Technology

Framework, a Tarrytown, N.Y.-based technology company, was acquired last year by Bank of America, but now BoA has decided to cut its losses and shut the company down by the end of this year.A spokeswoman for BoA confirmed in an interview with Mortgage Wire that the lending institution has decided to close down the technology company. Framework provided an e-business platform in the form of its configurable enterprise software, called LendWare. With LendWare Workflow 3.0, Framework upgraded its Web-based software service component to enable the sharing of configuration and run-time information between different workflow engines. Earlier in the year the company announced plans to release an out-of-the-box version for smaller lenders because larger lenders were reluctant to buy bank-owned technology. (For more details, see the Nov. 8 issue of National Mortgage News.)

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Pasadena, Calif., the holding company for IndyMac Bank, has reported pro forma net earnings of $56.4 million ($0.88 per share) for the third quarter, compared with net earnings of $49.7 million ($0.87 per share) a year earlier.The company said earnings were reported on a pro forma basis rather than under generally accepted accounting principles in order to provide comparability with its earnings reports in previous quarters. (The difference between GAAP and pro forma earnings in the third quarter stems from the implementation of SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 105 and purchase accounting adjustments related to IndyMac's acquisition of Financial Freedom Holdings Inc., the company said.) IndyMac produced a record $10.3 billion of mortgage loans in the third quarter, up 21% from the level of a year earlier, the company said. "The results this quarter were very strong due to solid execution on our two key strategies: to use our thrift portfolio capabilities to generate increased earnings and to increase market share as the mortgage industry transitions to a more normal post-refinance boom level," said Michael W. Perry. IndyMac's chairman and chief executive officer. IndyMac can be found online at http://www.indymacbank.com.

Fitch Risk, an affiliate of Fitch Ratings that provides risk technologies and services, has announced an agreement under which Freddie Mac will license Fitch Risk's OpVar software.The company said Freddie Mac will use the software's operational risk data collection, analysis, and reporting to improve Freddie's risk management capabilities. Fitch Risk said OpVantage, its operational risk division, is the first company to market operational risk software. The company can be found online at http://www.fitchrisk.com.

Fidelity Information Systems, Jacksonville, Fla., is investing millions of dollars to enhance its home equity line of credit servicing functionality.Fidelity said about half of its Mortgage Servicing Package customers currently have the HELOC functionality installed in their organizations. MSP is used to service some 30 million mortgage loans. As part of the enhancements, Fidelity said it intends to provide MSP users with credit card interfacing for HELOC loans. Fidelity said Dovenmuehle Mortgage, EMC Mortgage, Navy Federal Credit Union, and Aurora Loan Services are among the firms capitalizing on the HELOC benefits.

GatorSystems, a Pittsburgh-based unit of Fiserv Lending Solutions, has announced the introduction of GatorSearch, a Web-based abstracting platform designed to streamline the title examination process.The company said the system, developed in collaboration with New York-based Realty Data Corp., enables users to execute self-service title searches, thereby reducing the turnaround time associated with traditional abstracting. Those who don't choose to run reports from their own computers can use the system's Examination Network, a team of professional abstractors able to return a comprehensive report within eight hours of receiving the order, according to GatorSystems. "GatorSearch fundamentally changes the way title companies and vendor management companies can do business," said Christopher Behning, senior vice president and chief technology officer at General American Corp., of which GatorSystems is a division. Fiserv and GAC can be found online at http://www.fiserv.com and http://www.gac.com.

PaperClip, Hackensack, N.J., has launched an integrated document management and loan processing system called VirtualLoanFolder.com, the company announced at the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Convention in San Francisco.The product offers borrowers, originators, service providers and lenders a paperless processing solution that has conditions clearing, document management, workflow and secure document delivery functionality. In addition, the application is Web-based and linked directly to a user's loan origination software. PaperClip can be found on the Web at http://www.paperclip.com.

Oklahoma City-based a la mode has announced that it will offer electronic signature capability to all its real estate agent, broker, inspector, loan officer, and appraiser customers through the company's XSites Network.Specifically, a la mode signed an agreement to use Wave's eSign Transaction Management Suite, which allows users of XSites (formerly called the Mercury Network) to manage business processes and transactions online and create, sign, store, access, and manage the lifecycle of electronic records within a loan folder. The announcement was made at the Mortgage Bankers Association's Annual Convention in San Francisco. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.alamode.com.

Costs can be lowered as much as $249 per loan by adopting standards developed by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, according to a study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association at its annual convention in San Francisco.The study, the first-ever MISMO time-and-motion study to quantify the return on investment of adopting MISMO standards, found that 75% of the lowered costs directly benefit the lender, the MBA reported. Execution costs can be improved by 15.38 basis points, a 25% to 50% pickup in lending margins, or $450 for the average loan. As for time savings, lender respondents reported that it was possible to process a loan 16% faster when using MISMO standards. Only 40% of lenders say they are using MISMO, but 40% to 50% say they plan to use the standards in the near future. The survey was sent to all MISMO participants and Campus MBA and MBA NewsLink recipients. It was also posted on the MBA and MISMO websites. In total, 45 lenders/servicers and 80 vendors/suppliers responded. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

Tom Litke, executive vice president of marketing and product management of Woodstock, Ga.-based WellFound Decade, has told Mortgage Wire that the membership of the eMortgage Alliance is expected to hit 30 by the spring of 2005.The prediction was spurred by the announcement at the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in San Francisco that Bankers Systems Inc. and U.S. Recordings had joined the organization. Initially the eMortgage Alliance was designed to be an assemblage of technology companies that could combine their solutions to form a complete electronic mortgage. Now, the organization has changed its focus to support all companies that are compliant with standards developed by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization in the hope that the adoption of MISMO standards will spur more interest in attaining an e-mortgage. The Alliance can be found online at its new website at http://www.emortgagealliance.us.

Fair Isaac and Fidelity picked the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in San Francisco to announce an enterprise-wide licensing agreement to deploy Fair Isaac's Blaze Advisor as the core of Fidelity's rules-layered architecture, spanning Fidelity's entire suite of product offerings.The result is expected to be that Fidelity will enjoy reduced costs in managing all its systems and will increase its speed to market with new products. The Fidelity announcement noted that business rules are playing an increasing role in streamlining complex enterprise systems. Fidelity said it chose Blaze Advisor because it offered comprehensive implementation support.