Mortgage technology

Oklahoma City-based a la mode inc. and Dynatek Inc., Livonia, Mich., have announced plans for the joint development of a software plug-in that would connect Dynatek lender clients to a la mode's Mercury Network.Real estate appraisers subscribe to the network to connect electronically to more lender clients while using report form-filling software, the companies said. During the design phase, Dynatek and a la mode said they will develop and test technology that allows appraisers to use their favorite form-filling software, regardless of brand, while connecting seamlessly with Dynatek software users. "Addressing these workflow issues is an important part of providing a higher-quality product with shorter turnaround times for our clients," said Craig C. Backus, a business analyst with Dynatek.

XFormic Inc., Burlingame, Calif., has announced the introduction of Direct Credit Solution, a software product that it says "revolutionizes" the way small to medium-size mortgage companies retrieve merged credit reports.DCS allows mortgage companies to bypass existing credit data resellers and purchase data directly from the major credit bureaus, XFormic said. "Going direct allows the mortgage company to avoid reseller markups and save, on average, 40% on data acquisition costs," the company said. ".... Currently, the average reseller charges $12-15 for a tri-merged credit report. With DCS, the cost is $7.88 or less." XFormic can be found online at http://www.xformic.com.

Decade Systems Corp., Jacksonville, Fla., and Equix Financial Services, Menomonee Falls, Wis., have announced an alliance under which they will offer mortgage lenders a "rapid, cost-effective" integration system for leveraging Equix's origination and fulfillment capabilities.Equix recently implemented Decade's Total Enterprise Data Integration technology within its system architecture, and this coincided with the launch of an origination call center designed to support a top mortgage lender, the companies said. The technology includes "an extensive library of reusable integration adapters" to popular mortgage systems, enabling Equix clients to send application information and receive data for their existing systems using data files that comply with standards set by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, they said. "By partnering with Decade, our lender clients are able to realize the benefits of outsourced origination and fulfillment quickly and efficiently, with minimal impact to their internal resources," said Chris Hayward, chief operating officer of Equix. The companies can be found online at http://www.equix.us and http://www.decadesystems.com.

ACS, Dallas, has announced what it says is the first secure Internet-based exchange connecting organizations and counties to facilitate the electronic recording of land records such as deeds and mortgages.Named eRX, the system allows participants to create, sign, notarize, edit, transmit, and record documents in a paperless environment, said ACS, a provider of business process and information technology outsourcing systems. The system also handles the fees associated with these business-to-government transactions. ACS said eRX is the first implementation of an open exchange that provides a single interface for lender and title company members to reach any county member nationwide. The system also features electronic signature technology provided by Silanis Technology. "Counties reduce the manual processing effort associated with paper processing, and what used to take days or even months now takes minutes or hours, eliminating risks for the title companies and significantly reducing the post-closing costs for lenders," said John Brophy, group president of ACS State and Local Solutions. The company can be found online at http://www.acs-inc.com.

VMP Mortgage Solutions, Fraser, Mich., has released the latest version of a forms design tool boasting features that the company says simplify and speed the process of designing documents.VMP said I-32 Forms Design 6.0, which can be installed as a stand-alone tool or as a transparent addition to client applications, allows users to create complex forms with hundreds of data fields using unique identifiers; to incorporate logos, text, signatures, and data fields without altering the original forms; and to insert check boxes, rules, columns, and graphics. One form, regardless of how many pages it contains, is loaded into one file. (For example, a user has to open only one file to work on a 10-page document instead of opening 10 files, the company said.) VMP released the updated tool at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's technology conference in Orlando, Fla. The company, a division of CBF Systems Inc., can be found online at http://www.vmpmtg.com.

REsolve Technology, a Boston-based custom programming and financial consulting firm for the commercial real estate industry, has unveiled a new tracking and reporting module for its REquest product.The Partnership Module enables users to track, analyze, and report property and fund information and the returns of various real estate properties owned individually or in a partnership, the company said. Users can now allocate properties to specific funds, link historical contributions and distributions, and create and edit customized reports. "Before implementing the Partnership Module, one of our clients had to track their partnership structures in complicated Excel spreadsheets," said Eric Forman, president of REsolve Technology. "This was prone to error and very time consuming. With this new module, users can now add, delete, or edit real estate properties associated with specific funds, or change ownership percentages of funds in certain properties at the touch of a button." The company can be found online at http://www.resolvetech.com.

