Technology

XFormic Inc., Burlingame, Calif., has announced the introduction of Direct Credit Solution, a software product that it says "revolutionizes" the way small to medium-size mortgage companies retrieve merged credit reports.DCS allows mortgage companies to bypass existing credit data resellers and purchase data directly from the major credit bureaus, XFormic said. "Going direct allows the mortgage company to avoid reseller markups and save, on average, 40% on data acquisition costs," the company said. ".... Currently, the average reseller charges $12-15 for a tri-merged credit report. With DCS, the cost is $7.88 or less." XFormic can be found online at http://www.xformic.com.

Decade Systems Corp., Jacksonville, Fla., and Equix Financial Services, Menomonee Falls, Wis., have announced an alliance under which they will offer mortgage lenders a "rapid, cost-effective" integration system for leveraging Equix's origination and fulfillment capabilities.Equix recently implemented Decade's Total Enterprise Data Integration technology within its system architecture, and this coincided with the launch of an origination call center designed to support a top mortgage lender, the companies said. The technology includes "an extensive library of reusable integration adapters" to popular mortgage systems, enabling Equix clients to send application information and receive data for their existing systems using data files that comply with standards set by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, they said. "By partnering with Decade, our lender clients are able to realize the benefits of outsourced origination and fulfillment quickly and efficiently, with minimal impact to their internal resources," said Chris Hayward, chief operating officer of Equix. The companies can be found online at http://www.equix.us and http://www.decadesystems.com.

ACS, Dallas, has announced what it says is the first secure Internet-based exchange connecting organizations and counties to facilitate the electronic recording of land records such as deeds and mortgages.Named eRX, the system allows participants to create, sign, notarize, edit, transmit, and record documents in a paperless environment, said ACS, a provider of business process and information technology outsourcing systems. The system also handles the fees associated with these business-to-government transactions. ACS said eRX is the first implementation of an open exchange that provides a single interface for lender and title company members to reach any county member nationwide. The system also features electronic signature technology provided by Silanis Technology. "Counties reduce the manual processing effort associated with paper processing, and what used to take days or even months now takes minutes or hours, eliminating risks for the title companies and significantly reducing the post-closing costs for lenders," said John Brophy, group president of ACS State and Local Solutions. The company can be found online at http://www.acs-inc.com.

VMP Mortgage Solutions, Fraser, Mich., has released the latest version of a forms design tool boasting features that the company says simplify and speed the process of designing documents.VMP said I-32 Forms Design 6.0, which can be installed as a stand-alone tool or as a transparent addition to client applications, allows users to create complex forms with hundreds of data fields using unique identifiers; to incorporate logos, text, signatures, and data fields without altering the original forms; and to insert check boxes, rules, columns, and graphics. One form, regardless of how many pages it contains, is loaded into one file. (For example, a user has to open only one file to work on a 10-page document instead of opening 10 files, the company said.) VMP released the updated tool at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's technology conference in Orlando, Fla. The company, a division of CBF Systems Inc., can be found online at http://www.vmpmtg.com.

REsolve Technology, a Boston-based custom programming and financial consulting firm for the commercial real estate industry, has unveiled a new tracking and reporting module for its REquest product.The Partnership Module enables users to track, analyze, and report property and fund information and the returns of various real estate properties owned individually or in a partnership, the company said. Users can now allocate properties to specific funds, link historical contributions and distributions, and create and edit customized reports. "Before implementing the Partnership Module, one of our clients had to track their partnership structures in complicated Excel spreadsheets," said Eric Forman, president of REsolve Technology. "This was prone to error and very time consuming. With this new module, users can now add, delete, or edit real estate properties associated with specific funds, or change ownership percentages of funds in certain properties at the touch of a button." The company can be found online at http://www.resolvetech.com.

ComplianceEase, San Francisco, and Dorado Corp., San Mateo, Calif., have announced the formation of a strategic partnership that they say will accelerate the delivery of automated compliance systems, especially in predatory lending compliance.Under the terms of the partnership, ComplianceEase's flagship product, PredatorAnalyzer, will be integrated with Dorado ChannelMaster as a .MOR Web service. The combination will enable lenders to integrate PredatorAnalyzer with legacy systems simply and cost effectively, the companies said. "The predatory lending audit is a great example of the power and flexibility of the Web services-based approach to origination workflow," said Joseph W. Jennings, president of Dorado. The companies can be found online at http://www.complianceease.com and http://www.dorado.com.

Fannie Mae has announced a new design for Desktop Underwriter as well as new features that include an online help center and consolidated access to DU for wholesale lenders.For the first time, wholesalers will be able to log on to a single application for all their loan processing and underwriting needs while still offering services to their mortgage brokers via Fannie Mae's Desktop Originator, the government-sponsored enterprise said. The online help center recognizes where a lender is in the loan submission process and, through Web and chat features, provides quick online access to a database of information about DU, Fannie Mae said. "Fannie Mae incorporated customer feedback and usability research to develop these important system enhancements to Desktop Underwriter," said Terri Davis, managing director for Fannie Mae/eBusiness. ".... Now both retail and wholesale lenders will not only have the benefits of increased functionality, easier navigation, and a new visual design, but a reliable, secure system with 24/7 availability and a 99.9% uptime performance." Fannie Mae can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.

The Mortgage Bankers Association of America has launched a new subsidiary corporation to provide documentation and guidelines to accredit and certify Public Key Infrastructure and secure identity providers.The new organization will be called Secure Identity Services Accreditation Corp. The MBA made the announcement at its annual Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference in Orlando, Fla. SISAC is already working with five leading providers of secure identity solutions. The MBA can be found on the Web at http://www.mbaa.org.

Netupdate Inc., Bellevue, Wash., and Ignition Mortgage Technology Solutions Inc., Sausalito, Calif., have announced that Netupdate will add Ignition's LockPoint Xtra pricing and distribution tool to its Originator Pro point-of-sale system.In addition, Ignition announced that its Loan Officer Plus loan origination system is being discontinued, but that users can now migrate to Originator Pro using the new LOP Migration Program from Netupdate that incorporates data migration, software installation, and product training with "minimum impact to a lender's back-office operations." LockPoint Xtra enables lenders to operate on a single technology platform that supports correspondent, wholesale, retail, and consumer-direct lending, the companies said. "LockPoint Xtra eliminates the need to have separate pricing and product systems for the lender's other origination channels," said Diane Holmstrom, Netupdate's chief executive officer. The companies can be found online at http://www.ignitionmts.com and http://www.netupdate.com.

Idaho Falls, Idaho-based DocuTech and San Mateo, Calif.-based Dorado have announced a new Web service that speeds the use of SMART Docs.Scheduled to become available in the second quarter, the system integrates DocuTech’s ConformX online closing system as a Web service on Dorado’s .MOR platform to deliver “the first end-to-end mortgage document system as an easily accessible Web service.” The announcement at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's mortgage technology conference in Orlando, Fla., said the service provides upfront disclosure documents, traditional closing documents, and compliant SMART (securable, manageable, archivable, retrievable, and transferable) Docs. The alliance, created to leverage electronic commerce standards developed through the MBA’s Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, offers the ConformX-.MOR integration adaptor as “a ready-made solution for lenders preparing to implement an eMortgage strategy today.” DocuTech can be found online at http://www.docutechcorp.com.