Technology

Two business units of Fiserv Inc. -- Integrated Loan Services, Rocky Hill, Conn., and General American Corp., Pittsburgh -- have combined operations to form the Fulfillment Services Division of Fiserv Lending Solutions.The division will adopt FLS as the parent brand for all products and services, the Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv said. The combination "brings together two leaders in fulfillment services with strengths in different markets," said FLS group president James Puzniak. "ILS has succeeded in the prime equity market by offering innovative solutions, while GAC's strength has been in the subprime and traditional markets." Jerry Smith, chief executive officer of ILS, and Rich Sneddon, CEO of GAC, will hold co-CEO positions with the division, and Lee Howlett will serve as division president and chief operating officer, Fiserv said. Among the division's offerings are the CASA automated valuation model, QuickClose Lien Protection Insurance, the GATORS settlement management system, and various appraisal products, broker price opinions, flood certificates, title insurance, closing services, and outsourced loan processing systems. FLS can be found online at http://www.fiservlendingsolutions.com.

Commerce Velocity, Irvine, Calif., has announced the introduction of an end-to-end group of mortgage services that extends into secondary-market functionality.The company said the group of services "weaves automated processing and superior intelligence throughout the entire mortgage processing channel" to handle lead management, point of sale, eligibility and pricing, underwriting, document preparation, fulfillment, loan risk modeling, and more. Founded in 1999, Commerce Velocity has had its greatest impact so far in offering automated underwriting for subprime and nonconforming loans, particularly for wholesale transactions. Funding America recently adopted Commerce Velocity's CQ BrokerConnect Automated Underwriting platform to provide brokers and borrowers with instant pricing, pre-qualification, and AU approvals. The company can be found online at http://www.cvelocity.com.

WellFound Decade Corp., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced that Alaska USA Federal Credit Union is deploying WellFound Decade's Mortgage Integration Foundation to integrate its systems.The implementation marks a shift in strategy for Alaska USA, which had originally sought to deploy an end-to-end loan origination system, WellFound said. "Alaska wanted to deploy technology for its member-direct channel, a [point-of-sale] system for its originators, and wanted to automate the MERS registry," said Brian Fitzpatrick, president of WellFound Decade. "With the Mortgage Integration Foundation providing the integration architecture for all systems, they no longer had to invest into integrating all these components to an LOS system which might be replaced or upgraded in the future." The main components for the implementation are scheduled to be in place within 120 days of initiating the project. "We can integrate systems much faster than anyone else in the mortgage industry because we have already built adaptors to most of today's leading IT systems," Mr. Fitzpatrick asserted. WellFound Decade can be found online at http://www.wellfounddecade.com.

Application service provider ARC Systems, Austin, Texas, has announced that Austin-based Amherst Funding Group has chosen ARC's LendTech for commitment management and eligibility determination of closed loans.According to the announcement, AFG expects to launch the implementation in the first quarter of 2006. To streamline the commitment process, each closed loan will be submitted by the seller to the Web-based LendTech platform using AFG guidelines governing the seller's particular commitment with AFG. ARC Systems said the implementation will help AFG track loans more efficiently, ensure data integrity, and eventually perform complex automated underwriting on its flow and bulk purchases. Amherst Funding Group LP was formed in 2004 to acquire closed loans for trading and securitization, including closed agency and alternative-A mortgage loans, under mandatory flow and bulk commitments. ARC Systems can be found online at http://www.arcsystems.com.

First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., and Dorado Corp., San Mateo, Calif., have announced jointly developing a common, unified point-of-sale platform.The new platform will combine Dorado ChannelMaster enterprise lending software and Dorado SourceMaster intelligent ordering software with First American's Web services-based vendor management platform, the companies said. The new platform, scheduled to be available by the end of first-quarter 2006, is designed to offer lenders on-demand loan processing and fulfillment at the point of sale. The companies currently provide integrated POS solutions to EverBank, Oak Street Mortgage, and Union Bank of California. Dorado ChannelMaster provides on-demand, POS access to third-party services. Its SourceMaster is a rules-based settlement services platform. First American's Web services-based vendor management platform offers state-of-the-art bundling and third-party services procurement, the companies said. First American can be found online at http://www.firstam.com, and Dorado can be found at http://www.dorado.com.

