Technology

BrokerPriceOpinion.com, Westminster, Colo., has created a "Next Generation BPO (V3)" platform for its valuation service. The company said the new platform represents a fundamental shift in the philosophy for how it provides BPOs. The focus is primarily on data analysis rather than data capture and delivery. Walt Coats, president, said, "Our software automatically evaluates and scores all comp sale and listing data provided by the broker. It was designed to analyze the data for accuracy and/or fraud, and to provide immediate feedback for brokers and analysts." Enhancements to this platform, scheduled to introduced in Phase II of the roll out in the second quarter of this year, include the ability to access local market data and incorporate it into both new and existing products. Clients will be able to gain insight into local markets and make better, more informed business decisions, adding to increased profitability, the company said.

NetMore, a mortgage banking firm based in Walla Walla, Wash., has hired Comergence Compliance Monitoring as a third-party due diligence provider to keep an eye on its correspondent lenders. CCM will manage all reviews and monitor third-party originators that source loans to the company. CCM is based in Orange, Calif. NetMore, a nonbank, said it is "committed to working with the highest quality mortgage brokers in the industry in a 'friction free' manner."

Banking and mortgage regulators have developed a new file format that will allow for electronic examinations of mortgage originators. The new format, called the Licensee Examination File, is designed for use by mortgage loan originators, software providers and consultants and provides a standardized way to prepare loan portfolio data for online submission to state regulators. Documentation on the new format will be available on the "RCCertify" website which will have a ".org" address and launch on Feb. 22. The LEF was created by the CSBS/AARMR Multistate Mortgage Committee and unveiled at the NMLS User Conference in San Diego. The electronic transmission of data is part of the MMC's enhanced supervision of mortgage entities under the CSBS/AARMR Nationwide Cooperative Protocol and Agreement for Mortgage Supervision. Beginning last year and continuing through 2010 the MMC has been and plans to be conducting pilot examinations using ComplianceAnalyzer software provided by ComplianceEase. Lenders are expected to provide loan portfolio data uploads to state regulators by 2011. John Prendergast, chief risk officer for the Massachusetts Division of Banking and the chair of the MMC said, "Our vision of an improved examination process through the use of new technology has been in the works for several months, but one of our main challenges has been the inability of lender systems to feed data directly to the regulator in a form that is readable by the ComplianceAnalyzer program." This new format rectifies that, he said.

Service 1st Valuation and Settlement Services Inc. has joined the Ellie Mae Network. Connectivity to the network is integrated in Ellie Mae's Encompass360 mortgage management software, which is used by mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers, community banks, credit unions and national and regional lenders across the United States. As a result of the Service 1st integration, Service 1st will be available as an independent appraiser on the Ellie Mae Network and available to all users of Encompass360.

Wells Fargo Funding has authorized the use of Docu Prep's EESS product for digital signing documents. The Entire Electronic Signature Solution is Docu Prep's newest signing technology. The company's EESS product gives customers the ability to customize their document sets, and provides them with electronic signatures and delivery, as well as integrated management with reporting capabilities. Docu Prep is the 15th approved vendor by Wells for e-signing.

Equity National has released PACEplus, a predictive valuation tool intended to combine data and human analysis to ensure a more accurate measurement of a distressed property's true market value. Specifically, PACEplus combines quantitative data collection and analysis with human evaluation. The tool uses public and private housing, economic, and market data. The human element is still present, however, as this information then undergoes analysis, combining expert human review and field data collection, a questionnaire and photos.

DebtMarket of Los Angeles, which operates an online marketplace for trading whole loans, has officially named Stuart McFarland, a former Fannie Mae chief financial officer, as a top advisor to the firm. The company said Mr. McFarland will serve as a special advisor for capital and federal markets. The company also named Jim Jones and Bob Feller to its board. During his long career in mortgages, Mr. McFarland has worked for GE Capital Asset Management, and Pedestal, an early B2B online trading platform. Mr. Jones is a former CEO of GMAC's Residential Capital Corp. unit and Mr. Feller is a former CEO of Capmark Financial Group, a company that recently went through bankruptcy. Mr. McFarland first began working with DebtMarket late last year.

Mortgage software vendors AllRegs and Motivity Solutions Inc. have teamed up to bring business intelligence tools to lenders that aid them in automating product and guideline information. Most of the nation's top 100 lenders use the AllRegs Information Service known as AllRegs Online. The Eagan, Minn.-based company has an exclusive agreement with Fannie Mae and provides mortgage professionals with subscription-based access to single and multifamily underwriting and insuring guidelines, federal and state compliance laws and more. Motivity launched its Movation software tool in March 2009. The technology enables lenders to gain real-time access to their combined data in the form of performance indicators, scorecards, dashboards and on-demand reporting.

At the first trimester meeting of 2010 of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, overall attendance was at a two-year high and volunteers of the technology data standards body elected a new chairman and vice chairman. Harry Gardner, the chief strategy officer at SigniaDocs, was elected to the MISMO governance committee. Shortly after his seat on governance was secured, he also was elected chairman of the standards group, replacing Ron Duff of Fiserv. Mr. Gardner also will be the liaison between MISMO's governance body and the board. Taking on a leadership role within MISMO is actually old hat for Mr. Gardner -- he was in charge of MISMO when he served as the vice president of industry technology for MBA. Early last year, Mr. Gardner and the entire industry technology staff at MBA were laid off as MBA opted to outsource the management of MISMO to MERS instead of relying on internal, paid staff to do the job.

BlackBox Logic LLC, founded in 2007, said that after years of designing and testing work, it is now offering to the broader market a comprehensive database of loan-level collateral underlying nonagency residential MBS. The company, which is majority owned by a private equity affiliate of the Denver-based Braddock Financial Corp., said it has available a trademarked loan-level data aggregation service called BBxData that covers jumbo-A, subprime and alternative-A credit mortgage markets. This includes more than 7,200 RMBS, 21 million loans and almost 600 million remittance records dating back to 1999. The company is aiming to provide monthly full-set data faster than other providers and to also differentiate itself by allowing users to purchase only the data they need rather than the full 21-million loan dataset. The company's top brass includes three former Fannie Mae executives. Chief executive Larry Barnett was once Fannie's vice president for secondary mortgage trading operations, chief technology officer William Pugh was at one time responsible for all technology development and loan processing systems at Fannie, and lead data modeler Marty Schwartz once managed mortgage loan processing systems for Fannie, including its liquidation and recourse system.