Technology

The electronic partnership platform technology under development by BCE Emergis for use on Freddie Mac's loanprospector.com website will use technology developed by General American Corp., Pittsburgh.After a two-year collaboration with Freddie Mac, GAC announced that Freddie will use a customized version of GAC’s Gators Web-enabled software package as a foundation for the mortgage services it provides through its portal. The platform offers mortgage processing and closing tools that use the Internet to provide cheaper, more efficient access to third-party services needed to process, close, and fund mortgage loans, GAC said. BCE Emergis, an e-commerce services company based in Quebec, Canada, acquired the online technology tools from Freddie Mac and will manage their development, implementation and operation. GAC can be found on the Web at http://www.gatorsystems.com.

Fidelity National Information Solutions Inc., Santa Barbara, Calif., has signed a multiyear outsourcing and software application services agreement with HomeServices of America Inc., a Minneapolis-based residential real estate brokerage firm that offers mortgage originations and title services.Under the agreement, FNIS said it will acquire HomeServices' proprietary TRIO software system and Web-based platform, which provides broker websites catering to consumers and Multiple Listing Services data aggregation, among other services. The companies can be found on the Web at http://www.fnis.com and http://www.homeservices.com.

In a move that chief executive officer Joe Murin says will focus the company, Basis100 has agreed to sell certain assets of EFA Software Services Ltd. and EFA Cyprus Ltd. to Computershare Ltd., a global technology provider to the securities industry, for $6.25 million Canadian.The acquisition is expected to close by the end of January. The company had bought the capital markets trading platform with an eye toward serving a global marketplace. "With the economy in the U.S. collapsing in the last few years, it just didn't pan out to be the right business to be in," Mr. Murin said. The company maintains a trading platform it built in conjunction with a Canadian banking consortium. Basis100's website address is http://www.basis100.com.

New Century Financial Corp., Irvine, Calif., and its subsidiary, New Century Mortgage Corp., have introduced a proprietary Web-based loan underwriting engine designed to provide registered users with loan approvals in less than 12 seconds."We believe FastQual represents the fastest automated loan underwriting system in the nonprime market, and it's a tool which gives brokers a wide range of options to fully automate typically complex nonprime transactions," said Greg Schroeder, senior vice president of marketing at New Century Mortgage. Information from brokers' loan origination systems is automatically uploaded to FastQual with the click of a mouse, and the FastQual engine evaluates it and replies within 12 seconds with a list of all loan products the borrower qualifies for, the company said. The new version of the company's broker website enables brokers to prequalify borrowers, submit loans, pull credit at no cost, auto-underwrite, obtain pricing, and track loans. New Century Mortgage, including FastQual, can be found online at http://www.newcentury.com.

Gabe Minton has been promoted to vice president of industry technology by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.Mr. Minton, whose previous title was senior director of industry technology, is responsible for overseeing the MBA’s leading role in establishing technology standards for the residential real estate finance industry. He manages the activities of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization and the industry’s residential electronic mortgage standardization efforts. The MBA also announced the promotions of Laura Armstrong to vice president of public affairs and Elaine Howard to vice president of meetings and conferences. The association can be found online at http://www.mbaa.org.

Principal Residential Mortgage Inc., a multibillion-dollar national lender and servicer based in Des Moines, Iowa, has selected Fiserv unit Case Shiller Weiss, Cambridge, Mass., to implement a customized collateral risk assessment system.The system will be built around CSW's CASA automated valuation model and will be one of the first to see AVMs employed in the first-lien business. The lender will use the CASA scoring system in its prefunding stage to assess collateral valuation risks associated with first-lien mortgage loan applications. Terry Loebs, vice president of sales, marketing, and services for CSW, said the agreement is "a milestone" for the AVM business. The companies can be found online at http://www.principal.com/mortgage.htm and http://www.cswv.com.

Paul Ciarfello has been named vice president and chief credit officer at Home123 Loans Direct!, Ponte Verde Beach, Fla.Mr. Ciarfello, a 23-year veteran of the subprime mortgage industry, was most recently vice president and deputy chief credit officer for Alliance Funding. Home123 said Mr. Ciarfello's chief duties will include overseeing the company's underwriting operations, building investor relations through secondary marketing efforts, and managing appraisal review. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.home123.com.

There are ways that lenders can speed the adoption of Internet-based lending, widely viewed as the least expensive origination channel, according to Emmanuel Obiorah, Bank of America's online channel executive for consumer real estate.Mr. Obiorah made his statements at Thomson's fourth annual Mortgage EC Conference in Las Vegas. “To improve adoption you have to streamline the process,” he told the audience. The one-click refinance that BofA is working on is an example, he said. In addition, he urged lenders to get specialty products that appeal to ethnic borrowers online, make the transition from online to off-line operations smooth, and hire bilingual employees to complement foreign language websites.

Ken Beyer, chief technology officer of MortgageRamp, has been named chief executive officer of the company.The Atlanta-based MortgageRamp, which provides technology for the commercial real estate industry, said current CEO Mike Greco will continue to be involved with the company as a member of the MortgageRamp Investor Operating Committee. Mr. Beyer was chief technology officer of Cornerstone Concepts before joining MortgageRamp. The company can be found online at http://www.mortgageramp.com.

Speaking to attendees of the Fourth Annual Mortgage EC conference in Las Vegas, ABN Amro's Garth Graham said waiting for HUD to approve mortgage reforms may be unwise because once consumers learn they can get a one-fee mortgage they will demand it no matter how long the HUD reform takes.Mr. Graham said the one-fee mortgage that ABN Amro's Mortgage.com launched in January 2001 has chalked up 70,000 loans funded and "combined customer demand for simplicity with ABN's desire to make it simple." The Guaranteed Mortgage Package proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development will simply mandate what borrowers are already flocking to get. Mr. Graham said consumer adoption of the Internet has simply accelerated that process. One effect of that has been expanded use of pricing engines and closing cost engines that will enable consumers to know the all-in price at the point of sale.