Technology

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., and Fidelity National Information Services Inc. have announced a merger agreement under which FNF will be merged into FNIS, which will be the surviving entity.The merger agreement, previously reported as a proposal, will be consummated after the closing of a securities exchange and distribution agreement between FNF and Fidelity National Title Group Inc., FNF's majority-owned title insurance subsidiary. Under that agreement, FNF will contribute substantially all its assets and liabilities (other than its ownership interests in FNIS) to FNTG in exchange for shares of FNTG's class A common stock, the companies reported. Immediately after that exchange, FNF will convert its class B common stock of FNTG into shares of FNTG class A common stock and distribute all the class A shares as dividends to FNF stockholders. These transactions will leave FNF with an approximately 51% ownership in FNIS as its only asset prior to the merger, the companies said. William P. Foley II, FNF's chairman and chief executive officer, will become executive chairman of FNIS.

Leveraging the powerful Alterian Engine and database, Alterian has announced a partnership with the Intellidyn marketing firm to offer mortgage industry customers a "hands-on" analytics platform that lets them manage marketing campaigns onsite.Through the Alterian Marketing Suite, Intellidyn's financial services customers will be able to access data "on more than 112 million households as well as Intellidyn's proprietary derived variables, gaining deeper insights into banking, lending, and insurance segments," Alterian said. Customers will also be able to implement multichannel campaigns "straight from their desktops" while keeping their data behind secure firewalls, the company added. Intellidyn bills itself as a provider of advanced analytics and multichannel and database marketing services for customer acquisition and retention strategies in the banking, lending, and mortgage industries. Alterian, based in Bristol, U.K., can be found online at http://www.alterian.com, and Intellidyn, based in Hingham, Mass., a Boston suburb, can be found at http://www.intellidyn.com.

Standard & Poor's has started a Web-based service that provides day-end pricing for international, fixed income securities, among them European and U.S. commercial and residential mortgage-backed securities. "The traditionally opaque fixed income sector is in the midst of transformational change, brought on in part by advances in technology," said Frank Ciccotto, senior vice president at S&P. "With this Web-based offering, we underscore our commitment to helping the industry achieve new levels of efficiency and transparency." S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Martopia has partnered with RGC Communications to offer a new online service that helps wholesale lenders assist their brokers with marketing efforts.The two companies said their Broker Marketing Engine aims to help lenders attract and retain mortgage brokers. Michael Hammond, vice president of business strategy at Martopia, said, "The Broker Marketing Engine program enables authorized brokers to utilize a password-protected website and customize marketing materials with their colors, photos, logos, contact information and text choices." Martopia said initial selections include brochures, sell sheets and direct mail pieces that address common topics of interest to the mortgage broker's target audiences. The broker can then order printing and even upload a mailing list and request mailing services right from the website, according to Martopia. Martopia and RGC Communications plan to demonstrate their Broker Marketing Engine at the upcoming 2006 National Association of Mortgage Brokers Annual Convention. Martopia can be found on the Web at http://www.martopia.com.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has announced the launch of eRelease Payload, an automated utility designed exclusively for the company's mortgage servicing package clients.The eRelease product line is an end-to-end lien release processing system, and the launch of eRelease Payload provides the added functionality of automated order placement into eRelease when the loan payoff transaction occurs, the company said. Using the utility to place orders eliminates the inconvenience, time delays, and risk of using multiple queries to aggregate order placement data. "Prior to Payload, our eRelease clients created their own upload files to place orders using multiple reports or manual entry of MSP data," said Clay Cornett, president of Fidelity National Default Solutions. "The process was cumbersome and increased our clients' exposure to potential penalties and litigation due to misplaced orders and incomplete files." FNIS can be found online at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

Today there are far more identities of U.S. residents on record than there are actual residents -- and the bad news is that 2006 is likely to be the worst year ever for identity theft, according to a company called Edentify.The good news is that actual losses from identity theft are continuing to fall, as consumers and lenders become aware of identify theft-related fraud at earlier stages, the Bethlehem, Pa.-based company says. Edentify offers patented measures for companies and individuals to prevent identity theft, including an "identity escrow account" that enables consumers to maintain ownership of their own biometric identity verification for every financial transaction they do. Though the mortgage application is a gold mine of borrower information, the mortgage industry is better than most at protecting borrower information, an Edentify spokesman said. The company can be found online at http://www.edentify.us.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., Richmond, Va., has announced the acquisition of MSTD Inc., a Baltimore-based provider of Web-based technology to the mortgage servicing industry.MSTD is an application service provider whose flagship product, BackInTheBlack, combines rules-based decision engines with embedded workflows and integration of all third-party providers and services used by lenders managing delinquent loans. "Our default management clients are increasingly challenged with delinquencies and foreclosures, as well as with an increased focus on regulatory compliance and loss litigation," said Albert V. Will, executive vice president of lender services for LandAmerica. "Blending the capabilities of LandAmerica Default Services with the technology expertise and products of MSTD enables LandAmerica to offer the mortgage industry the best and most integrated servicing solution in the marketplace." LandAmerica can be found online at http://www.landam.com.

MILA, Mountlake Terrace, Wash., is introducing daily online Web training for its proprietary decisioning and loan management technology, AccessPoint.Along with the training, MILA has recently introduced co-browsing, which allows a broker to invite a MILA associate into his system to help drive the process in real time. When combined with communication tools such as live chat and e-mail, co-browsing will empower MILA's brokers to move loans even more efficiently through AccessPoint, the company said. AccessPoint has been designed as a platform that brokers and small mortgage bankers can use to manage their entire business, from marketing, product selection, and rate locks to fraud prevention, settlement service fulfillment, and document preparation. MILA can be found on the Web at http://www.mila.com.

A new player has entered the ring to vie with Calyx, Ellie Mae, Lenders Insight, LION, and others to serve brokers by automating loan qualification and lender referral.With technology coming from a successful real estate company, Highland, Calif.-based PreQualPal Inc. offers mortgage brokers and loan officers a suite of online tools that dramatically reduces the time they spend searching through rate sheets and keying in data. A key feature is simultaneous real-time rate and pricing that includes quotes from multiple lenders. Taking 17 variables in getting a quote from a lender, the system automatically arrives at an adjusted rate and compares and maximizes lender rebates. The company particularly touts its tools for building relationships with real estate agents in a shrinking mortgage market. http://www.prequalpal.com

Indecomm Global Services has signed an agreement to acquire McLean, Va.-based Mortgage Dynamics Inc., a mortgage banking management consulting and outsource services firm.The 18-year-old company was sold for a combination of cash and stock, but the financial details were not disclosed. Indecomm said it will adopt the Mortgage Dynamics brand name for its U.S. mortgage outsourcing operations. Mortgage Dynamics will continue under the leadership of Mary Bruce Batte and Dan Measell, Indecomm said. The parties said they expect to complete the transaction by June 30. Indecomm is an international business process services firm with headquarters in Bangalore, India, and operating centers in the United States.