Technology

Valuation technology company eAppraiseIT LLC, Poway, Calif., has announced the acquisition of Network Appraisal Services, Kalamazoo, Mich.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. NAS manages appraiser networks for national and regional lenders and develops online systems that help them comply with regulations by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to prevent directed appraisals. NAS executives will remain with the company, which will retain its name and operate as an independent subsidiary of eAppraiseIT, the company said. "NAS expands the range of services that we are able to deliver to the lending community," said Anthony Merlo, president of eAppraiseIT. "It allows us to better serve retail-focused lenders who maintain their own network of appraisers, and it will also help our other clients implement safeguards that help remove bias from the appraiser selection process." The company can be found on the Internet at http://www.eappraiseit.com.

Flagstar Bank, Troy, Mich., has announced the integration of its Digital Document Transfer platform with BeesPath Inc.'s RecordsDirect to create what it calls the first system to extend image delivery services to closing agents in the mortgage industry.The two products work together to provide "virtually immediate delivery and processing" of closed loan documents and to enable closing agents to share the benefits enjoyed by lenders and investors, Flagstar said. "Today, unsigned loan documents are being delivered electronically to closing agent before a loan closes," said Todd Hougaard, president of Richmond, Utah-based BeesPath. "This integration allows signed documents to be delivered electronically post-closing." The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.flagstar.com and http://www.beespath.com.

Joseph McCartin, chief information officer at National City, recently told a crowd at the 9th Annual SourceMedia Technology Conference that his institution is implementing technology so that live people only have to touch a loan in exceptional cases.The goal is to eliminate redundant tasks and develop a system that electronically processes a loan without human intervention unless a problem arises. The goal is to make loan officers experts in mortgage lending instead of just paper pushers. The answer, according to Mr. McCartin, is for the lender to isolate each part of the lending process as a service that can be called up automatically with a business rule. Implementing service-oriented architecture was a big trend at the Miami Beach conference, and was identified by all the lender speakers as the future of mortgage technology and a high priority at their lending institutions.

GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Horsham, Pa., is touting its strategy to use technology as an enabler for outsourcing at the 9th Annual SourceMedia Mortgage Technology Conference in Miami Beach, Fla.Galen Hain, vice president of software development at GMACCM, noted that outsourcing goes by several names and is a politically charged topic. Nevertheless, outsourcing is a necessity, he said. GMACCM has avoided huge layoffs by using technology to create a model that upper management owns and manages. The lender has repositioned staff into other areas of the business, transitioning its technology coders to technology architects, for example. Mr. Hain said these employees are now more important to GMACCM, given their expertise in creating a service-oriented platform to make outsourcing more seamless for the lender.

NetBank Inc., an Atlanta-based online bank, has reported a mortgage-related net loss of $180,000 ($0.00 per share) for 2005, compared with net income of $4.2 million ($0.09 per share) in 2004, although the company did record a profitable fourth quarter.Net income for the fourth quarter totaled $895,000 ($0.02 per share), compared with a net loss of $17.7 million ($0.38 per share) a year earlier, NetBank reported. The production of conforming mortgages totaled $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter, a decline of 14.7% from that of the third quarter, and the production of nonconforming mortgages totaled $807 million, a decline of 8.6%, the company reported. "As we had reported throughout the year, our mortgage operations were under pressure due to a highly competitive pricing environment," said Douglas K. Freeman, NetBank's chairman and chief executive officer. "This pressure, although not surprising, was simply more irrational than anticipated, particularly within the nonconforming business where our revenue margins dropped an average of 64 basis points during the year. Our mortgage operations went from a positive pretax contribution of $21.1 million a year ago to a pretax loss of $17.7 million this year." The company can be found online at http://www.netbank.com.

"What's out there that we can buy right now?" was the question Freddie Mac's Ed Albrigo threw out to attendees in his keynote address opening the 9th Annual Mortgage Technology Conference in Miami.Mr. Albrigo, vice president in charge of Freddie Mac's enterprise planning office, said the government-sponsored enterprise was prepared to purchase out-of-the-box technology solutions that minimize needed customization. He said Freddie Mac, like the mortgage lenders it serves, needs to come quickly to market with new products at a time when the capital markets are awash in funds. That means, he said, that Freddie Mac no longer has the luxury of involving itself in lengthy projects requiring a high degree of customization. He said the mortgage industry as a whole is governed today by three realities: consolidation, fierce competition, and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory pressures. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.

David Barkley of Freddie Mac has been re-elected to chair the Governance Committee of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, and Adam Hall of IndyMac Bank and Lisa Bolelli of First American Real Estate Information Services have been re-elected vice-chairs.The committee also elected Chip Register of NetBank Inc. to membership on the panel, and re-elected the following members: Dave Bodi of Midland Loan Services, Joanne Denver of Babson Capital Management, Paul Wills of Equifax Information Services, Todd Luhtanen of Dynatek, Craig Foote of Fidelity Information Services, and Tim Anderson of Dexma. The Governance Committee consists of 20 MISMO subscriber organizations that serve two-year terms, with half the seats up for election each year. MISMO, which was established by the Mortgage Bankers Association, develops electronic commerce standards for the mortgage industry. Its Governance Committee provides oversight for the organization's administration and policy development. The organization can be found online at http://www.mismo.org.

Minneapolis-based Prime Alliance Solutions Inc., a partnership between technology vendor Dexma and Boeing Employees' Credit Union, has reported handling over 140,000 loans (about $25 billion in loan volume) last year, a 34% increase from the previous year's level.The Prime Alliance technology system now extends to more than 1,300 credit unions that are part of the Prime Alliance consortium. According to the Fannie Mae Mortgage Focus 2005 study, the average cost per closed loan among low-cost/high-productivity credit unions within Prime Alliance stood at $469 -- nearly one-third the average origination cost ($1,206) in other retail credit unions and less than one-fifth of the average cost ($2,703) in the typical retail lender. Dexma can be found on the Web at http://www.dexma.com.

Empire Equity Group Inc., Montvale, N.J., has embraced Web-based technology by licensing Dublin, Calif.-based Ellie Mae's Encompass Anywhere product for its origination needs.When the deployment is complete by the end of the first quarter, all Empire branches will have switched to Encompass Anywhere from their current loan origination systems, the company said. The Web-enabled mortgage automation system allows Empire branches to view, manage, and distribute loan data electronically via any Internet connection. The company is seeking to simplify compliance oversight with the product as well. Ellie Mae can be found on the Web at http://www.elliemae.com.

LoanCity, San Jose, Calif., has announced that it took just 48 hours to deploy the Xactly Incent sales compensation management system for its nationwide network of 200 sales professionals.San Jose, Calif.-based Xactly Corp. offers the Web-based on-demand system as a tool for motivating a sales force to increase sales because its real-time visibility offers them a transparent way of seeing how their efforts directly correlate with compensation. LoanCity, founded in 1987, was a Web pioneer for the mortgage industry. Offering independent mortgage brokers the full spectrum of loan programs through 15 regional processing centers, with all pricing and underwriting done through its proprietary automated underwriting system, LoanCity funded $7 billion in 2005. The companies can be found online at http://www.loancity.com and http://www.xactlycorp.com.