Technology

The Chicago Board of Trade has announced a $1 million investment in ROOT, a commodities exchange for Internet-generated consumer leads co-founded by Lewis Ranieri, the inventor of the mortgage-backed security.New York-based ROOT now operates a commodities exchange for Internet-generated mortgage leads, but the platform is designed to be easily adapted for use with automobile and insurance leads, among others, according to the CBOT. "More than 30 years ago, the CBOT was the first exchange to trade interest rate futures contracts," said Bernard W. Dan, president and chief executive officer of the CBOT. He said the partnership with ROOT "represents an opportunity to be at the forefront of Internet lead futures trading." Mr. Ranieri, chairman of ROOT, said the exchanges "plan to explore new financial instruments based on the underlying fundamentals of Internet advertising and lead generation." The companies can be found online at http://www.cbot.com and http://www.rootexchange.com.

GainClients Inc., a Tucson, Ariz.-based website provider, has announced the selection of VueCentric Inc., Austin, Texas, and its MortgageDashboard online mortgage loan origination system to create a Financial Relationship Management platform.According to GainClients, the FRM will create a turnkey online collaborative environment that will enable loan officers, real estate agents, and other trusted financial advisers to interact "without forcing them to give up control of their customers or the transaction." VueCentric's MortgageDashboard is offered under the software-as-a-service model, which relieves lender-users of the burden of maintaining and marketing an interactive retail website. The FRM will provide online status reporting and marketing tools to maintain borrower relationships. VueCentric can be found online at http://www.vuecentric.com.

REIData Inc., a Houston-based subsidiary of Stewart Information Services Corp., has announced the formation of two new divisions and the realignment of certain key functions.Kevin Beach, a 28-year veteran of the title industry, has been named president of the title plant services division, currently a business unit based in San Antonio, with a satellite office in Chicago. Cathy Bell, who has been with the Stewart organization for 15 years, has been appointed president of the PropertyInfo.com division. The company also announced that vice president Matthew Childress will head a new technology team to handle development and "level 2" support of the PropertyInfo.com portal and all REIData applications products, and that Tom Abbate, senior vice president for business development and strategic products, will head a new title product deployment team. REIData can be found online at http://www.propertyinfo.com.

Dublin, Calif.-based Ellie Mae has designed what the company is calling the Certified Systems Integrator Program in order to safeguard its customers from service providers that are not knowledgeable about the intricacies of the Encompass product.In order to become a Certified Encompass Systems Integrator, service providers must serve the mortgage industry; support products and services that are complementary to the loan origination process; and maintain critical certifications for technology organizations such as Microsoft. As part of the program, Certified Encompass Systems Integrators are given all the tools and software necessary to efficiently meet the needs of Encompass users and are then tested on their understanding and abilities, Ellie Mae said. Two companies, RCM Technologies and Wise Point Solutions, have already undergone the pre-screening and the certification program. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.elliemae.com.

Gene Devine has been named senior vice president of Intellidyn Corp., a consumer analytics and database marketing company based in Hingham, Mass., a Boston suburb.His principal responsibilities will include creating, deploying, and managing direct-to-consumer marketing and lead generation initiatives for Intellidyn clients. Before joining Intellidyn, Mr. Devine was the executive vice president of marketing for Florida-based First Fidelity Financial Corp., where he was responsible for the creation of an end-to-end lead generation channel for customer acquisition, Intellidyn said. Previously, he was a senior vice president at Data Warehouse Corp., SVP of marketing for Mortgage.com, and SVP of marketing at Eastern Mortgage Services. Intellidyn can be found on the Web at http://www.intellidyn.com.

A website that links lenders and servicers with appraisers specializing in real-estate-owned properties has been launched by O.L. Jernigan and Associates, a Dallas company that specializes in REO appraisals.The site, REOBank.com, offers a network of more than 9,000 appraisers with REO expertise, acting as a hub that connects lenders and servicers seeking appraisals, broker price opinions, and other REO-related services. It allows lenders and servicers to outsource their appraisal needs, since they can quickly locate the right appraiser for the job and get their project completed in days, rather than weeks, the company said. "Accuracy and speed are the two highest priorities for REOBank.com users," Mr. Jernigan said. "We know that our users need valuations they can depend on, and they need them quickly in order to minimize holding time." REOBank.com also features communications and tracking functions that allow lenders and servicers to track the progress of their projects in real time. The site can be found online at http://www.reobank.com.

The risk that mortgage fraud will have a harmful economic impact in vulnerable markets is rising at an "unprecedented" rate, according to CoreLogic, a Sacramento, Calif.-based provider of fraud prevention technology and services to the mortgage industry.CoreLogic reported that its Core Mortgage Risk Monitor rose 5% in the second quarter after increasing 6.4% in the first quarter. The five major metropolitan statistical areas most at risk, according to the index, are Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich.; Memphis, Tenn.-Miss.-Ark.; Dayton, Ohio; Akron, Ohio; and Gary, Ind. The index measures collateral risk, which is "the risk associated with the accuracy of a residential property valuation and the sustainability of that valuation over the life of the mortgage due to the unique characteristics of the property, market, and mortgage contract participants," CoreLogic said. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.corelogic.com.

Overture Technologies, Bethesda, Md., has launched its Mozart Tape Cracking system, an automated program that enables secondary-market investors to convert the complex and nonstandard bulk loan data provided by primary-market lenders to their own internal formats.Primary-market sellers provide bulk loan data on "tapes," usually Excel spreadsheet files containing critical information on sets of loans offered for sale. However, because formatting and data within the spreadsheet vary from seller to seller, as well as by submission within the seller, the data must first be sorted and aligned to the investor's format before the investor can make a bid or begin to conduct due diligence, Overture said. The Mozart Tape Cracking system uses English-language rule management to speedily adapt and convert new file formats to an investor's internal database format. Overture can be found on the Web at http://www.overturetechnologies.com.

CUNA Mutual Group, Madison, Wis., has announced a partnership with technology firm K/P Corp. and strategic consulting firm Raine Media to re-engineer its document imaging supply chain via a new Web portal.CUNA Mutual projects that re-engineering will deliver a $3 million cost savings in the first six months. Fourteen different platforms used by its various business units to create documents will be reduced to two, including a supporting platform. Optimization of CUNA Mutual's business processes is expected to eliminate more than 1.6 million pounds of paper annually. The main infrastructure component of the project is an Internet portal to be deployed in three phases, the last one to serve CU members directly. CUNA Mutual can be found online at http://www.cunamutual.com.

Livonia, Mich.-based Dynatek Inc. has formed a "tight integration" with DocuTech, Idaho Falls, Idaho, that Dynatek says will give users of its MORvision loan origination system seamless access to DocuTech's Web-based document system, ConformX.The agreement identifies DocuTech, which has been a member of Dynatek's Plug-In Partner Network since 2004, as a preferred integrated document provider. It also allows for development of a fully integrated DocuTech system, which will replace its current Plug-In and provide MORvision customers with a choice between two distinctive forms systems -- a traditional one and an online system that enables DocuTech to manage all the compliance for the lender. The DocuTech ConformX product is a service-based solution that provides users with compliance guarantees and manages the forms process for the lender. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.dynatek.com and http://www.docutech.com.