Technology

First American Real Estate Solutions, Anaheim, Calif., a provider of property information and services, has formed a strategic alliance with -- and purchased a minority interest in -- ComplianceEase, a provider of regulatory compliance and risk management technology based in Burlingame, Calif.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. As part of the strategic partnership, ComplianceEase's flagship product, ComplianceAnalyzer, will be tightly integrated into First American's mortgage technology platforms to provide lenders and investors with an automated compliance system, First American said. ComplianceAnalyzer automatically performs critical checks and calculations necessary to ensure compliance on every loan that is originated or purchased. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.firstamres.com and http://www.complianceease.com.

Harbourton Mortgage Investment Corp., Santa Rosa, Calif., has selected the Portellus Broker Portal to serve its broker network at the point of sale.The system has been customized to HMIC's specific program offerings, and will be private-labeled as HELPS (Harbourton Electronic Loan Processing Solution). HMIC will also be using the Portellus loan origination, business rules management, and automated underwriting systems. The portal, scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter, will give brokers real-time access to pricing, pre-qualifications, credit/debt management, and automated credit approvals at the point of sale. According to HMIC, the system includes automated best-fit product and pricing determination, the ability to pull/re-pull credit, debt management and deal structuring, up-to-date pipeline loan status, rate-lock capability, and AU approvals complete with pricing, underwriting conditions, and exceptions. Portellus Inc.. Irvine, Calif., bills itself as a leader in the application of Service Oriented Architecture for the mortgage banking and insurance industries. The companies can be found online at http://www.hmic.com and http://www.portellus.com.

The volume of online wholesale mortgage lending exceeded that of online retail lending by nearly three to one in 2004, according to TowerGroup, a financial services research and consulting firm based in Needham, Mass.Online wholesale lending grew from 15.0% of total mortgage origination in 2001 to 20.5% last year, while retail online lending rose from 3.5% to 7.3% during the same period, TowerGroup said. The systems that support online wholesale lending -- such as website hosting, loan product and price management, and third-party settlement services -- "have become mission-critical for virtually all wholesale lenders, regardless of size," the company said. A new report by TowerGroup, "Wholesale Mortgage Lending: Online Lending Adoption, Lender Segments and Technology," looks at the growth of online lending and analyzes wholesale lending segments by lender size and product type. The company can be found online at http://www.towergroup.com.

Spectrum Equity Investors has announced the completion of an $84 million recapitalization of Mortgagebot, Cedarburg, Wis., that will give Spectrum a majority stake in the mortgage technology company.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Michael Kennealy and Benjamin Spero of Spectrum will join Mortgagebot's board of directors as a result of the recapitalization. "Mortgagebot is a perfect fit for Spectrum, given our firm's focus on recapitalization of profitable software and information services companies with strong growth potential and recurring-revenue business models," said Mr. Kennealy, a Spectrum managing director. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.spectrumequity.com and http://www.mortgagebot.com.

Three companies from the credit reporting sector -- Bixby Consulting, Fair Isaac Corp., and Gallagher Financial Systems Inc. -- have completed the compliance certification process under the recently launched MISMO XML Compliance for credit reporting, according to the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.MISMO said MXCompliance allows implementers of its Internet-based XML standards to reference requirements and take steps toward becoming officially compliant, as well as validate their XML. There are three types of MXCompliance services: verification, import, and export. Verification is a service for businesses interested in purchasing certified products and services from organizations that are certified as MISMO-compliant. For a nominal fee, the verification service ensures that vendor products and services have maintained compliance with the products that were MXCompliance-certified. The import and export services are used by applicants seeking certification of their product or service interfaces under MISMO standards. MISMO is a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In using mortgage keywords to get high search-engine ratings, Internet specialists like E-Loan and LendingTree continue to make a strong showing against big banks like Wells, Chase, and Citi, according to Novato, Calif.-based SEMphonic, a search engine analytics firm.For the top 50 mortgage-relevant keywords on both Yahoo and Google, SEMphonic's MarketScan tool showed E-Loan and LendingTree ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. The top 10 companies were: eloan.com, lendingtree.com, bankrate.com, lowermybills.com, quickenloans.com, nextag.com, mortgage101.com, comparefreequotes.com, homestore.com, and interest.com. These top 10 companies made up 38% of all paid and unpaid mortgage keyword listings showing up on Yahoo and Google. Countrywide and Bank of America ranked No. 13 and No. 14, respectively.

RealEC Technologies, a Houston-based electronic exchange for mortgage fulfillment transactions, has announced that its business recovery preparations are expected to ensure minimal, if any, interruption in service if Hurricane Rita makes landfall near its main data center in Houston.RealEC said it has fully engaged its established business continuation plan, including the deployment of several teams to Dallas, Austin, Texas, and Santa Ana, Calif. "These teams have been organized to respond immediately should the data center operations need to be redirected to RealEC's redundant data center in Austin, Texas," the company said. RealEC added, however, that such a redirection is not expected because its Houston facility includes an on-site generator, flood controls, and redundant Internet connections. The company can be found online at http://www.realec.com.

To serve its 5,000 loan officers in 600 offices nationwide, Houston-based Allied Home Mortgage has picked Seattle-based Entellium's Pro-Activity customer relationship management product over Salesforce and other leading CRM products.An Allied spokesperson cited ease of use and low cost of ownership as reasons for picking Entellium. Pro-Activity automates user-selected reports and instantly sends pre-formatted and merged documents, such as contracts, proposals, invoices, and follow-up materials, to designated contacts. Entellium says the product is the most user-centric CRM system on the market, backed by 43,000 hours of usability research. Allied, the nation's largest privately held mortgage company, handles as many as 12,000 loans per month.

Fidelity National Information Services' Hansen Quality, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc. based in Jacksonville, Fla., has launched HQ FraudID report, an automated fraud screening tool with a focus on identity fraud.HQ FraudID report searches over 70 potential risk indicators to determine the level of risk associated with each potential borrower. This includes multiple verifications of the borrower's name, address, Social Security number, and phone number, as well as other pertinent information. The results of the verifications are summarized and assigned an Identity Fraud Score, which indicates the severity of risk factors detected for identity theft, intentional misrepresentation, fraud, or elevated credit risks. The Fidelity family of companies can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com.

Buffalo, N.Y.-based Appraisal.com and ACI, Palm Coast, Fla., have worked together to develop what they say is a seamless bridge between ACI's appraisal desktop software and the Appraisal.com National Appraisal Network.Real estate appraisers who use ACI or Lighthouse-enabled appraisal software can now process, retrieve, and provide status updates on appraisal orders from Appraisal.com's Nationwide Appraisal Network without leaving their desktop, the companies said. Appraisers using this new technology can prepare and process reports and upload completed appraisals with both a traditional portable document format (PDF) and a full Extensible Markup Language (XML) data stream directly into the Nationwide Appraisal Network for delivery and storage. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.appraisal.com and http://www.aci.com.