Technology

In a win for the Internet-based loan origination system model, Metavante Corp. has announced that Platinum Home Mortgage, Rolling Meadows, Ill., is upgrading to Metavante's online Mortgage Loan Origination Studio Software.Platinum president Bill Giambrone, a Metavante client since 2002, said the company chose moving to a Web-based mortgage LOS "to improve loan officer productivity and increase sales, while reducing the cost of maintaining client-server software on our employees' desktops." He said MLOS was one of the most feature-rich browser-based applications available. MLOS offers to help eliminate the high cost of distributing and maintaining desktop software on its originators' computers and reduce the risk associated with applications installed on laptops. Platinum can be found online at http://www.ephmc.com, and Metavante can be found at http://www.metavante.com.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Minneapolis, has named Ken Newton executive vice president of banking content.Mr. Newton will be responsible for the company's overall growth in the banking, credit union, indirect lending, and mortgage markets. Prior to this promotion, Mr. Newton served as the vice president and chief operations officer for WKFS, where he led the operational aspects of the organization's manufacturing, customer support, product distribution, and enterprise systems. He also led the implementation of Lean Six Sigma across the company. WKFS can be found on the Web at http://www.wolterskluwerfs.com.

Integra Software Systems, a provider of mortgage origination software based in Brentwood, Tenn., has acquired the assets of Financial Compliance Corp. for an undisclosed amount."We are finding that more lenders, especially banks, want one software partner to handle their overall lending processing needs," said Integra president Jerry Pratt. Tim Bartek, senior vice president of sales-marketing for Integra, said the acquisition "is going to be a tremendous, immediate complement to our Destiny mortgage loan origination system, which is among the most robust in the industry. Now, we can also address lenders' other software needs -- beyond residential mortgages." Integra said it will immediately begin marketing FCC's WinBanker and WinDeposit as standalone products, and plans eventually to integrate key features into the Destiny software. The company also announced that Jim Williams, formerly president of FCC, has joined Integra, bringing over 30 years of experience in software development for banks and other lenders.

Zenta, a knowledge and business process outsourcing company based in New York, and Ellie Mae, Dublin, Calif., have entered into an affiliated partner agreement to offer Zenta's Broker Services through Ellie Mae's ePASS Network Web portal.Zenta Broker Services is a hybrid onshore/offshore service delivery platform that provides a low-cost alternative to in-house loan processing. Zenta said the platform has been designed to provide rapid turn times on loan processes and to comply with strict quality guidelines to improve processes by eliminating defects in the loan processing service. By combining Zenta's loan processing approach with Ellie Mae's Encompass Mortgage Management software, "users will get faster, higher-quality, and more-secure transfer of data and documents," the companies said. The companies can be found online at http://www.zenta.com and http://www.elliemae.com.

Bank of the West, one of the nation's 25 largest banks, is automating its commercial loan origination process using ILog JRules, a key offering in ILog's Business Rule Management System product line.The announcement comes after an 18-month search and implementation process. Bank of the West said it expects to compress the average approval time to five hours from the three-to-five days it now takes with a manual process, significantly increasing its service level. The bank pilot-tested 300 users out of a total population of 1,000 salespeople and business bankers who would ultimately use the system, taking eight weeks to "work out the kinks and deal with any unforeseen issues." The bank said it expects to do its full production rollout by the end of August. Bank of the West can be found online at http://www.bankofthewest.com, and ILog can be found at http://www.ilog.com.

Interactive communications specialist Varolii Corp. has announced that BOK Mortgage, a division of $18 billion multibank holding company BOK Financial, is now using Varolii's interactive collections system to reduce its mortgage delinquency ratio.Since adding Varolii to its mortgage collections process, BOK Mortgage has realized a 12% reduction in its mortgage delinquency ratio, according to the announcement. BOK Mortgage leverages the Varolii platform to automate much of the communications process around early-stage delinquencies, enabling the company to focus its contact center resources on more complex, high-priority accounts. Seattle-based Varolii can be found online at http://www.varolii.com, and BOK Financial can be found at http://www.bokf.com.

Starting July 22, Fannie Mae's automated underwriting system will alert lenders if the collateral for a mortgage is located in an area where house prices are declining.In such cases, Fannie's Desktop Underwriter will send a message to lenders that they need to carefully review the appraisal to ensure its accuracy and require additional information from the appraiser, if necessary. Appraisers should describe market trends and the effects it will have on the value of the property, Fannie says in an announcement to its seller/servicers. "It is unacceptable for the appraiser to ignore these issues and not report the factual property value trends and market conditions," Announcement 07-11 says. The government-sponsored enterprise can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Capital Markets Cooperative, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., has announced an alliance with Fannie Mae aimed at providing CMC members greater benefits when selling loans to the secondary market.CMC members will now have access to Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter platform in addition to advantageous pricing, increased flexibility in methods of execution, and a variety of loan products and value-added services, CMC said. "[O]ur clients now have greater flexibility and receive better pricing on the loans they sell upstream to Fannie Mae," said CMC president Tom Millon. "They'll also pay lower fees to use Desktop Underwriter." CMC, a provider of services aimed at reducing risk and maximizing profits for mortgage bankers, can be found online at http://www.capmkts.org, and Fannie Mae can be found at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Visre Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced that it will provide appraisal software firms, automated valuation model providers, and mortgage lenders immediate accessibility to millions of auditable residential photos through its Residential Appraisal Image Library.Geo-coded to property addresses, Visre can deliver singular 2-megapixel parcel photos as well as larger panoramas blended from multiple photos to showcase subject properties, comparable properties, and neighboring parcels. Historically, calls to include imagery in AVMs have been slow to materialize as providers have only recently begun exploring how valuations can be photo-enhanced without affecting critical response times. Offering benefits to appraisal software developers and AVM providers, Visre's RAIL solution provides clients an API for rapid software integration. Visre said it sees street-level video as the next step in evolving property appraisals. The company can be found online at http://www.visre.com.

Dorado Corp., a mortgage technology provider based in San Mateo, Calif., has entered a strategic alliance with First Canadian Title.Under the agreement between the two companies, First Canadian Title will be the exclusive distributor of Dorado's Enterprise Lending System to mortgage lenders and banks in Canada, and the Canadian company will not distribute any other companies' loan origination technology. "Dorado's on-demand loan origination technology is a complementary component to Canadian Title's end-to-end integrated lending solution," said David Wybrow, senior vice president of First Canadian Title.