Technology

The Office of Thrift Supervision has closed NetBank in Alpharetta, Ga., after the $2.5 billion thrift sustained "significant losses" in its mortgage banking business and was unsuccessful in completing a private sale.NetBank, which opened as an Internet bank in 1997, is still solvent, but the OTS said the depository had no remaining prospects for raising capital or achieving profitability. "While the institution continued to operate in excess of minimum capital standards, the actions taken to address these problems were unsuccessful and it became clear that high operating expenses combined with continuing losses were jeopardizing the institution's viability," the regulator said. As the receiver, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has arranged for ING Bank, Wilmington, Del., to assume the insured deposits. The Internet bank had $109 million in uninsured deposits, and those depositors will become creditors of the receivership. Meanwhile, EverBank, Jacksonville, Fla., has agreed to purchase $700 million in mortgages and the FDIC will retain $1.1 billion in assets. The FDIC says it expects the bank failure to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $110 million.

Intellidyn Corp., a Hingham, Mass.-based marketing firm, has announced that it now enables clients to identify and target refinance offers to homeowners currently in the market who had originated with lenders that no longer exist."Years of business intelligence data show that typically 50% to 60% of refinance borrowers return to their prior lender for refinancing," said Intellidyn president and chief executive officer Peter Harvey. "But now more than 130 of those lenders have 'imploded' and disappeared from the landscape. Identifying these homeowners, then targeting them with appropriate offers when they are in-market to refinance again creates a mini-boom-type niche that won't last very long. By enabling our clients to capture this opportunity in a timely manner, Intellidyn is providing a critical survival mechanism to bolster lenders facing a challenging fourth quarter." Intellidyn can be found on the Web at http://www.intellidyn.com.

Peter Muriungi has been named senior vice president at EMC Mortgage, Lewisville, Texas, and he will head the company's Financial Analytics and Structured Transactions (F.A.S.T.) and business information teams.Since joining EMC in 1999, Mr. Muriungi has been involved with the development and deployment of default risk models, deal performance analytics, and other valuation models as part of the F.A.S.T. and business information groups. EMC, a subsidiary of Bear Stearns, developed the F.A.S.T. system.

ARC Systems of Austin, Texas -- which offers loan underwriting and related software to mortgage bankers -- is considering selling the company, or what its president calls "our intellectual property."Company chief executive and founder Ed Jones said the technology provider has not yet hired an investment banker to represent it. "We're a clean company," he said. "We have no debt." Founded in 1984, ARC flourished during the subprime boom as lenders and investors bought its software to analyze nonconforming loans. Over the past year, some of its mortgage banking clients have either exited the nonprime niche or filed for bankruptcy protection. LendTech is one of its software products. The company can be found online at http://www.arcsystems.com.

Axis Financial, a Seattle-based company that bills itself as a one-stop shop for construction loans, has announced the launch of a new website.Tyler Simmonds, a principal partner in the company, said the Pacific Northwest and the Inland Empire are still growing, contributing to the company's expansion. "You will find that most mortgage brokers and loan officers don't understand the construction process, and shy away from these transactions," he said. Axis Financial's new website can be found online at http://www.wefundconstruction.com.

San Francisco-based Compass Analytics LLC has announced the release of its Mortgage Servicing Rights Analytics to provide loan-level and aggregated modeling capabilities for mortgage servicers and servicing investors.The MSR Analytics, developed with input from Denver-based MountainView Servicing Group, will be released as a fully integrated part of Compass's mortgage analytics platform CompassPoint. The system will include both static and option-adjusted spread valuations and will allow analysts to use loan-level adjusters on all models, include integration to industry-standard prepayment models, integrate accounting functionality, and include speed-enhancing parallel processing. According to the announcement, the MSR Analytics will be available for hosted and installation implementations. A specific MSR Trading option will also be available. The company can be found online at http://www.compass-analytics.com.

L2C, an Atlanta-based credit scoring company specializing in helping lenders reach the "underbanked" market, has announced the release of a new version of its Link2Credit Score customized for the mortgage industry.The mortgage-specific score was launched to provide a more accurate risk assessment tool for evaluating underbanked applicants, the company said. "In the wake of the subprime meltdown in the mortgage space, lenders are reluctant to extend loans to consumers with thin credit, even though many of these prospects are actually low-risk," said Mike Mondelli, president of L2C. "By using our mortgage-specific version of Link2Credit to identify these low-risk consumers, mortgage lenders are finding a new, relatively untapped market that can boost profitability without incurring the risk posed by subprime borrowers." The company can be found online at http://www.l2cinc.com.

The Mortgage Asset Research Institute, a Reston, Va.-based service of ChoicePoint, has announced the release of what it calls the first phase of a series of enhancements to its Mortgage Industry Data Exchange antifraud database.The redesigned MIDEX 2.5 offers new features to assist the mortgage industry in identifying individuals associated with mortgage fraud. "A new user interface has been developed to help users access and categorize information more quickly," MARI said. "Additionally, the search logic has been improved to return results that are most relevant to queries." MARI can be found on the Web at http://www.mari-inc.com.

Citing declining market conditions, Portellus Inc., Irvine, Calif., has announced plans to wind down its mortgage technology business unit and sell the unit's supporting technology assets.Portellus said, however, that arrangements have been made to preserve the company's multipurpose business rules management system, which will continue to be sold via licensing agreements into other vertical markets. "After assessing the market's technology buying landscape over the next 18 to 24 months, Portellus elected to discontinue its mortgage business and instead focus efforts on more promising BRMS prospects," the company said. Portellus said it is divesting itself of its mortgage technology operations and plans to hold an auction for its intellectual property and other assets. Portellus' mortgage technology framework includes: a Web-based loan origination system; a product and pricing engine; an automated underwriting system; an integration services hub; and point-of-sale portals for the broker, retail, and correspondent lending channels. The company can be found online at http://www.portellus.com.

Rochester, N.Y.-based Xerox Corp. plans to buy e-collaboration vendor Advectis, Atlanta, for $32 million.Xerox’s expertise in document outsourcing and related services is what led the company to Advectis, a privately owned business. Advectis' Web-based BlitzDocs Collaboration Suite helps lenders, brokers, and investors manage the process needed to underwrite, audit, collaborate, deliver and archive loan documents electronically. "We're looking to help clients reduce costs and transform their business by offering a better experience for both end-users and operations," said John Kelly, president of Xerox Global Services North America. "Xerox's expertise in automating document processes is an ideal fit with Advectis' BlitzDocs paperless solution for mortgages." Xerox's all-cash purchase of Advectis also includes an additional performance-based supplement to the sale price. The acquisition is expected to close in the next 30 days. All Advectis employees will be retained. Xerox's document technology and services portfolio includes consulting and outsourcing services, records management, digital imaging, e-discovery for litigation support, and managed services in more than 160 countries.