Technology

BearingPoint Inc., a management and technology consulting firm based in McLean, Va., has announced tools aimed at helping lenders manage growing portfolio risks before they result in loan defaults and foreclosures.BearingPoint's Credit Navigation Tools provide capabilities to help evaluate portfolio risk and manage and improve lending processes, the company said. "The industry is demanding tighter control of their loans through improvements to what has largely been an inexact process," said Christopher Formant, executive vice president of BearingPoint's Global Financial Services. "To help manage the immediate needs of banks and lenders, we can put a set of tools in place that will help deliver cost and process improvements in the context of the current crisis." The company can be found online at http://www.bearingpoint.com.

Enterprise lending software vendor Mortgage Cadence Inc., Denver, has added Michael Hammond to its executive team as chief marketing officer.Mr. Hammond has nearly 15 years of experience in brand building, product launches, and developing marketing and sales strategies. Before joining Mortgage Cadence, he worked as vice president of business strategy for Martopia, a mortgage marketing and public relations firm. Mr. Hammond previously worked for nine years as director of sales and marketing for loan origination system vendor Dynatek. In addition, Mr. Hammond is one of only 50 individuals to earn the Certified Mortgage Technologist designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage Cadence can be found on the Web at http://www.mortgagecadence.com.

Financial Industry Computer Systems Inc., Dallas, has added a new mortgage insurance interface to its residential mortgage loan origination system, Loan Producer.The mortgage insurance interface enables lenders to quickly and easily submit data to receive mortgage insurance commitments and updates for primary insurance request, FICS said. The interface is designed to provide lenders using the Loan Producer system with a means to send mortgage insurance applications directly from Loan Producer to any MI provider that offers a Web service that complies with the Mortgage Insurance Application Request and Response requirements of the Mortgage Industry Standards and Maintenance Organization. Mortgage insurance providers will then automatically process the request and send status updates, along with the commitment and certificate of insurance, back to Loan Producer. FICS can be found on the Web at http://www.loanware.com.

Kroll Factual Data, a Loveland, Colo.-based provider of business information to mortgage lenders and others, has announced an expansion of its risk assessment services with the introduction of FullFacts.The service assesses the risk of misrepresentation by brokers, appraisers, loan officers, closing agents, and other participants in the mortgage loan process. "FullFacts comprehensively identifies loan party collusion, conflict of interest, and non-arm's-length transactions for every participant involved in a mortgage loan" and determines whether any participant is included on exclusionary and compliance lists, said Jeff Gentry, vice president of Kroll Factual Data. "To streamline your workflow, Kroll Factual Data can upload your own internal exclusionary list into the FullFacts participant risk analysis." Kroll Factual Data can be found online at http://www.krollfactualdata.com.

Artemis Enterprises, Chicago, has released a solution for storing and managing shared enterprise content and contact information called Artemis.Artemis, the company's flagship collaborative cross-enterprise information management software solution is a Web-based technology that functions as a collaborative enterprise information management solution and as a portal for companies to share and disseminate information, enabling businesses to store, access, distribute and share critical information, both within their organizations and with outside vendors, clients and partners. A hosted Software as a Service solution, Artemis provides companies with a centralized repository and management solution for internal company and third-party partner contact data, and updates shared contact information on behalf of user-members. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.ArtemisInfo.com.

Carteret Mortgage will deploy credit analysis technology to all its 300 branches to raise the bar on doing quality originations.Specifically, Carteret will use Market Kinetix's patent-pending credit analysis software solution Deal Maker Score. The application provides step-by-step directions to raise a borrower's credit score. A mortgage originator downloads the borrower's credit findings to the product, and the program produces a customized set of recommendations, which show a borrower how to raise their credit score by the target number of points designated by the loan officer. Carteret can be found on the Web at http://www.CarteretMortgage.com.

The Mortgage Insurance Companies of America has launched a redesigned, interactive Spanish-language website designed to promote the benefits of private mortgage insurance, including the fact that premiums are now tax-deductible for the first time for many borrowers.Private MI premiums are now fully tax deductible for borrowers who buy or refinance a home if their adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less, MICA said. Families with incomes above $100,000 (up to $109,000) will be eligible for a reduced deduction. "By highlighting the affordable, predictable, cancelable, and tax deductible benefits of a loan with private MI, our redesigned Spanish-language website will provide consumers, loan originators and real estate agents with a valuable tool to make informed decisions and recommendations," said Suzanne C. Hutchinson, executive vice president of MICA. The new website can be found at http://www.privatemi.com/enespanol.

Offering useful insights into the realm of consumer-direct, Web-based mortgage lending, Mortgagebot LLC, Mequon, Wis., has announced the release of its Benchmarks 2007 study of online lending practices.The study showed that a quarter of the lenders studied "now originate more than half of their loan volume via the online channel." Research participants include 25 of the top 100 banks and thrifts and 40 of the top 100 credit unions. Confirming trends and "debunking" some myths, the study offers detailed data analysis of loan product and decisioning statistics, online borrower behavior and website usage, lender website configuration and marketing, and more. The study showed that online loan seekers tend to be young, affluent, and creditworthy, with an average income above $85,000 and an average credit score above 700. The study is based on a comprehensive survey and analysis of the online lending practices and procedures at more than 3,600 mortgage lending websites maintained for Mortgagebot's more than 700 clients nationwide. The company can be found online at http://www.mortgagebot.com.

Midsize and large homes are showing steeper declines in value over the past year than smaller single-family residences, according to Zillow.com, an online real estate community based in Seattle.Zillow's quarterly national home value report found that home values fell only 0.1% in the second quarter and were 2.8% lower than in the second quarter of 2006. But midsize and large homes lost value on a year-over-year basis at the rate of 3.1% and 2.8%, respectively, while small homes fell only 1.0%. "The U.S. real estate market still appears quite anemic, at best, with many markets still doing poorly, especially those in South Florida and Southern California," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's vice president of data and analytics. "The one ray of home this period is that we've not seen another quarter-over-quarter decline as we've experienced in the past two quarters. The significantly poorer performance of condos and larger single-family homes suggests that prices for these housing sectors are still not in accord with current demand." Zillow can be found online at http://www.zillow.com.

Mike Perlman has been named executive vice president for operations and technology at Freddie Mac.Mr. Perlman will be responsible for managing the largest segment of Freddie Mac's business operations, including all its mortgage origination and servicing, investment and capital markets operations, and information systems divisions. He was most recently a managing director at Morgan Stanley and developed the operations and technology infrastructure supporting its Fixed Income and Global Operations divisions, Freddie Mac said. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 1997, Mr. Perlman had been a founding partner at AT&T Solutions' Financial Services Group and a partner in the Washington, D.C. and New York offices of Deloitte & Touche.