Technology

Title insurance giant Fidelity National Financial has agreed to purchase one of its top competitors, LandAmerica Financial Group, for $126 million in stock. The sale announcement comes a day after LandAmerica said it would delay its third quarter earnings release. The purchase is subject not only to shareholder approvals but needs to be sanctioned by the antitrust division of the Justice Department. The two companies say they will save at least $400 million in expenses by reducing their combined debt loads by $250 million and cutting another $150 million in costs. Fidelity, a large player in servicing technology, is based in Jacksonville, Fla. LandAmerica is headquartered in Richmond, Va. Shareholders of LandAmerica, the nation's third largest title insurer, will receive 0.993 shares of Fidelity common stock for each share held.

Zillow.com and Weichert Realtors have formed a partnership, which enables Weichert to automatically feed all of its listings to Zillow.com on a regular basis. Weichert joins the hundreds of partners participating in the Zillow Listings Feed program, which launched in November 2007 and has grown to more than 3.2 million listings today. Each listing Weichert feeds to Zillow includes a description of the property with multiple photos and contact information for the listing agent, including links back to the Weichert website where Zillow users can find more information and connect with a Weichert sales associate to guide them through the home buying and selling process.

First American CREDCO has replaced eCREDCO.com, the company's dedicated e-commerce site, with an all new integrated online ordering and marketing website. The new site features expanded functionality that allows customers to order and track products more efficiently and the company to develop and deliver new products faster. The newly upgraded platform-www.CREDCO.com-features a totally improved customer purchasing experience, supported by Direct-Connect customer support, simplified account administration and real-time product tracking. The new CREDCO.com features include streamlined ordering, direct-connect with customer support, access to multiple accounts with one sign-in, electronic document uploading, access to detailed pricing and transactions, search functions, free credit report reprints, real-time product tracking, simplified account administration and a credit card payment option.

Zaio Corp. of Canada abruptly pulled the plug on its U.S. property database unit, dismissing its top officers. The end came on Thursday when Zaio issued a press release confirming the shut down. The company said that the division's top officers, James Kirchmeyer and Douglas Vincent have resigned. Zaio, which bills itself as a technology and database company, says its secure database has 140 million property records and 24 million photographs.

Financial Industry Computer Systems, a Dallas-based provider of mortgage origination and servicing software, is celebrating its 25th year in business. During its quarter-century of business, FICS has worked with 1,200 mortgage companies. The company's first product, Mortgage Servicer, was written in Basic programming language with a four megahertz processor, 512k of memory, and could only handle up to 2,000 loans. The system was rewritten for Windows by 1996 using PowerBuilder programming in a 32-bit processing environment. Today, the company offers six Windows-based products as well as several Web-based services. FICS can be found on the Web at www.ficsloanware.com.

Mortgage insurer Radian Guaranty, Philadelphia, has entered into a partnership with the New York Loan Exchange, which directly incorporates Radian MI into the mortgage pricing and eligibility process across the NYLX platform, which operates a real-time data base of mortgage programs, rates, and guidelines. "For the first time ever, two icons in the industry are joining together to provide a fast and accurate method for determining a loan's complete eligibility, significantly increasing a lender's efficiency," said Radian Guaranty chief operating officer, Jeff Cashmer. "This will be done through the seamless integration of Radian's MI pricing and guidelines into the NYLX platform." The partnership allows Radian and NYLX's customers "to streamline processes and enhance profitability and growth," he said. As part of this partnership, NYLX will include Radian's rates and guidelines in its pricing and eligibility platform so lenders can calculate MI on loans based on real-time market conditions and consequently make better-informed decisions during loan execution. In addition, Radian customers will learn about the NYLX solution and how to maximize profitability through automation, Radian said.

Tavant and Wolters Kluwer Financial Services said they are working together to make the compliance documentation process for mortgage lenders easier, faster and more accurate while giving them multiple document delivery options. The two companies have integrated Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' Document Services Platform with Tavant's point-of-sale solution suite. The new integration will enable users to generate standard and customized compliance documents and disclosures through Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' Document Services Platform, and then electronically deliver them to borrowers for e-consent and signature. The platform also gives lenders the option of completely and securely outsourcing the printing and mailing of paper disclosures when needed or requested by the borrower through Wolters Kluwer Financial Services' SAS 70-certified mail fulfillment center.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors LLC, a Dallas-based mortgage servicer specializing in highly delinquent loans, has partnered with the AFN, the American Legal & Financial Network, to improve mortgage performance, protect creditors and preserve homeownership. Through this joint program, participating investors, lenders and law firms replace the last resort of foreclosure with a new concept that the AFN and Wingspan call a "Total Default Solution." Through the Total Default Solution, a servicer, lender or investor refers cases to Wingspan Portfolio Advisors. Next, Wingspan Portfolio Advisors collaborates with the AFN attorneys to maximize the chances of home retention while the legal proceedings move forward. The AFN is a professional organization comprised of members of the residential mortgage banking and legal communities.

LeaderOne Financial has opted to use Mortgage Builder as its new mortgage origination software solution to help it grow to a national footprint. A.W. Pickel III, LeaderOne's founder and CEO, said his company is in negotiations to acquire a bank as the first step towards a multistate expansion program. "We needed an enterprise-scale loan origination system," said Mr. Pickel. "We looked at many systems and found that Mortgage Builder had the solution we needed to help us grow and do so rapidly." LeaderOne's planned expansion includes opening up new loan centers in several parts of the country, so Mr. Pickel wanted a system that could scale rapidly along with his expansion.

Integrated Mortgage Solutions has expanded its loss mitigation package to include the IMS Notary Service, an e-service product that facilitates the signing and notarization of loan documents online. All IMS e-services are MISMO SMART Doc compatible. The news was released at the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention in San Francisco. According to recent surveys, it has been reported that 40% to 50% of loss mitigation packages are not returned from the borrower to the servicer. Notary Service is designed to eliminate barriers to the return of loss mitigation packages. With Notary Service, whether the servicer utilizes e-services technology or the traditional paper document package delivery, IMS will draw the documents and coordinate a meeting with both the notary and the borrower. IMS determines a specific date, time and location requested by either the servicer or the borrower to have the documents notarized via electronic signature pad or the actual paper documents.