Technology

Web-based LOS Avista Solutions has integrated with verification service company Kroll Factual Data. This integration was done at the request of joint clients to allow Avista Solutions' customers to pull credit through Kroll without leaving the Avista Agile LOS. The Avista Agile platform lets users create loan applications online through the system or import applications from external loan origination software. The consumer website portal allows lenders to provide their customers online loan application, status updates, loan officer webpages and online disclosure. Now Avista users will have access to Kroll's credit service, which provides reports in both PDF and text file formats.

CoreLogic Credco has launched Instant Merge LQ and ENCORE LQ to help lenders be compliant with Fannie Mae Loan Quality Initiative requirements. Instant Merge LQ and ENCORE LQ were created to help lenders satisfy requirements under the new Fannie Mae LQI, an initiative designed to help lenders avoid loan buybacks. LQI, which went into effect June 1, 2010, requires lenders to proactively verify identity and disclose the status of all borrower debts immediately prior to pre-funding of the loan, including open and closed tradelines, public records filings or any new inquiries on the credit file. Credco's Instant Merge LQ is a solution for lenders to satisfy prefunding credit refreshes, while ENCORE LQ enables lenders to check credit, identity verification, property data, occupancy status and exclusionary list screening. Both generate a reporting solution for underwriter review.

Origination technology provider Calyx Software has launched MyCalyx.com, a self-service Web portal for users. MyCalyx was designed to simplify Calyx account management with Web access and greater administrative control over Calyx accounts. With MyCalyx customers can install upgrades to Calyx online. Each user is assigned a login and password to download new products and updates. Customers also now have greater control over seat assignments and can make changes online instead of uninstalling and reinstalling CD applications.

CoreLogic has launched Partner InfoNet, a program for sharing revenue with multiple listing service organizations. Through the effort, an MLS licenses its listing data for use in a variety of new risk management products for mortgage lenders, servicers and the capital markets. Until now, MLS organizations have lacked a safe and easy way to generate additional value for their members by applying their listing data outside of the real estate transaction. At the same time, lenders have lacked access to critical listing information that would help make better and faster lending decisions. The Partner InfoNet addresses both these issues by combining CoreLogic MarketLinx licensed MLS data with CoreLogic property data assets to create enhanced risk management products for lenders. CoreLogic provides data and analytics solutions to the mortgage community.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have selected Veros Real Estate Solutions as a technology vendor for their Uniform Collateral Data Portal. The portal will support electronic appraisal data delivery to the government-sponsored enterprises as part of the Uniform Mortgage Data Program, launched this spring. The GSEs have said that to enhance their collateral risk management, they will require seller-servicers to submit full appraisal reports in electronic data format prior to loan delivery to either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, effective April 2011. UCDP will serve as a centralized portal for these submissions.

FIS will acquire Compliance Coach Inc., a vendor that provides risk assessment software, e-learning and tools tied to lending compliance matters. The transaction is expected to close within the next 30 days. Terms of the deal were not announced. This acquisition is a strategic move by FIS to enhance its overall compliance strategy. FIS will assume ownership of Compliance Coach's flagship products including Regulatory University, Compliance Risk Indicator and Compliance Pal. These solutions currently support approximately 1,500 clients, including seven of the top 10 depositories within the financial services industry.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has launched a major new initiative by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to improve the consistency and quality of data for appraisals and other loan information, said the government entity on its website, which has both GSEs mandating the use of MISMO Version 3.0 data standards. "FHFA directed the enterprises to undertake the development of the standards to provide greater uniformity in the data they collect," said FHFA acting director Edward DeMarco. "This initiative is a major step toward meeting industry requests for uniformity in appraisal and loan data. Improvements in data quality will benefit all mortgage market participants and strengthen the housing finance system." The GSEs have now gone forward to standardize mortgage lending using MISMO as the backbone of all loan delivery to both GSEs. Specifically, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have developed the Uniform Loan Delivery Data Specification, which defines the Uniform Loan Delivery Dataset and the common GSE approach to single-family loan delivery data requirements for all mortgages that will be delivered to either GSE on or after Sept. 1, 2011.

Experian has expanded CreditHorizons for Securities, which delivers Experian's consumer credit information for nonagency mortgage-backed security deals, to offer the ability to link consumer credit data to Lewtan's private-label deal library, ABSNet Loan. This capability expands the CreditHorizons for Securities offering to a broader base of nonagency residential mortgage-backed securities investors. By linking consumer credit data to loan-level data, CreditHorizons for Securities provides an additional set of influences that helps investors better predict delinquency and default probabilities, obtain more granular data about the underlying collateral and understand how consumer trends impact their RMBS portfolios. Using a proprietary matching algorithm developed by Experian's credit and industry experts, Experian has achieved a high consumer-to-loan match rate in linking to Lewtan's data.

DocMagic Inc. has filed an amended complaint against Ellie Mae that expands the initial charges the former company levied against the latter. The amended complaint was filed in United States District Court (San Francisco) and is Case No. 3:09-CV-4017-MHP. Back in August 2009, DocMagic filed two lawsuits against Ellie Mae: one in Federal Court for antitrust violations, intentional interference with contractual relationships, interference with prospective economic advantage and unfair competition; and one in San Francisco Superior Court seeking a permanent injunction against Ellie Mae arising out of Ellie Mae's alleged misuse of DocMagic's proprietary information in connection with the Ellie Mae Docs system. At the urging of the federal court judge, the parties have since agreed to consolidate the state case claims into federal court and to dismiss the state case without prejudice. The amended complaint sets forth 14 federal and state claims, expanding on the allegations and claims initially made against Ellie Mae. The amendments include expansion of antitrust allegations and claims, including explanation of market definitions, monopoly leveraging, attempted monopolization, refusal to deal, and denial of access to essential facility (all federal violations of Section 2 of the Sherman Act). Charges of unfair competition and false advertising; copyright infringement; and trade secret misappropriation were also included in the amended complaint. DocMagic is also seeking a declaratory judgment that DocMagic did not infringe upon Ellie Mae's copyrights and that Ellie Mae has no claim to the ownership of its client's loan data. When asked to respond to the amended complaint advancing the lawsuit Ellie Mae said that it had no comment.

Valligent, a provider of appraisal review services, has introduced V-Cert, a new product which moves the quality control function to the front of the origination process. Jeremy McCarty, chief executive and chief valuation strategist of the Roseville, Calif.-based company, said one of the reasons he is attending the Mortgage Bankers Association trade show in New York is to meet with Wall Street investors and rating agencies to get them familiar with this concept. Issues over collateral are a major source for the lack of confidence in the market from an investor standpoint, he said. Doing the review before the loan closes will let secondary market purchasers know that if they buy a loan that eventually goes bad, at least the valuation was done properly. The V-Cert review includes an USPAP-compliant desk review, a fraud and foreclosure risk analysis and a value determination.