Technology

Nicholas Hahn, formerly an executive with Countrywide Home Loans, has been named chief financial officer of DeepGreen Financial, a Cleveland-based online business-to-business home equity lender.Mr. Hahn's expertise will help DeepGreen expand its securitization and asset sales programs, said Jerome Selitto, DeepGreen's chief executive officer. Mr. Hahn was executive vice president for production accounting at Countrywide, where he was responsible for all accounting and management reporting for the company's mortgage production divisions, DeepGreen said. The B2B lender can be found online at http://www.deepgreenfinancial.com.

Leader Mortgage Co., Lenexa, Kan., has deployed Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.-based PaperClip's software to enable paperless mortgages with Calyx Point.Leader installed PaperClip32, PaperClip's flagship integrated document system, and its Mortgage Assistant loan processing add-on module. The combined system makes it possible for Leader to manage all its loans from a central digital repository through which all permitted users can search, retrieve, route, process, validate, and approve loans. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.leader1.com and http://www.paperclip.com.

ElectronicAppraiser.com, Boca Raton, Fla., has release PhotoCheck, a valuation product designed to combine a professional site inspection with an exterior digital photograph and property condition report.The reports are available in Adobe PDF, XML, and HTML formats. ElectronicAppraiser.com also offers an expedited 48-hour service. PhotoCheck can be ordered as a stand-alone report or in combination with any valuation product. ElectronicAppraiser.com is a valuation technology provider, featuring two main products: PhotoCheck, an electronic property photo combined with an automated valuation model report, and AVMLink, which provides access to several national AVM providers. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.electronicappraiser.com.

Technology has increased volume and efficiency in the subprime market, WMC Mortgage Corp. president Amy Brandt told attendees Monday at the Subprime Lending Symposium in San Francisco.WMC, an online wholesale lender based in Woodland Hills, Calif., was recently acquired by General Electric's consumer finance division from Apollo Management LP. Having a quick, front-end service combined with a customer service campaign was crucial in making WMC's volume rise in recent years, said Ms. Brandt, who was a keynote speaker at the symposium. "Your business has to evolve. .... All of your systems need to work together before funding the loan," she said. "Integrate technology, but with a human process." For example, Ms. Brandt suggested taking five minutes to call a broker to let him know his loan application has been received.

Countrywide has chosen Calabasas, Calif.-based Sysdome Inc.'s Third Party Review product to help streamline its broker approval and maintenance process.Specifically, Sysdome's TPR tool verifies broker application information against Sysdome's databases and other public and nonpublic data sources and presents its findings in an exception-based report. As part of the agreement, Countrywide would receive continuous broker updates as well as semiannual renewals. Sysdome can be found on the Web at http://www.sysdome.com, and Countrywide can be found at http://www.countrywide.com.

Home Counselor Online, a Spanish-language technology tool aimed at promoting homeownership among Hispanics, has been launched by Fannie Mae.The free Web-based tool will help counseling agencies, nonprofit groups, and other entities guide potential homeowners through the mortgage process via user-friendly counseling support, Fannie Mae said. It also enables lenders to track the progress of potential borrowers. "Home Counselor Online is part of Fannie Mae's efforts to help housing partners modernize or transform housing counseling practices, in addition to moving the minority homeownership rate," said Fannie Mae. "With the launch of its English version in November 2001, more than 1,157 counseling agencies and lender offices have set up this technology tool, with over 103,221 clients served by them." Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

Lending Tree Inc., Charlotte, N.C., has reported that General Motors Acceptance Corp. has dismissed a recently filed complaint alleging that LendingTree was attempting to trade on GMAC's reputation by using or appropriating GMAC's trademark as a domain name.LendingTree quoted GMAC counsel Charles H. Ellerbrock as stating, "Once we learned that LendingTree had not used 'GMAC' in an Internet domain name, we withdrew the complaint. LendingTree was very gracious about the whole thing." LendingTree, an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp., can be found online at http://www.lendingtree.com.

Stewart Mortgage Information, a Houston-based wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Information Services Corp., has announced the formation of Stewart Default Solutions Inc. to offer default management and technology systems for the mortgage and consumer services industry.C. Alan Paylor, who recently joined SMI, will serve as chief operating officer of the new company. The company cited the most recent Mortgage Bankers Association delinquency survey as showing that 1.29% of one- to four-unit residential properties at the end of the fourth quarter of 2003 were in foreclosure, a 5-basis-point jump from the third-quarter rate of 1.24%. The company said it will change its default workflow processes and add new technology. SMI can be found online at http://smi.stewart.com.

ABN Amro Mortgage Group has rolled out an electronic mortgage broker tool to the market at large, and the company has more broker-oriented technology improvements in the works, AAMG executives told reporters at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers annual convention.Pricing Tool Only, which enables brokers to select their own settlement service providers and negotiate the associated settlement services costs, had been undergoing testing by AAMG before the marketwide rollout. In addition to expanding the availability of the tool, AAMG said it plans to make the management of settlement service providers easier for brokers. Company executives said this and other improvements to the company's automation are scheduled to be launched by the end of the year.

Oklahoma City-based a la mode inc. has debuted Mortgage XSites -- websites containing business tools to generate leads and cut paperwork, among other things -- at the annual convention of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers.The sites are available for one annual fee, with "no nickel-and-dime add-ons or surprises," the company said. Among the features available on the sites are: DirectFax, which converts faxed tax returns and other paperwork to digital files; FlexApp 1003s, which the company says give small offices and single mortgage brokers the online application functionality of big lenders' sites; daily news feeds; and mortgage calculators. "MortgageXSites are the final piece of the online mortgage revolution," said Brad Eaton, the company's project manager for the sites. "Previously, only the biggest originators and niche lenders whose entire business model relied on the Internet channel had the interactive technology to allow borrowers to complete applications electronically." The company and the new websites can be found online at http://www.alamode.com and http://www.mortgagexsites.com.