Technology

As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac look to standardize the mortgage process at the request of their regulator, it has brought about new appraisal and data delivery standards requiring lenders to lean on technology vendors to ensure they are compliant at a time when vendors are already strained.

Elizabeth Green, chair of the property and valuation services workgroup within MISMO, says this move by the GSEs will enable the industry to achieve, among other benefits, high-definition comparables. "We as an industry will have access to granular appraisal data. We have the ability to name a data source on a per-data point basis. This gives both the appraiser and his client a clear view of every bit of information that went into the appraisal and where the appraiser got that information.

"If you think about it, most lawsuits today come from invalid information or a lack of information reported on the appraisal. This new approach-given that the GSEs have chosen to standardize around MISMO Version 3.0-makes it clear from the appraiser's perspective how to delineate factual information from their own analysis. Today that is all mish-mashed together. We've moved beyond that. We need more. We need more verification sources. The appraiser needs to feel confident delineating his data from his analysis. That allows us to further support the goal of getting to a credible valuation report."

Mortgage vendor CoreLogic, Santa Ana, Calif., on Wednesday unveiled its WillCap product, a decisioning system that can predict a distressed borrower's willingness and capacity to make mortgage payments.

FIS, Jacksonville, Fla., has closed on a private offering of $1.1 billion of unsecured notes.

In total, 82% of respondents to this publication believe that e-disclosures can keep a lender more compliant. While no one technology can solve all of the problems that lenders face, electronic upfront disclosures does have its benefits.

What are the best options available to lenders to deal with today's ever-changing loan volumes while maintaining loan performance?

Regulatory compliance remains a priority for mortgage companies large and small. And integration remains one of the best ways to reduce related risk and improve process efficiencies that result in more robust product offerings.

Internet retail lender Total Mortgage Services, Milford, Conn., said the TMS Funding wholesale division it has formally opened up to select brokers in 17 states plans to slowly and carefully expand to all but a handful of others in this country over a period of more than a year.

While other regulatory, compliance and legal issues such as the new RESPA changes have been the focal point within the primary and secondary mortgage industry over the last year, one issue flying under the radar for many lenders is privacy and data security. Financial institutions are being forced to confront a host of actual and prospective new privacy requirements as a result of new regulations adopted on the federal and state level as well as pending privacy legislation in Congress.

Integrated Asset Services LLC, a default management and residential collateral valuations company, released a new report on the state of the mortgage servicing industry. The report focused heavily on technology advances.

SureDocs, a la mode's e-signature system, has applied its 3.5 millionth e-signature.