Technology

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization has announced the formation of an alliance with Ginnie Mae that will establish one or more Government Housing Workgroups within MISMO.The organization said the aim of the alliance is to develop and publish government standards related to electronic mortgage transactions involving government entities within the MISMO framework. "By having future Ginnie Mae reporting and data formats in alignment with established industry standards, and providing Ginnie Mae with a robust forum in which to develop its formats and interface specifications, this is a 'win-win' for both the industry and Ginnie Mae," MISMO said. MISMO, which was established by the Mortgage Bankers Association, develops electronic commerce standards for the mortgage industry. The organization can be found online at http://www.mismo.org.

Homebridge Mortgage Bankers, New York, has announced that the company is changing its name to Refinance.com and launching a national home refinance website portal.The new website will offer easy-to-use refinancing tools and calculators, and the new name will better reflect Homebridge's corporate vision by focusing exclusively on home refinance, the company said. "With this new name comes improved service," said Nicholas Bratsafolis, chairman and chief executive officer of Refinance.com. The new website will enable interested borrowers "to 'try on' different loan products to determine which one best fits their needs," he said. The company can be found online at http://www.refinance.com.

LoanCity, a wholesale mortgage lender based in San Jose, Calif., has announced that brokers using its AU 2.0 automated pricing and underwriting platform will now automatically be shown all home equity options for which their borrowers are eligible.Now when a broker "locks" a first mortgage on the system, he or she will automatically see all the home equity lines and loans that the borrower might also be eligible for, the company said. "Finding the right combination of a first and second mortgage is critical to meeting customer needs, closing deals, and improving the economics of these transactions for brokers," said Rick Soukoulis, LoanCity's chief executive officer. "Our new 'matching seconds' feature accelerates this process and eliminates the possibility of selecting a product that the client won't qualify for, which can add friction to the origination process." The company can be found online at http://www.loancity.com.

Poway, Calif.-based eAppraiseIT, a provider of real estate valuation products and services, has announced the introduction of a "hybrid" valuation product, AVM-Assisted Appraisal.The product is designed for portfolio, second-lien lenders and servicing operations that are now forced to choose between full appraisals and less comprehensive options, such as automated valuation models, the company said. Unlike static automated valuation products, eAppraiseIT's new AVM-Assisted Appraisal is very interactive. "It puts the latest AVM technology at the fingertips of seasoned appraisers, presenting them with the results of three AVMs, access to scores of additional comparables, and a location map of the subject and selected comparables," eAppraiseIT said. At any point, the local appraiser can override the subject (or comparable) property characteristic information, and other factors, eAppraiseIT said. The company can be found online at http://www.eappraiseit.com.

Mortgage Builder Software Inc., Southfield, Mich., has announced an interface with ComplianceEase that it says will enable its customers to determine whether their loans comply with federal, state, and local regulations.ComplianceEase's flagship product, ComplianceAnalyzer, reviews loans for a variety of multijurisdictional compliance regulations. "Mortgage Builder provides the required data, allowing ComplianceEase to perform the testing procedures ensuring the loan is compliant, and then ComplianceEase returns the results via HTML, where they can be viewed and stored for future reference," said Keven Smith, president of Mortgage Builder. The announcement was made at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in Chicago. The companies can be found online at http://www.mortgagebuilder.com and http://www.complianceease.com.

Lender Support Systems Inc., Poway, Calif., has announced the availability of Docs3D, which it termed the company's next-generation loan document creation software.The Web-based application helps streamline the mortgage closing process through a simplified tool that performs accurate annual percentage rate, payment, impound analysis, and high-cost calculations, LSSI said. "We developed Docs3D to provide lenders with a fully compliant, fast, and accurate document preparation solution that seamlessly interfaces with virtually all existing [loan origination systems]," said Cary Burch, president and chief executive officer of LSSI. The software uses standards for all required formats and offers required disclosures for all 50 states, the company said. The announcement was made at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in Chicago. LSSI can be found online at http://www.lendersupport.com.

HomeTeam, Seattle, says it plans to start beta testing of a first-time homebuyer online portal in November.In an interview conducted at the Mortgage Bankers Association annual convention in Chicago, Lisa Oelsner, HomeTeam's vice president of platform strategy, told MortgageWire that the important thing is that the portal will provide "trusted, unbiased content" to the consumer. It will have a link to HomeTeam University, its service to educate consumers about how to select the partners they do business with. But besides the portal, she said, HomeTeam will also do live seminars. HomeTeam is most famous for its syndicated television show, which provides a home to deserving people. The show is starting its second 26-week season. Eric Gorrell, president and chief executive of HomeTeam, explained that consumers need information about the beginning of the homebuying process.

Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp., New York, has announced the launch of a new website at an address that the company says "more accurately depicts the breadth of its offerings."The name of the new site is MIACAnalytics.com. MIAC was founded in 1989 by Wall Street veterans Bob Husted and Paul Van Valkenburg to provide whole-loan and mortgage servicing rights hedge advisory and valuation services. Since then, the company's services have evolved to include valuation, accounting and risk management services, secondary systems, and strategic asset sales. "The scope of our products and services has broadened such that it no longer makes sense for us to position ourselves solely on the servicing side of the business," said Mr. Van Valkenburg. MIAC said it serves as an outsourced project manager for 150 financial institutions across the country. MIAC's original website can still be found online at http://www.servicing.com. The new website can be found at http://www.miacanalytics.com.

Santa Ana, Calif.-based Veros has announced the release of VeroSelect 2.0, a collateral management system that the company says delivers unprecedented capabilities to the lending industry.VeroSelect 2.0 "has redefined collateral management by providing unlimited features, options, and control within a customizable and well-designed user interface," Veros said. The intelligent, automated risk management platform gives lenders control of collateral risk strategies with the secure selection, acceptance, and management of services, vendors, users, and their own proprietary business processes, Veros said. "Lenders understand collateral risk and have the right policies in force inside their institutions, but the vast majority lacks a management system capable of dynamically administering those policies consistently across the enterprise," said Darius Bozorgi, chief executive officer of Veros. "VeroSelect 2.0 gives lenders the power to manage their [automated valuation models, broker price opinions], and appraisals all from one scalable platform." The company can be found on the Web at http://www.verovalue.com.

Dublin, Calif.-based Ellie Mae has launched Encompass Banker Edition, a version of its Encompass Mortgage Automation System designed specifically for mortgage bankers.Encompass Banker Edition incorporates both front-end customer relationship management and loan processing capabilities along with the back-end loan fulfillment functionalities required by small to midsize correspondent mortgage lenders, mortgage bankers, community bankers, and credit unions. The new product leverages the customer relationship management, loan origination, loan processing, electronic document management, business intelligence, and integrated settlement services network capabilities of Encompass Professional edition, Ellie Mae said. To meet the back-end needs of mortgage bankers and lenders, Encompass Banker Edition incorporates an integrated loan fulfillment solution that includes underwriting, closing, funding, secondary marketing, and shipping. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.elliemae.com.