Mortgage technology

Under a new deal between DataSynapse Inc., New York, a provider of self-managed grid computing software, and HanoverTrade Inc., Edison, N.J., the latter company's Hanover/Busch Analytics will be grid-enabled through DataSynapse’s GridServer application operating environment.Similar to server farms, where a distributed network of computers works together to handle complicated processes, the GridServer will permit calculations within Hanover/Busch Analytics to be distributed to hundreds of CPUs it manages, reducing the time it takes to value loans. HanoverTrade, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hanover Capital Mortgage Holdings Inc., said it already has one customer on the jointly offered platform. It declined to name the company, saying only that it is "one of the largest financial institutions in the world." The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.datasynapse.com and http://www.hanovertrade.com.

A new program introduced by E*Trade Group Inc.'s E*Trade Mortgage, Menlo Park, Calif., will enable consumers to lock in an interest rate now and transfer it to the next home they purchase, instead of paying off the old loan and applying for a new loan at potentially higher rates.The company says its Mortgage on the Move program will only be available for a limited time, but will be offered nationwide. E*Trade said it expects this program to drive overall purchase-money product volume for E*Trade Mortgage. While popular in Canada, the concept of a portable mortgage has yet to catch on in the United States, though homebuilders hope that it will. After refinancing into a lower-interest-rate loan, borrowers are often hesitant to trade up to a larger home if it means paying a significantly higher interest rate on their next loan. This often translates into slower new home sales. E*Trade can be found on the Web at http://www.etrade.com.

Rock Holdings, the parent company of Quicken Loans and Rock Financial, has filed applications with federal banking regulators to operate "Rock Bank" as an FDIC-insured, community and Internet-based bank.The bank, to be headquartered in Michigan, will capitalize on Quicken's success in online lending, said Dan Gilbert, chairman of Rock Holdings. "We are thrilled that we will soon be able to offer an array of traditional banking products to our loyal customer base, backed by great customer service and the convenience of online banking," he said. Quicken Loans will become a subsidiary of Rock Bank.

Despite its cyclical nature, the mortgage lending business is really a growth industry, the chief executive officer of Fidelity National Information Solutions told an FNIS conference May 28."It may be cyclical, but it’s more growth than cycle," Patrick F. Stone said at the Valuation Innovation & Leadership Summit in Laguna Beach, Calif. The audience of about 150 was made up of mortgage lenders, settlement services providers, technology vendors, consultants, and the news media. The company hosted the summit to discuss issues surrounding collateral valuation, but Mr. Stone assured attendees that it would not be a "commercial" for his firm, which offers a number of products and services, including automated valuation models. FNIS, based in Santa Barbara, Calif., is a subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial, which can be found online at http://www.fnf.com.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Irvine, Calif., which owns approximately 66% of Fidelity National Information Solutions, Santa Barbara, Calif., has announced a proposal to acquire all the remaining outstanding shares of FNIS.The proposal represents a fixed exchange ratio of 0.805 shares of FNF common stock for each share of FNIS, the companies said. Based on FNF's closing price of $38.36 on May 23, the proposed offer price would total $24.70 per share of FNIS, a 25.4% premium to the latter's closing price of $19.70 on that date. "With FNF's recent acquisition and the formation of Fidelity Information Services, we believe it makes strategic sense to fully integrate FNIS back into FNF," said FNF president Raymond R. Quirk. "FNIS can better capitalize on the significant technology resources of FIS, and we can provide more cohesive technology solutions to our customers by combining all our resources at FNF." The companies can be found online at http://www.fidelitynational.com and http://www.fnis.com.

James W. Horne, a former chief information technology officer with the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, has been named manager of the technology consulting division of Mortgage Dynamics Inc., McLean, Va.Mr. Horne was most recently vice president for electronic financial services at Wave Systems Corp. He was previously vice president and chief IT officer at the MBA and president and chief operating officer of the MBA's electronic commerce and business technology subsidiary, Lender Technologies. "Technology is quickly becoming the most prominent differentiator in the mortgage industry, allowing technology-savvy companies to gain significant ground on their competitors," said Mary Bruce Batte, a managing director at Mortgage Dynamics. "Our clients want to identify and implement the most beneficial technologies, and that has been Jim's focus for the past few years." The company can be found online at http://www.mortgagedynamics.com.

Technology consulting firm CC Pace, Fairfax, Va., has entered a reseller agreement with Dorado Corp., a demand chain management firm based in San Mateo, Calif., to deliver CC Pace's LGXpress as a Dorado .MOR Web Service.LGXpress is a browser-based interface to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ paperless loan guaranty process. LGXpress speeds up the loan guaranty process and reduces the lender's cost of processing a VA loan. The .MOR version of LGXpress is expected to be available in the third quarter as the first step in a comprehensive Web-services-based government loan package that lenders can use as an integrated part of their origination system. The companies can be found online at http://www.ccpace.com and http://www.dorado.com.

