. has announced the creation of a new interface with Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector to create integrated automated underwriting for consumer-facing mortgage websites.The solution is being offered on an application-service-provider basis to Data-Vision's 200 lender customers. The Mishawaka, Ind.-based company said lenders using its LoanQuoter.com can let consumers know in seconds whether their mortgage loan is approved before entering borrower data into the lender's loan origination system. Data-Vision can be found on the Web at http://www.d-vision.com.

BLS Funding, Jericho, N.Y., has announced the launch of "BLS at Your Service," which it says offers instant chat and call-connection services as customer-friendly lead-generation tools.The instant chat service is for potential borrowers that need answers to questions about credit or downpayment requirements before beginning to fill out an application, especially if they have been turned down before. The BLS Instant Call-Connection service allows consumers to schedule a call with a BLS loan officer at their convenience -- instead of at dinner time or other times when they are unwilling or unable to talk. Founded in 1995, BLS Funding is a $1.5 billion full-service mortgage company licensed to operate in 30 states. It can be found online at http://www.blsfund.com.