Technology

The First American Corp. reaffirmed plans for a split into two companies it noted will come relatively soon as it celebrated its 120-year anniversary. The plan to separate the Santa Ana, Calif.-based company's information solutions and financial services businesses into two new, separate publicly traded companies could come as soon as the first half of 2010. Originally an Orange County, Calif. title abstract company, The First American Corp. said it has grown to the point where 90% of all real estate transactions in the United States involve at least one of its products or services. It is one of the nation's largest title insurance companies, has trust company, tax services, home warranty and flood certification businesses and is a national data and analytics provider to the mortgage industry and the investment community. The company first went public, trading on the over-the-counter market, in 1964 and began offering its stock on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993.

Mortgage document company DocMagic is suing mortgage software firm Ellie Mae for alleged antitrust violations and, in a second suit, for misuse of intellectual property. DocMagic also is seeking a permanent injunction against Ellie Mae for alleged misuse of DocMagic's intellectual property in the Ellie Mae Docs system. The antitrust suit alleges that DocMagic was provided access to Ellie Mae's ePASS network until Ellie Mae terminated its ePASS agreement and then took steps to prevent its users from accessing DocMagic products through unfair and anti-competitive behavior, including sabotaging clients from accessing DocMagic altogether through alternative web service calls. The filing said Ellie Mae notified ePASS Network users that DocMagic would no longer be available on ePASS or Encompass Closer and that DocMagic users would instead be moved to Ellie Mae's loan document service. It further alleges Ellie Mae began changing the terms of the Encompass user agreements to prohibit the transfer of data from Encompass to any third-party service provider outside of the ePASS network. "We've had a long relationship with Ellie Mae and have also been a long-standing client of ePASS. It has become clear that Ellie Mae wants to replace us as their document provider. They really didn't give us any alternative," said Don Iannitti, president and CEO of DocMagic. "I think they want to save money. I think the client is the victim. It can't be about monopolization." The complaint for injunctive relief DocMagic filed is based on Ellie Mae's alleged unauthorized use of DocMagic's intellectual property, including DocMagic's user interface, workflow, terminology and overall look in Ellie Mae's document system. "When we were working with them, we helped them in creating the workflow in the Encompass project. We recreated our screens and workflow for them. In replacing us, the look remained the same," Mr. Iannitti added. Ellie Mae was unable to comment at deadline but said it plans to release a statement in the future.

The Cortland Savings and Banking Company, a Youngstown-Warren, Ohio area state bank engaged in commercial and retail banking services, has opted to change LOS systems in an effort to create a more customer-driven experience. The company said it chose Mortgage Builder because it needed to modernize its residential real estate lending system in order to control costs and stay well within the compliance requirements of today's financial world, but it did not want to lose its personal touch and feel in order to gain efficiency. The company's old LOS was DOS-based and Cortland found that it was not adequate technology to help the lender keep up with new RESPA and Regulation Z changes.

Pricing vendor Mortgage Pricing Systems has integrated its LEAP! application with Ellie Mae's Encompass LOS. This integration enables Encompass users to automatically export a loan file into LEAP! and return key product and pricing data back to Encompass with a few clicks. Mortgage Pricing Systems distinguishes itself from other product and pricing engine providers by giving Encompass users immediate access to pricing, eliminating the need for additional data entry on the LEAP! website. Qualified programs and pricing are displayed in seconds. Furthermore, by combining simple presentation with numerous sorting and filtering options, users can modify desired rate, price and program (agency, FHA and VA) on a single page without constantly re-qualifying a loan.

Financial marketing firm Victory Financial Group LLC has integrated PriceMyLoan's automated underwriting and loan pricing engine into their online mortgage lending platform, myTurboLoan. The integration between the two companies enables consumers to instantly prequalify and accurately price loans for their custom loan scenarios. Victory Financial Group maintains a network of over 30,000 financial planners and real estate agents. The company provides technology solutions to these professionals in the form of custom websites, online tools and search engine optimization services. myTurboLoan is a featured tool that is used by their network to provide instant loan qualification and rate quotes to their clients.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Minneapolis, has acquired flood compliance solutions provider Stormwater Research Group, Austin, Tex. Terms of the agreement were not released. The deal allows WKFS to expand its presence in the flood determination field. Stormwater's products include basic and life of loan flood determination services. WKFS Settlement Services unit includes its own flood determination solution, PCi. Stormwater clients will get access to other PCi products including those that address compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and other fair lending requirements. They will also have access to WKFS' financial crime control products plus an expanded suite of settlement services.

Farmington Hills, Mich.-based XSite Validation has launched a tool designed to evaluate overall "toxicity" in commercial loan pools. The tool can see into each and every commercial property loan in a portfolio, ranks all performing, non-performing and REO properties from "First to Worst," allows for quick reassessment of the concentration of types of properties within loan portfolios, and provides the "best use" evaluation of every loan portfolio property by presenting the top five potential uses of each property. For every property in a financial institution's portfolio, XSite uses its patent-pending XRI Scoring System, which assesses the "market viability of a property for its current or proposed commercial use, in conjunction with the financial institution's own loan grade/risk factors, to create a unique "Composite XRI Score." XSite's Composite XRI Score gives banks a single measurable that joins the financial viability and the market viability of the commercial property into one "go / no-go" decision-making factor.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker said it is no longer able to offer online payments capabilities nor can it do automated payment deductions for those consumers whose loans it still services. Customers are asked to send a check by mail to the company to the attention of its cashiering department in Ocala, Fla. Since Aug. 4, a statement from TBW said, it has not taken any automated debit payments. For those who have already received notification that the loan was transferred to a new servicer, the statement said customers are to follow the instructions in the transfer notice. The statement also said TBW would "continue functioning in a reduced capacity until all loans have been transitioned to new servicers."

ComplianceEase has awarded four technology partners its highest certification level in recognition of their ability to help their customers prepare loan data for transmission electronically to state regulators through RegulatorConnect.org, the ComplianceEase automated compliance system selected by the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators to help improve oversight of the mortgage business. Lender Processing Services, Lender Support Systems, Mortgage Banking Systems and ProLender Solutions received the Platinum Partner Certifications at AARMR's annual conference in Savannah, Ga. Compliance Ease, a provider of compliance and risk management tools, introduced the certification program earlier this year to help lenders adapt to the new automated residential mortgage examination initiatives introduced by AARMR and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. The certification requires recipients to provide its users with secure, one-click export of 100% of the loan information necessary for the examinations while also offering up-to-date, seamless loan-level compliance audits through Compliance Analyzer, another ComplianceEase platform.

First American Flood Data Services, Austin, has launched a new website dubbed FAFlood.com designed to give users efficient access to a range of flood determination services, products and information from a single source. The site introduces features and functions that include streamlined navigation, and aims to provide more useful tools and more detailed information about services offered. Features on the website, such as event schedules, legislative updates and upcoming map revisions are designed to make it easier for customers to track developments at First American Flood Data Services and within the flood risk management industry. Additional upgrades include a virtual tour of the First American Flood Data Services facilities.