Technology

MDA Lending Solutions, Wilmington, Del., has launched ARTAdvisor from MDA MindBox to help lenders better handle risk. The platform provides risk management from early risk detection through loss mitigation by automating the review, analysis and management of any size portfolio. Specifically, ARTAdvisor combines credit analysis with collateral analysis to identify risky loans and to propose optimal resolutions ranging from government-sponsored programs such as the FHA's Hope for Homeowners to lender-specific loan modifications. The platform uses a customizable rules engine to review any number of loans based on the organization's own standards for quality and performance. This risk management intelligence enables the organization to know how individual loans and entire portfolios are performing. ARTAdvisor identifies unseen or emerging points of risk, analyzes data from multiple sources to show trends in performance, identifies secondary market opportunities and accelerates loss mitigation strategies at the individual loan level and the portfolio level. It can also be implemented at the point-of-sale, pre-qualification or loan application stage to identify risk upfront.

Direct-to-consumer FHA lender Lend America, Melville, N.Y., has built and implemented an automated paperless platform for loan originations and processing. Lend America launched an automated paperless platform in early February 2009, and today all of the company's loan originations from application to closing are conducted as a paperless transaction. The technology allows borrowers to e-sign disclosure documents via a secure portal and/or submit the documents required for their loan. In addition, the platform allows borrowers to communicate in real-time with Lend America's mortgage specialists and is combined with an automated fulfillment process tracked at every step for those without online access.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, which specializes in highly delinquent loans, has launched a new consumer division focused on helping borrowers whose loans are in default. Dubbed "Foreclosure Resolution," the division will reach out to borrowers who are having trouble making payments, have been denied a loan modification, are considering bankruptcy, or who have ARMs balloon payments coming due.

Fiserv Inc. said it has enhanced its loan servicing platform product so that it can now manage indirect and other third-party loans. The single-platform capability broadens the spectrum of loans to be processed and provides online, real-time back-office transactions for diverse portfolios, Fiserv said at the MBA Servicing Conference in Tampa, Fla. The Fiserv 'Loan Servicing Platform' is designed to manage all current types of indirect financing, including same-as-cash and staged funding loans that manufacturers, distributors and retailers may offer to borrowers.

In response to the need for mass loan modifications, Lender Processing Services has created RediMod, an application designed to streamline the loan modification process. LPS indicated at the MBA Servicing Conference in Tampa, Fla., that this new tool addresses processing and fulfillment needs for loan modifications by automating loan eligibility and best-fit determinations. The application is modular to enable those servicers with partial workout processes to merely fill in the gaps if there isn't a need for a new end-to-end process automation approach. RediMod includes data and analytics models that assign each loan in a portfolio a default propensity and loss severity score. It also has a rules engine that identifies borrowers currently in default and those at risk of defaulting in the future.

Bensalem, Pa.-based ISGN Corp. said it has increased the flexibility of its LenStar technology, a Web-based attorney and referral communication system for the default management market. ISGN said at the MBA Servicing Conference in Tampa that LenStar's new functionality enables servicers to adapt to market changes. Among the enhancements are an executive dashboard that allows users to create customized views of LenStar reporting data based on their own management criteria. This dashboard provides a complete view of the loan timeline, including vendor and user performance, file status and portfolio management. LenStar also now offers a Referral Toolkit, which can be used to create new referral types such as additional bankruptcy types, litigation, lien monitoring, real estate-owned, loss mitigation and title claims.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a Carrollton, Texas, firm specializing in saving seriously delinquent loans from foreclosure, has selected SigniaDocs' e-vaulting and e-signing capabilities to provide faster service for its loan modification efforts. "One of the most common reasons for loan modifications to fail before they get started is that borrowers will often give up on the transaction during the period between agreeing to the loan modification and signing the paper documents that create the new loan," said Steven Horne, Wingspan Portfolio Advisors' founder and CEO. "With SigniaDocs' eModification service, it all happens very quickly, and speed is essential to making the process work. They allow us to execute loan modifications in minutes by using the Internet and SigniaDocs' eMortgage electronic vault, instead of waiting for courier services." Wingspan Portfolio Advisors works mainly with borrowers who have given up hope because they are so far behind on their payments that lenders have often already begun the foreclosure process. Getting the loan modification executed quickly, Mr. Horne says, is essential to that process.

Loan servicers are incorporating more borrower verifications, such as those validating income and employment, into the evaluation process when considering borrowers for loan modifications according to Rapid Reporting. The Fort Worth, Texas-based vendor said at the MBA Servicing Conference in Tampa that until recently, loan servicers have largely relied on information compiled in loan origination when evaluating borrowers for loan modifications. Verifying income and employment reflects the servicing industry's move toward more thorough underwriting standards as the industry struggles to correct itself amidst the current foreclosure crisis. "We've seen a significant increase in loan servicers that are signing up for income verification for loan modifications, which represents a big change as servicers had previously not been involved with borrower qualifications," said Jay Meadows, chief executive officer of Rapid Reporting. "This indicates that the servicing industry is learning from industry problems and making definitive changes to proactively ensure higher quality loans. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there is a strong correlation between mortgage fraud and loans that result in default or foreclosure, so it only makes sense to verify borrower information on loans in delinquency to ensure that the modified terms fit the borrower's capacity to repay the loan."

Gabe Minton, the former Mortgage Bankers Association vice president of industry technology and most recently chief operating officer at LOS vendor Mortgage Cadence, has joined Motivity Solutions Inc., a provider of optimization and risk mitigation software for the mortgage industry, as its chief strategy officer. In his new position, Mr. Minton is responsible for the overall strategic sales marketing and licensing of Motivity's products, third party alliances and strategic initiatives. Together with the engineering team, he will assist in further strengthening and expanding the foundation of their products and services. Also, in working closely with Motivity chief executive Tyler Sherman, Mr. Minton will create the architecture for smart imaging, e-mortgages, increased data integrity, and security to strengthen the positioning of Motivity's technology.

Point-of-sale vendor Data-Vision Inc. said it has missed a deadline to reach final agreement with Most Home Corp. on terms for its previously planned acquisition of NetUpdate Inc. Data-Vision president, Randy Schmidt, stated, "Unfortunately, after receiving board acceptance of the terms outlined in our Letter of Intent, the shareholders of Most Home were seeking much greater terms than we were willing to concede given the current market conditions. We are disappointed that the Letter of Intent has expired without being able to reach a definitive agreement." No further details were disclosed at press time. Data-Vision has been serving U.S. lending institutions since 1993 with a suite of Web portal and e-lending applications to facilitate online origination, point-of-sale, lead capture, instant decisioning, product selection, initial disclosures, and secure electronic document delivery to provide immediate returns for lenders.