ComplianceEase, San Francisco, and Dorado Corp., San Mateo, Calif., have announced the formation of a strategic partnership that they say will accelerate the delivery of automated compliance systems, especially in predatory lending compliance.Under the terms of the partnership, ComplianceEase's flagship product, PredatorAnalyzer, will be integrated with Dorado ChannelMaster as a .MOR Web service. The combination will enable lenders to integrate PredatorAnalyzer with legacy systems simply and cost effectively, the companies said. "The predatory lending audit is a great example of the power and flexibility of the Web services-based approach to origination workflow," said Joseph W. Jennings, president of Dorado. The companies can be found online at http://www.complianceease.com and http://www.dorado.com.

Fannie Mae has announced a new design for Desktop Underwriter as well as new features that include an online help center and consolidated access to DU for wholesale lenders.For the first time, wholesalers will be able to log on to a single application for all their loan processing and underwriting needs while still offering services to their mortgage brokers via Fannie Mae's Desktop Originator, the government-sponsored enterprise said. The online help center recognizes where a lender is in the loan submission process and, through Web and chat features, provides quick online access to a database of information about DU, Fannie Mae said. "Fannie Mae incorporated customer feedback and usability research to develop these important system enhancements to Desktop Underwriter," said Terri Davis, managing director for Fannie Mae/eBusiness. ".... Now both retail and wholesale lenders will not only have the benefits of increased functionality, easier navigation, and a new visual design, but a reliable, secure system with 24/7 availability and a 99.9% uptime performance." Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

The Mortgage Bankers Association of America has launched a new subsidiary corporation to provide documentation and guidelines to accredit and certify Public Key Infrastructure and secure identity providers.The new organization will be called Secure Identity Services Accreditation Corp. The MBA made the announcement at its annual Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference in Orlando, Fla. SISAC is already working with five leading providers of secure identity solutions. The MBA can be found on the Web at http://www.mbaa.org.

Netupdate Inc., Bellevue, Wash., and Ignition Mortgage Technology Solutions Inc., Sausalito, Calif., have announced that Netupdate will add Ignition's LockPoint Xtra pricing and distribution tool to its Originator Pro point-of-sale system.In addition, Ignition announced that its Loan Officer Plus loan origination system is being discontinued, but that users can now migrate to Originator Pro using the new LOP Migration Program from Netupdate that incorporates data migration, software installation, and product training with "minimum impact to a lender's back-office operations." LockPoint Xtra enables lenders to operate on a single technology platform that supports correspondent, wholesale, retail, and consumer-direct lending, the companies said. "LockPoint Xtra eliminates the need to have separate pricing and product systems for the lender's other origination channels," said Diane Holmstrom, Netupdate's chief executive officer. The companies can be found online at http://www.ignitionmts.com and http://www.netupdate.com.

Idaho Falls, Idaho-based DocuTech and San Mateo, Calif.-based Dorado have announced a new Web service that speeds the use of SMART Docs.Scheduled to become available in the second quarter, the system integrates DocuTech’s ConformX online closing system as a Web service on Dorado’s .MOR platform to deliver “the first end-to-end mortgage document system as an easily accessible Web service.” The announcement at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's mortgage technology conference in Orlando, Fla., said the service provides upfront disclosure documents, traditional closing documents, and compliant SMART (securable, manageable, archivable, retrievable, and transferable) Docs. The alliance, created to leverage electronic commerce standards developed through the MBA’s Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, offers the ConformX-.MOR integration adaptor as “a ready-made solution for lenders preparing to implement an eMortgage strategy today.” DocuTech can be found online at http://www.docutechcorp.com.

Dorado Corp. and First American have released SourceMaster, a comprehensive tool that will help lenders source products across various vendors and electronic partner networks and bundle those mortgage services into guaranteed mortgage packages.The product can be licensed or served by First American as an application service provider and will help lenders manage vendors using their own internal rules. The product was announced at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's annual Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference in Orlando, Fla., but will be rolled out in the second quarter. The companies will be targeting top-10 lenders and integrating the tool with their loan origination systems, but plans to roll it out to mid-tier lenders will begin immediately through First American's sales and marketing representatives. The companies can be found online at http://www.dorado.com and http://www.firstam.com.

The National Home Equity Mortgage Association and AppIntell Inc., based in the St. Louis suburb of Weldon Spring, Mo., have announced "a partnership to fight mortgage fraud."Under the agreement, NHEMA members will receive a discount on two AppIntell fraud prevention products: Data Integrity Search and Score System, a Web-based fraud prevention tool for originators; and PredProtect, a fully automated online system allowing lenders/investors to analyze loan data for predatory lending compliance. The decision by NHEMA, which represents the home equity lending industry, to ally with AppIntell "supports our efforts to become the industry standard tools for detecting and resolving data integrity, early payment defaults, fraud, and predatory issues," said Stephen Gott, AppIntell's chief executive officer. NHEMA can be found online at http://www.nhema.org, and AppIntell can be found at http://www.appintell.com.

