Technology

As more submissions come in for our Top 150 Originator list, preliminary data shows we have a new leading producer for 2011. He is Eric Magee of Union Bank, with total volume of $234 million.

Declining mortgage rates during the fourth quarter fired up refinancings of high LTV loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to new Home Affordable Refinancing Program figures released Monday afternoon.

Since the start of the financial crisis in September 2008, mortgage companies and banks have foreclosed on roughly 3.3 million homes with no end in sight.

An AMC launched a new software that was developed on a platform as a service provided by customer relationship management technology provider Salesforce.com.

The growth of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn has aided many mortgage originators in their ability to communicate with their customers. But for the companies they work for, these tools could be a compliance nightmare.

Software as a service is the original flavor of cloud computing and dates back to even before terms like cloud and SaaS were first used in information technology. In the mortgage industry, many lenders and servicers are just now warming up to the concept, educating themselves about the benefits, features and capacity of SaaS. But technology waits for no one.

In case you haven't been paying close attention and reading the National Mortgage News website (and our paper weekly) the past year, there's a gargantuan shift underway in the mortgage industry. We correctly predicted that the servicing side of the business is 'deconsolidating.'

Collateral Intelligence has signed on with FICO to provide valuation and support for the credit risk provider’s analytic solution that predicts borrowers who are at risk of strategically defaulting on their mortgages.

As if today's changing regulatory environment was not enough for the industry to contend with, the recent federal government and state attorneys general settlement for $25 billion with the country's top servicers has added a new wrinkle.

Even though national foreclosure filings decreased in February, 21 states posted annual increases in foreclosure activity, according to new figures compiled by RealtyTrac.