Wells Fargo, Des Moines, Iowa, has selected Vienna, Va.-based VirPack to support Wells Fargo Delivery Express by providing electronic loan delivery and imaging for transactions with Wells Fargo's correspondent lending partners.Instead of mailing loan packages, correspondents can use VirPack Direct to transmit loan files to Wells Fargo Funding for purchase review. Loans identified for delivery to Wells are instantly retrieved from the VirPack system and delivered securely. Delivered free to VirPack customers, VirPack Direct is integrated with VirPack's imaging solutions and its barcoding, scan capture, and electronic document-management tools. VirPack boasts that its imaging systems can be installed and in production within three days. Wells Fargo Funding's client base includes more than 1,000 banks, thrifts, and mortgage lenders nationwide. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.wellsfargo.com and http://www.virpack.com.

Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Experian has announced the launch of Portfolio Benchmarking and Trend Analysis, touting it as "the first total portfolio management and acquisition solution on the market today."The tool is built on Experian's File One consumer credit database and tracks changes in credit activity to enable quick assessment of current conditions in support of strategic portfolio decisions, the company said. One example cited by Experian is the use of the tool to profile consumers in a specific metropolitan statistical area, state, or region based on delinquency, loan amount, utilization, and inquiry behaviors. Portfolio managers are enabled to look at changes in 30-, 60- and 90-day delinquency trends to adjust risk-management protocols. The tool offers a snapshot generated from a statistically valid 20% random sample of Experian's File One consumer credit database, which currently includes records dating back to 2003. Experian can be found on the Web at http://www.experian.com.

Stewart Geo Technologies, a subsidiary of real estate information provider Stewart Information Services Corp., has announced the unveiling of Stewart re-source, a Web-based site analysis tool for commercial real estate professionals.Stewart re-source provides map-based searches and access to demographic reports, flood certifications, aerial images, property outlines, and dynamic flood, earthquake, demographic, and hazardous material maps, the company said. "Stewart re-source enables real estate professionals such as developers, lenders, brokers, insurers, and investors to search for properties and generate dynamic reports as part of their due-diligence process," said Kas Ebrahim, president and chief executive officer of Stewart Geo Technologies. "All the necessary resources are in one place, and with the Web-based application, data can be accessed from any computer with Internet connectivity. It also can be branded and integrated with the user's own data." The new tool can be found online at http://www.stewartsource.com.

Citing FBI statistics showing mortgage fraud on the rise, Calabasas, Calif.-based Interthinx has announced the integration of its DISSCO fraud detection and prevention system with Fiserv's easyLender mortgage loan origination system.Loans originated in Fiserv's easyLender now can be instantly submitted to DISSCO for automatic screening, with no rekeying necessary. DISSCO (data integrity search and score system) is an electronic fraud-prevention tool that can instantly search hundreds of mortgage-related data fields in a loan record to identify and score misinformation, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies that could indicate fraud. A DISSCO report is issued with step-by-step recommendations on how to respond. Interthinx can be found online at http://www.interthinx.com.

The First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, San Diego, have announced the launch of the NAHREP National Referral Network on MSN Latino Finanzas, a Spanish-language Web destination.The referral network offers a wide range of integrated real estate service providers who are ready to assist Spanish-speaking consumers interested in buying a home, First American and NAHREP said. "Home seekers who choose to take advantage of this referral network can rest assured that they will be guided, end-to-end, through the homebuying process by qualified advocates committed to their satisfaction," said NAHREP chairman Frances Martinez Myers. First American can be found online at http://www.firstam.com, and MSN Latino Finanzas can be found at http://www.latino.msn.com/promo/finanzas.