Technology

At the MBA tech show, Fiserv noted that both its easyLENDER and UniFi PRO loan origination systems have received certification for credit reporting and mortgage insurance application through the MXCompliance service, an eXtensible Markup Language-based compliance process developed by MISMO.MISMO, a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association, develops mortgage data-exchange and file-specification standards for lenders and mortgage technology providers. This move signals that Fiserv, one of the largest technology vendors in the mortgage space, is making efforts to endorse industry standards within their products to make it easier for users to integrate with other products and services. Other MISMO certifications are forthcoming including automated underwriting and e-mortgage certifications.

In more news from the MBA Tech Show, Calyx Software has embarked on a strategic mission to both support the MISMO standards and become a more fully integrated solution.Through the release of four products, DirectConnect, WebConnect, Loan Bridge and Point SDK, Point users will be able to use Point in a variety of ways to integrate other software solutions, connect to lenders and order various settlement services. The most recent of the three products, Point SDK, which will be released in June, is in direct response to the industry's need to integrate with various third-party solutions and providers. This new product will allow Point users to use a common SDK to create more seamless integrations. Vendors can also purchase the SDK, but it can only be used in conjunction with a Point owner's SDK.

An army of Freddie Mac-ers is scouring the vendor halls at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference now underway in San Diego.Freddie is using the conference to pursue its new strategy of meeting its technology needs with out-of-the-box products. Pegging this "sea change" to its previous policy of building in-house, Freddie Mac officials said this new initiative would be matched by an effort to broaden its search for new technology personnel beyond the Beltway to markets such as Chicago, where it already has regional offices. Freddie tied the new initiative to its embrace of e-mortgages and service-oriented architecture. The company's website is http://www.freddiemac.com.

INREEX, formally the International Real Estate Exchange, announced that its stock has begun trading as a Pink Sheet issue under the symbol IRXI.INNREEX, based in London, describes itself as a real estate prediction exchange to meet the needs of global real estate investors. "Our goal as a company is to efficiently create an online real estate speculation exchange," said Paul Rozenberg, CEO of the company. He said the system is designed to be as close as possible to stock market trading. The electronic exchange trades contracts of all 50 U.S. states as well as a USA contract reminiscent of a stock index. The contracts are based on official home price index data published by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. The company's trading technology allows investors to log in from anywhere in the world and buy, sell or short housing markets in the U.S.

Responding to widespread interest in technology that improves the correspondent-investor transaction, Irvine, Calif.-based Commerce Velocity has announced the launch of a correspondent module that enables lenders to accept and then automatically decision and price loans submitted in flow, batch, or bulk mode.The module lets lenders offer their sellers customized portal views featuring simultaneous side-by-side spot, commitment, and bulk pricing capability. The module's customizable pipeline views highlight "next step" activities for each unique role/user, and allow lenders to monitor activity for correspondents, investors, and third-party service providers. Commerce Velocity said an unnamed Wall Street conduit will be implementing the system this spring, with another lender scheduled to implement in June. The company will be demonstrating the module at the MBA Technology Conference March 29-31 in San Diego. It can be found online at http://www.cvelocity.com.

International Document Services Inc., Salt Lake City, and Byte Software, Kirkland, Wash., have announced an alliance that offers mortgage professionals new options for legally compliant closing documents.The partnership creates "a seamless interface" between the idsDoc closing system and the BytePro loan origination system, the companies said. IDS president Curt Doman said the interface "will give Byte's customers a fully customizable document system, providing more time to originate loans." The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.idsdoc.com and http://www.byte-cbc.com.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions has deployed NeighborhoodHomeSales.com, a Web-based lead generation product.The tool is powered by Fidelity's proprietary property database, which contains over 120 million real estate property records nationwide. The product is designed to enable real estate professionals to put a home evaluation link on their website to provide their customers with automatic valuations from NeighborhoodHomeSales.com. Fidelity said it believes that the service will increase Web traffic to Realtors' and brokers' websites so they can determine whether visitors are in the market to buy or sell a home. The leads received from this service can automatically populate into Fidelity's ManagementCenter product to increase pull-through. Fidelity can be found on the Web at http://www.fnf.com.

Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, a division of Fidelity National Information Services Inc., has announced an agreement with RE FormsNet LLC to facilitate direct integrations between Fidelity's transaction management technology and RE FormsNet's ZipForm and WINForms real estate form applications.Fidelity said the integration will allow real estate professionals to minimize key strokes by transferring or copying data from their listing or sales contract form to Fidelity's TransactionPoint transaction management platform, where key transaction-related events and documents may be created and tracked. The integration will facilitate the seamless flow of information and enhance customer service levels and communication, Fidelity said. RE FormsNet is a joint venture between the National Association of Realtors and Real Estate Business Services Inc., a subsidiary of the California Association of Realtors.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based WellFound Decade has merged with Lydian Data Services, Boca Raton, Fla., to form Lydian Technology Group.WellFound Decade is an integration and architecture company that services some of the top mortgage lenders. Lydian Data Services offers end-to-end outsourced systems with a specialty in conduit services and closed-loan review for top mortgage aggregators and Wall Street companies. The marriage of the two companies will allow Lydian Technology Group to "reduce the fragmentation by doing data normalization," William Decker, chairman and chief executive officer of Lydian Data, told MortgageWire. "We've had to normalize the data for our institutional investor clients for some time now. WellFound Decade is a step ahead in their ability to do data extraction. We can now be a receiver of the data, and WellFound Decade can go out and get that data to us." As part of the merger, WellFound Decade's president, Brian Fitzpatrick, and its CEO, Paul Gain, will retain their positions in Lydian Technology. (For more details, see the March 13 issue of National Mortgage News.)

Sun National Bank, Vineland, N.J., has announced the launch of a residential mortgage subsidiary, Sun Home Loans Inc., and its entry into the podcasting arena as a way of educating consumers about the mortgage process.Sun Home Loans will offer traditional and nontraditional mortgages, including two private programs -- SunPromise and SunKeys -- aimed at providing affordable mortgages for low- and moderate-income households. "Given New Jersey's current housing environment, we wanted to give consumers a very focused approach to obtaining a mortgage that best fits their specific needs," said Thomas A. Bracken, president and chief executive officer of Sun National. The bank's specialized subsidiary will make it a "one-stop mortgage resource," he said. Podcasting, which enables consumers to download audio files onto their computers or MP3 players, is "our way of stepping up to the times and giving consumers what they want, when they want it," said Brian G. Myers, president of Sun Home Loans. The bank can be found online at http://www.subnb.com.