California's San Bernardino County has awarded Bid4Assets Inc., Silver Spring, Md., a three-year contract to auction tax-defaulted properties on its website.Bid4Assets said the county's first auction under the contract has begun, featuring approximately 5,500 tax-defaulted properties (including parcels and timeshares) with staggered close times ranging from May 12 to May 23. The parcels include residential, commercial, and agricultural lots, and the timeshares are located at four resorts. The company said San Bernardino County formerly held annual tax sale auctions that resulted in the sale of only 400 properties per year out of 2,500 offered, a 16% success rate. In a pilot program last August, the county contracted with Bid4Assets to auction tax-defaulted properties online, and the auction resulted in a 95% success rate, Bid4Assets said. The company can be found online at http://www.bid4assets.com.

Mavent Inc., Irvine, Calif., has announced that its 2comply Expert System can help lenders assure secondary market investors that assignee liability risks are limited and quantifiable.The company noted that Fitch Ratings recently announced revisions to its rating criteria to account for risks posed by anti-predatory-lending laws that subject investors in residential mortgage-backed securities to liability. "Predatory lending liability is increasing in both scale and scope, and has become a serious threat to the success of high-volume, multijurisdictional lenders," said Tim Green, Mavent's chief executive officer. "2comply not only reduces the risk of liability to lenders. 2comply can also reduce the risk of assignee liability, thus increasing the loan's value to purchasers." Mavent noted that Fitch's new criteria require additional credit enhancement for RMBS deals containing loans subject to assignee liability. That change "has the potential to significantly affect the economics of structured finance transactions," Mavent said. The company can be found online at http://www.mavent.com.

MERS, an electronic loan registry based in Vienna, Va., has reported the registration of its 15 millionth loan.The loan was registered April 30 by First Magnus Financial Corp., Tucson, Ariz., MERS said. R.K. Arnold, president and chief executive officer of MERS, said the loan registry "is capturing well over 40% of all the mortgage loans originated in the United States." MERS, or Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, can be found on the Internet at http://www.mersinc.org.

Barry Diller's USA Interactive, New York, has signed a deal to buy LendingTree, Charlotte, N.C., for a price of between $626 million and $735 million in stock, Mr. Diller said in a May 5 conference call.Mr. Diller called LendingTree the "perfect solution" to his firm's search for an offering that combined financial services and real estate, because both are highly fragmented industries with large growth potential for online services. He noted that LendingTree has 67% brand awareness among consumers. The USAI conglomerate already owns Expedia, Hotels.com, Ticketmaster, and the Home Shopping Network. The companies expect the deal to close in late summer or early fall. The companies can be found online at http://www.usainteractive.com and http://www.lendingtree.com.

More than 12 million visitors, nearly 10% of the active online population, accessed real estate and rental websites in March as part of the homebuying and apartment rental process, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, New York.The top spot in the online ratings went to Realtor.com, with nearly 4.6 million unique visitors, with Homestore.com ranking second at 3.6 million and HomeGain third at 1.2 million, the Internet audience measurement firm said. "Real estate sites enable surfers to comparison-shop online for homes prior to committing to a single real estate agent or a single property," said Patrick Thomas, a senior Internet analyst with the company. "Real-time listings, virtual home tours, and finance calculators make these sites content-rich sources and help homebuyers become better informed throughout the search and purchase process." The company can be found online at http://www.nielsen-netratings.com.

LION Inc., Seattle, has reported net income of $156,000 for the first quarter, compared with a net loss of $41,000 a year earlier.Revenue for the quarter totaled $1.8 million, up 18% from $1.5 million in the first quarter of 2002. The company, a provider of online services that connect brokers to consumers and lenders, touted the success of its new loan origination system, which it said added approximately 250 new LOS users in the first quarter through an alliance with ABC Virtual. "This early adoption supports the company's new performance-based business model by producing a new revenue stream generated by transaction fees," said David Stedman, LION's president and chief executive officer. LION can be found online at http://www.lioninc.com.