The RealEC e-commerce exchange has announced that it processed a million orders resulting in 5 million related vendor transactions during a recent three-month period.RealEC said it now averages 380,000 real estate orders per month, resulting in an average of more than 1.5 million related vendor transactions. For the period November 2002 through January 2003, RealEC boasted a 290% increase in volume over the previous three-month period. RealEC is used in some capacity by all five of the top settlement providers, and 12 of the top 15 mortgage originators, the company said. RealEC, a majority-owned subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial based in Santa Ana, Calif., can be found online at http://www.realec.com.

Kenneth N. Lard has been elected executive vice president of Triad Guaranty Inc., Winston-Salem, N.C., and of the company's mortgage insurance subsidiary, Triad Guaranty Insurance Corp.Mr. Lard joined the MI subsidiary in November 1995, and was most recently senior vice president of sales and marketing. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.triadguaranty.com.

LION Inc., Seattle, has reported a net loss of $109,000 for 2002, compared with net income of $42,000 in 2001.For the fourth quarter, net income totaled $141,000, compared with a net loss of $28,000 a year earlier. Revenue for the year totaled $6.4 million, up 7% from $6.0 million in 2001. The company, a provider of online services that connect brokers to consumers and lenders, attributed the net loss in 2002 to settlement charges and legal fees of approximately $647,000 related to litigation that was settled in July. "Excluding settlement charges and related legal expenses during both 2002 and 2001, net income would have remained unchanged at $141,000 for the fourth quarter and approximately $538,000 for all of 2002, up from net income of $28,000 and $125,000, respectively, for the same periods in 2001," the company said. LION can be found online at http://www.lioninc.com.

Pacific Northwest Bancorp, Seattle, has announced that it will introduce a new Web-based mortgage loan program in March in partnership with MortgageBot LLC.Under the new program, customers of Pacific Northwest Bank will apply online by clicking the Mortgage Express link on the bank's website. PNWB Financial Center employees in Washington and Oregon, together with MortgageBot loan advisers, will be available to assist customers in completing online applications while in the bank. Patrick M. Fahey, president and chief executive officer of PNWB, said the program will offer a wide range of mortgage loans with "competitive rates, fees, and terms" as well as "responsive customer service." The bank can be found on the Web at http://www.pnwbank.com.

Banc of America Securities LLC has joined the to-be-announced mortgage-backed securities dealer group of TradeWeb LLC, bringing the number of dealers using the fixed-income trading platform to 12.New York-based TradeWeb said more than $1.6 trillion in MBS have traded on the platform since its introduction in early 2001. In addition to using TradeWeb for TBA MBS transactions, clients use it to trade agency debt securities, U.S. Treasuries, commercial paper, euro-sovereign debt securities, and German pfandbriefe, which are generally mortgage or public-sector entity bonds. TradeWeb can be found online at http://www.tradeweb.com.

Ellie Mae Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., has launched ePASS Appraisal Connection, which it says will allow mortgage brokers and loan officers to locate any licensed appraiser in the United States and then order and receive appraisals directly from their desktop.The tool allows third-party originators to order appraisals electronically, receive order confirmations and completed appraisals, upload appraisals into their loan origination software, and communicate directly with their appraiser via instant messaging capabilities, the company said. The instant communication and message archive capabilities are an alternative to faxing documents and communication via telephone, voicemail, or fax. The new features work directly with the originator’s LOS, eliminating the need to re-enter information into the LOS after the appraisal is received. Ellie Mae’s website address is http://www.elliemae.com.

Quicken Loans Inc., Livonia, Mich., has filed suit against the commissioner of the California Department of Corporations, contending that federal law takes priority over a state law that allows borrowers to use the mortgage lender's funds without interest until the mortgage is recorded.The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California - Sacramento Division. "The California law purports to prohibit lenders from charging interest until the mortgage is recorded by the title company and the county recorder's office, a process that is outside the control of the lender and can be delayed days or weeks, during which time the borrower has full use of the lender's money," said William Emerson, chief executive officer of Quicken Loans. "It is in effect an interest-free loan until the mortgage is recorded." Quicken and other mortgage lenders contend that interest charges should begin when the funds are disbursed to the borrower. (Wells Fargo Home Mortgage filed suit against the DOC recently after the agency threatened to revoke its residential mortgage lending license for refusing to refund fees allegedly charged in violation of state law.) The Quicken lawsuit seeks a declaration that federal law pre-empts state law governing mortgage interest payments. Quicken can be found on the Web at http://www.quickenloans.com.