Technology

Palisades Technology Partners, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., has launched Impact Mortgage Services Components, which are designed to plug into point-of-sale and loan origination systems to streamline the delivery of new products and services.Specifically, the product includes pricing, fees, compliance, and mortgage calculation services. Palisades, which provides strategic consulting, eLending applications, and systems integration, can be found on the Web at http://www.ptpusa.com.

Touting itself as only the second vendor to do so, Data-Vision Inc. has announced the creation of a new interface with Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector to create integrated automated underwriting for consumer-facing mortgage websites.The solution is being offered on an application-service-provider basis to Data-Vision's 200 lender customers. The Mishawaka, Ind.-based company said lenders using its LoanQuoter.com can let consumers know in seconds whether their mortgage loan is approved before entering borrower data into the lender's loan origination system. Data-Vision can be found on the Web at http://www.d-vision.com.

BLS Funding, Jericho, N.Y., has announced the launch of "BLS at Your Service," which it says offers instant chat and call-connection services as customer-friendly lead-generation tools.The instant chat service is for potential borrowers that need answers to questions about credit or downpayment requirements before beginning to fill out an application, especially if they have been turned down before. The BLS Instant Call-Connection service allows consumers to schedule a call with a BLS loan officer at their convenience -- instead of at dinner time or other times when they are unwilling or unable to talk. Founded in 1995, BLS Funding is a $1.5 billion full-service mortgage company licensed to operate in 30 states. It can be found online at http://www.blsfund.com.

Mortgage Asset Research Institute Inc., Reston, Va., has introduced an early-alert system to help the industry detect and combat fraud.The Mortgage Fraud Alert System is "a cooperative service that notifies participating companies about emerging patterns of alleged fraud in its early stages," MARI said. The companies contribute information to the system and can use the shared data to help mitigate potential risk and minimize their exposure. The company said it worked closely with the Mortgage Bankers Association to create the alert system. MARI is a subsidiary of ChoicePoint, a provider of identification and credential verification services. It can be found online at http://www.mari-inc.com.

David Barkley, director of e-commerce relations at Freddie Mac, has been re-elected to chair the Governance Committee of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.Lisa Bolelli, vice president of program management of First American Corp., has been re-elected a vice-chair of the panel, and Adam Hall, manager of information technology and Web development at IndyMac Bank, has been elected the other vice chair, MISMO reported. The committee also elected or re-elected the following members: Craig Foote of Fidelity Information Services, Mike Bixby of Info1/LandAmerica, Todd Luhtanen of Dynatek, Ed Ransden of CitiMortgage, and Ty Jenkins of DocuTech Corp. MISMO, which was established by the Mortgage Bankers Association, develops electronic commerce standards for the mortgage industry. Its Governance Committee, which oversees the organization's administration and policy development, consists of representatives of 16 MISMO subscriber organizations from a cross-section of the residential real estate finance industry. The members serve two-year terms, with half the seats up for election each year.

St. Louis-based CitiMortgage has declared itself the first lender to launch Fannie Mae's Desktop Originator "Link to Lender" feature, which allows brokers to submit loan data directly from DO to the CitiMortgage wholesale website.The feature enables transferring loan data directly to the site, and thus eliminates the need to export, import, or re-key data into the system. Once on the CitiMortgage wholesale website, brokers can access additional services and functions, such as checking rates, locking rates, and registering loans. A pilot test of the system has been completed, and the "Link to Lender" feature is now available to all CitiMortgage brokers who use DO, the company said. CitiMortgage's wholesale website can be found at https://broker.citimortage.com.

Putting SMART Docs forms, data, and rules into a single package, Phoenix-based Desert Document Services Inc. has announced the completion of a MISMO-compliant SMART Pak and accompanying software.(MISMO stands for Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, and SMART refers to securable, manageable, archivable, retrievable, and transferable documents.) The package combines loan data, business rules, forms, and form data to enable transmission of all elements together in an Extensible Markup Language document, along with the tools to support different electronic processes. Desert Docs touted the system as being the first electronic tool tying together origination, post-close, and secondary systems. The company said SMART Pak document packages are produced on enterprise-grade Web servers capable of generating thousands of SMART Paks per day, for all types of loan programs, without waiting or downtime. Desert Docs can be found online at http://www.desertdocs.com.

Miami-based Zequel Technologies has announced that NovaStar Financial, Kansas City, Mo., has licensed and implemented its DynamicPolicy tool for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.NovaStar is the first announced mortgage lender to adopt the system, which was released in January to manage companywide policies and procedures mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley law. The DynamicPolicy SOA Solution offers to enable company executives to develop, manage, and enforce internal controls, including policy and procedure documentation, exception management, and the monitoring and reporting of compliance irregularities. NovaStar officials said they picked Zequel's DynamicPolicy because it goes beyond Sarbanes-Oxley compliance to help a company handle broader strategies for policy development. The Securities and Exchange Commission has given large publicly held companies until mid-2004 to meet the financial reporting and certification requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

TransUnion, Chicago, and Acxiom, Little Rock, Ark., have announced the release of a comprehensive fraud management platform to combat the multibillion-dollar problem of fraud, citing Federal Trade Commission estimates that identity theft alone will grow to an $8.6 billion problem by 2006.The platform uses TransUnion's and Acxiom's multiple reference databases to verify a consumer's identity at any point of sale (call centers, websites, credit applications, etc.). The system also leverages TransUnion's analytics expertise "to deliver practical, actionable results that allow customers to easily implement the most effective fraud strategies," the companies said.

Data Vision Inc., Mishawaka, Ind., has announced that it is providing an Extensible Markup Language schema for integrating its RemoteDocs delivery system with the loan origination system developed by Prymak LLC, Greensboro, N.C.Prymak was formed in 2000 to purchase the source code, customer base, and all copyrights and intellectual property from BraVura Technologies, formerly FiTech Systems. Prymak will integrate RemoteDocs into its software products to enable lender customers to streamline processes and lower costs with Internet document delivery. Prymak operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of FirstPoint, also headquartered in Greensboro. Data Vision can be found online at http://www.d-vision.com.