Technology

In May, WMC Mortgage, now a GE company, will launch a pre-qualification program that loan officers can access on their BlackBerrys and other hand-held devices.Already launched internally for use by WMC account executives, pre-quals will soon be offered to its approved brokers. The Woodland Hills, Calif.-based subprime wholesaler will start tracking conversions from pre-quals to actual submissions and funded loans once it is pushed out to the loan officers. For a test ride, go to http://www.wmcmortgage.com/prequalm. (If the screen looks strange, that's because it was designed for a personal digital assistant instead of a personal computer.) WMC Mortgage can be found online at http://www.wmcdirect.com.

United Communications Group, Rockville, Md., a provider of business information, tools and guidance, has formed a strategic partnership with Westlake Village, Calif.-based LoanToolbox, a provider of educational and marketing tools for mortgage originators.LoanToolbox said the transaction will enable it to leverage UCG's 28 years of experience in product design and development, direct marketing, content creation, software, and other areas in order to expand its core business. UCG delivers products to mortgage bankers and brokers, as well as to business professionals in other areas of finance, health care, technology, and other industries. LoanToolbox's online community offers an Internet-based application that combines interactive content aligned with the business needs and objectives of originators, loan officers, and real estate financing consultants. LoanToolbox can be found on the Web at http://www.loantoolbox.com.

Englewood, Colo.-based TeleTech Holdings Inc. and LenderLive, a Glendale, Colo.-based mortgage fulfillment provider, have entered into an exclusive partnership that brings a global delivery network to LenderLive's operations.LenderLive and TeleTech, a business process outsourcing provider of customer management and transaction-based processing systems, offer their combined services to retail and wholesale channels and mortgage conduits, allowing lenders to increase the speed and efficiency of their current processing services and converting lenders' fixed costs to variable costs. The multiyear partnership agreement includes mortgage origination, fulfillment, processing, and portfolio protection. LenderLive and TeleTech also generate integrated sales reports that span from original lead generation to close of sale. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.teletech.com and http://www.lenderlive.com.

ComplianceEase, a San Francisco-based provider of automated compliance and risk-management systems, has been selected by ICBA Mortgage, a subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America, as the Premier Value Provider for anti-predatory/high-cost lending compliance solutions.As a designated ICBA SmartLender Services Premier Value Provider, ComplianceEase offers member community banks the opportunity to automate their compliance needs by using the company’s ComplianceAnalyzer, an automated mortgage compliance application. Specifically, ComplianceAnalyzer automates regulatory compliance procedures, allowing community banks to comply with all federal, state, and municipal legislation.

Minneapolis-based Dexma has forged a new relationship with information and services provider LexisNexis U.S. that Dexma says will help its customers and those of Prime Alliance Solutions fight fraud.Through a reseller agreement with LexisNexis, Dexma and Prime Alliance will offer anti-fraud products such as InstantID and InstantID Q&A. InstantID helps lenders verify the identity of mortgage applicants and others seeking credit approval. By conducting a proprietary search against over 1,400 independent data sources and nearly four billion consumer records, the tool verifies that each data element (name, address, Social Security #, birth date, phone #, driver's license #) is authentic and associated with the individual applicant, Dexma said. It also identifies high-risk addresses such as prisons or campgrounds, disconnected phone numbers, Social Security numbers of deceased persons, anyone on a government terrorist list, and discrepancies in data elements. If the applicant fails the InstantID or triggers other "red flags," lenders can use InstantID Q&A to authenticate identity by leveraging the database of publicly available data, the company said. Dexma can be found on the Web at http://www.dexma.com.

Visionet Systems, Cranbury, N.J., has launched VisiHCLAS, a high-cost predatory-lending analysis and remediation tool for lenders and servicers.VisiHCLAS helps mortgage companies manage and monitor situations where a high-risk loan warrants additional charges. The system allows users to evaluate fees and interest rates against the statutory limits set by high-cost loan regulations by focusing on three types of rules: channel/broker/area-specific rules, corporate guidelines and interpretation of statutory rules, and base/HOEPA/section 32 and state rules. VisiHCLAS works on an exception-management-based workflow system and allows the user to customize and select rules without IT's involvement. VisiHCLAS also enables users to specify loan numbers to be set up for review within VisiHCLAS, and the system in return pulls in the loan data and fee information from VisiHCLAS for the specified loans and sets up the loan analysis tasks in the system. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.visionetsystems.com.

San Jose, Calif.-based wholesaler LoanCity is poised to announce the release of AU 2.0, a proprietary automated underwriting system that delivers recommendations and stipulations in the same format and time frame as Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter.The benefit Loan City claims for brokers is that they can underwrite everything but hardcore subprime loans without exiting one AU system to run loans through another. The company calls AU 2.0 "the next generation of automated decisioning," because it lets mortgage brokers upload files in three clicks and receive firm decisions "almost instantly." The company offers group loan programs in seven broad product bands: conforming, jumbo, expanded, alternative-A, alternative-B, FHA/VA, and seconds. Within each band, there are wide ranges of credit, property, underwriting, and documentation options. The company can be found online at http://www.loancity.com.

Fannie Mae has loosened its mortgage approval standards for lower-income borrowers as it strives to meet its government-mandated affordable housing goals.Starting April 23, Fannie's automated underwriting system will approve more home purchase loans for borrowers with incomes of 100% (or less) of the area median income. This enhancement to Desktop Underwriter applies to most single-family loans, including Fannie's expanded approval loans. "It is important to note that DU will apply the same risk assessment as it does today (we are not changing the way DU analyzes risk for these loans); instead, we are changing (improving) the underwriting recommendation when the loan is identified by DU as meeting criteria for our regulatory housing goals to serve low- and moderate-income borrowers," Fannie says in a note to lenders. Fannie and Freddie Mac face incrementally higher affordable housing goals through 2008, and the Department Housing and Urban Development has made the goals more challenging by creating home purchase subgoals. Fannie has disclosed that it fell short in meeting two of the three subgoals in 2005.

Loan origination vendor Dynatek Inc., Livonia, Mich., has been certified for automated underwriting systems by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.The AUS certification is only weeks old, and Dynatek is the first company to receive AUS certification under the MISMO MXCompliance Program. Specifically, Dynatek's MORvision was certified for AUS version 2.3.1. Since launching the MISMO eXtensible Markup Language Compliance program (dubbed MXCompliance) for the credit reporting transaction last spring, MISMO has rolled out requirements for mortgage insurance application transactions and now AUS transactions. Dynatek was one of the first to earn certification for credit in October 2005, followed by MI in January 2006. Dynatek can be found on the Web at http://www.dynatek.com.

Stewart Mortgage Information, Houston, has launched Collateral Profile, an alternative real valuation product available through e-Title, SMI's national vendor management company.The new valuation tool uses the expertise of local real estate professionals in conjunction with online data sources to render a valuation. "The product analyzes data from three comparable data sources and generates a desktop report providing basic information on the subject property, including neighborhood conditions, and also provides a value range for the subject property," said Kevin Gugenheim, SMI's president and chief operating officer. E-Title offers settlement services to lenders, including insured and uninsured title products, centralized closing and settlement solutions, and automated and traditional valuation products. SMI can be found online at http://smi.stewart.com.