Mortgage reform may be uncertain, but the trend toward offering one-fee mortgages and bundled services will continue, according to Tom DellaTorre, president of Transamerica Vendor Management and Consulting, a recently formed joint venture.Touted as a “first-of-its-kind” venture between Transamerica Real Estate Information Services, Dallas, and ValuAmerica Consulting, Pittsburgh, TA VMAC was formed to help lenders manage mortgage settlement services more efficiently and economically, and to enable them to enter Guaranteed Mortgage Package Agreements with borrowers. While ABN Amro was first to market with one-fee mortgages, Mr. DellaTorre told MortgageWire that Transamerica REIS has found that many lenders are looking for ways to do the same thing successfully. He said ValuAmerica's proprietary electronic order system, ValuNet, enables TA VMAC to offer lenders the widest choice in selecting, monitoring, delivering, and pricing settlement services. Transamerica REIS can be found online at http://www.transamericafinance.com/tfc/realestate.asp, and ValuAmerica can be found at http://www.valuamericaconsulting.com.

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Pasadena, Calif., the holding company for IndyMac Bank, has reported net earnings of $36.9 million for the first quarter and record earnings per share of $0.66.The savings and loan produced a record $6.5 billion of mortgage loans in the first quarter, up 59% from the level of a year earlier, IndyMac said. The company's mortgage pipeline stood at a record $6 billion as of March 31, up 101% from that of a year earlier. IndyMac's portfolio of mortgage loans serviced for others totaled $28 billion, up 22% from the level recorded on March 31, 2002. IndyMac can be found online at http://www.indymacbank.com.

WellFound Technology Inc., Marietta, Ga., has announced the release of its Mortgage Integration Framework, which enables disparate software systems, within and between enterprises, to communicate with one another and share data in real time.The system is compliant with standards established by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization and relies on open, standards-based software components and concepts, including XML and Web services, the company said. Though the system is comprehensive, it is also modular, which means users can implement parts of the system as needed. WellFound can be found on the Web at http://www.wellfound.com.

Data-Vision Inc., Mishawaka, Ind., has expanded its relationship with Lavonia, Mich.-based Dynatek Inc. and will now fully integrate its RemoteDocs electronic data exchange services into Dynatek's MORvision loan origination system.The company made the announcement April 30 at the 11th annual Dynatek Users Conference in Lavonia. In addition to the RemoteDocs expansion, Dynatek is also fully integrating Data-Vision's LoanQuoter online mortgage application facility. That tool provides online rates, loan status, programs, and reports. An online decisioning module is also being added to offer prospective borrowers a preliminary response to their application. The companies can be found online at http://www.d-vision.com and http://www.dynatek.com.

Framework Inc., Tarrytown, N.Y., and DocuTech Corp., Idaho Falls, Idaho, have announced the formation of a strategic partnership that will provide an automated, universal mortgage fulfillment and documentation system for lenders.Framework's LendWare Document Manager is a credit fulfillment platform that automates the decisioning and delivery of tailored financial systems for all distribution channels, the companies said. It has been integrated via Extensible Markup Language, or XML, to DocuTech's documentation technology, which is backed by an extensive document library that includes compliant SMART (securable, manageable, achievable, retrievable, transferable) documents that bind data, presentation, and signatures into a single electronic file, they said. "With DocuTech's SMART Doc capability and electronic data and document delivery benefits, LendWare users will be able to enact online review, validation, data exchange, approvals, and closings," said Ty Jenkins, president and chief executive officer of DocuTech. DocuTech can be found online at http://www.docutechcorp.com, and more information on Framework's LendWare technology can be found at http://www.lendware.com.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Santa Barbara, Calif., and Bank of America Corp. have announced that they will combine their resources to create two new companies with the goal of providing end-to-end mortgage fulfillment outsourcing.The first firm, called Financial ServiceSolutions LLC, will be a 50/50 joint venture to integrate their technologies and deliver the mortgage fulfillment platform. The second, the technology development arm, will be called Financial ServiceSolutions Information Systems LLC and will be owned jointly by BoA and FNF subsidiary Fidelity National Information Solutions Inc. The technologies that FNF and BoA will bring to bear for new outsourcing customers include the RealEC transaction management platform, which is 60% owned by FNIS, and Lendware, operated by Framework Inc., which was acquired by BoA in February. Greg Sullins will head the new outsourcing firm as president and chief executive officer. He was formerly BoA's senior vice president for quality and productivity. Dwayne Walker, president and chief operating officer of FNIS, will serve as president of FSIS. The companies can be found online at http://www.fnf.com, http://www.fnis.com, and http://www.bankofamerica.com.

Fiserv Inc., Brookfield, Wis., has reported record earnings of $624.8 million ($0.38 per share) for the first quarter, up 11% from $560.7 million ($0.33 per share) a year earlier.Leslie M. Muma, Fiserv's president and chief executive officer, said most business units performed at or above expectations during the quarter, touting in particular the company's "full suite of automation services and products" and its "broad offering of business process outsourcing capabilities." The company provides data processing and information management systems to banks, mortgage lenders, and other financial institutions.