Technology

The 8th annual Mortgage Technology Awards were presented Oct. 14 by Mortgage Technology magazine in conjunction with the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention in Boston.The 10X Award for technology making an "exponential impact" on mortgage lending went to Wolters Kluwer Financial Services for combining its business units to be "a comprehensive source" for a lender's outsourced regulatory compliance needs. The Lasting Impact Award, for developing technology that has proved its worth over time, went to Gabe Minton for "evangelizing on behalf of industry standardization." The Release of the Year Award, to a company launching a product or initiative likely to have the broadest impact on mortgage lending, went to Deal Maker Score for offering a scientific analysis tool that enables originators to offer a customized plan on how borrowers can achieve a target credit score. The Steve Fraser Award, which goes to an outstanding mortgage technology innovator, visionary, or evangelizer, was presented to Scott Cooley of Cooley Consulting for creating the first loan origination system. Winners of other awards, and those who received commendations in all categories, will be posted soon on the Mortgage Technology website.

Nine Wall Street dealers plan to invest $180 million in Thomson Financial's TradeWeb platform, which handles mortgage-backed securities trades as well as other fixed-income and derivative deals.The dealers that have agreed to buy a minority stake and participate in TradeWeb are: Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS. Thomson and the dealers also separately agreed to fund an expansion of the platform.

Intellidyn Corp. has picked the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in Boston to announce the release of three new marketing models to let mortgage lenders target FHA-qualified homeowners.The models offer to boost response rates by 347% for Federal Housing Administration purchase and refinance lending. The models help originators "accurately identify and market to homeowners who are both credit-qualified and most likely to respond to their FHA-specific offers," the company said. According to the announcement, early adopters report that Intellidyn's FHA-Prospect Targeting Models are delivering direct mail response rates over 1.25%, compared with the industry's overall rates of 0.35%-0.50%. Intellidyn said the models were developed "to help mortgage lenders market FHA Secure and Streamline refinance products, as well as target specialty niches, such as adjustable loan holders and Hispanic subprime borrowers that are now FHA-eligible." The company can be found online at http://www.intellidyn.com.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has announced the addition of the Foreclosure Prevention Resource Center to its consumer education site, HomeLoanLearningCenter.com.The center is part of the MBA's effort to advise those who face trouble making their loan payment to contact their loan servicer as soon as possible to determine whether an alternative to foreclosure may be possible based on the borrower's financial and employment status. The bilingual site includes a listing of major loan servicers and their contact information as well as a guide to "Things to Know When You Contact Your Lender" so distressed borrowers can have an informed discussion with their servicer. "The sooner a borrower who is having trouble contacts his or her servicer, the more options they may have to make alternate arrangements," said MBA president and CEO Jonathan L. Kempner. The MBA's consumer education site can be found online at http://www.homeloanlearningcenter.com.

MoneyNowUSA.com, an online loan service based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has announced the introduction of a subprime personal loan to help borrowers catch up on mortgage payments.The new product will allow borrowers to take out unsecured four-year loans for up to $15,000 at annual percentage rates ranging from 5% to 20%. "Flexible underwriting allows consumers with bad credit to get cash even if they are currently behind on their housing payments," MoneyNowUSA.com said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.moneynowusa.com.

First American LoanPerformance, a San Francisco-based provider of residential mortgage data and analytics, has announced major enhancements to TrueStandings Securities, a Web-based business intelligence platform that provides loan-level access to the company's mortgage securities database.The company said the enhancements include a new in-progress period reporting function offering the earliest view of performance and prepayment information on 80% of active pools up to 12 business days earlier than previously possible. Improvements also include a bulk export capability enabling faster and more detailed analysis of up to two gigabytes of loan-level data, and a lookup tool for finding securities that match a specific CUSIP number. First American LoanPerformance said its database contains over $2 trillion worth of mortgage transactions representing 85% of active nonagency securitized mortgages. The company can be found online at http://www.loanperformance.com.

VantageScore, Experian's most recently developed credit scoring model, provides lenders with a "more refined segmentation" of the subprime consumer segment than other models, according to the Costa Mesa, Calif.-based provider of information services.Many credit scoring methodologies group subprime consumers into one category, Experian said, but VantageScore allows lenders "to identify pockets of relatively low-risk consumers" within that category. A recent Experian study found that 20% of subprime consumers could be reclassified into lower-risk categories by using VantageScore, the company said. "By providing a more holistic view and a finer definition of the data in the credit profile, VantageScore allows credit grantors to make more precise and predictive lending decisions," said Kerry Williams, group president of credit services and decision analytics at Experian. VantageScore was jointly developed by Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Experian can be found online at http://www.experian.com.

Lydian Data Services, Boca Raton, Fla., has become a BlitzDocs Certified Quality Control and Due Diligence Provider for Alpharetta, Ga.-based Advectis.This means Lydian can now receive electronically imaged loan folders from lenders and investors on the BlitzDocs collaborative document network, and can perform quality control services and due diligence reviews for them, the companies said. Under the partnership, Lydian will be able to accept loans in the full range of delivery formats through the BlitzDocs Collaborative Network, since BlitzDocs supports flow, bulk, or minibulk packaging and delivery of electronic loan folders. The Web-based BlitzDocs automatically maps document types, names, and stacking orders between parties, while allowing "anytime, anywhere" access to electronic loan folders. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.lydiandata.com and http://www.advectis.com.

Leveraging its integration with 250 of the 700 lenders on its system, Mequon, Wis.-based Mortgagebot has launched a direct-to-consumer site, MortgageMarvel.com, to give mortgage shoppers the initial information they are looking for by having them anonymously input just three pieces of information: loan amount, property value, and ZIP code.When search results are returned, those shoppers get a detailed and accurate list of closing costs as part of the anonymously generated rate-and-fee quote. If they want to transact immediately, shoppers can hit the submit button to the lender they select. Twenty minutes later, an accurate good-faith estimate is sent out to them, according to the company. Mortgagebot said the launch of the site capitalizes on predictions that the Internet will be the dominant mortgage channel within five years, now that 70% of mortgage shoppers go the Internet to research rates and fees. The company can be found online at http://www.mortgagebot.com.

AllRegs, an information provider for the mortgage lending industry based in Eagan, Minn., has announced the acquisition of Lender E-Source, a Web-based purveyor of mortgage lending product and underwriting guidelines.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Lender E-Source provides solutions that allow lenders to manage constantly changing loan product and underwriting guidelines through a searchable, automatically managed loan guideline library. "Lender E-Source's LoanLibrary is a perfect complement to our Single-Family Lending Package of GSE and governmental guidelines, as well as our state and federal compliance products," said Glenn Ford, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of AllRegs. Derek Long, the founder of Lender E-Source, will join AllRegs as senior vice president of content and delivery. AllRegs can be found on the Web at http://www.allregs.com.