Technology

Fleet Mortgage Group, Columbia, S.C., has announced an expanded alliance with Cybertek, a Dallas-based software application company, to develop a "next-generation" mortgage origination product.The product, Compass-LX, will incorporate the business rules and infrastructure of Fleet's proprietary Compass system into Cybertek's existing LoanXchange platform, Fleet said. The company said key members of its technical and business analysis team will become Cybertek employees with responsibility for implementing the combined system. "We have found the ideal solution to our technology needs by leveraging the best of two existing systems," said A. William Schenck, Fleet's chairman and CEO. Cybertek is a wholly owned subsidiary of Policy Management Systems Corp. Cybertek's website address is http://www.cybertek.com and PMSC's is http://www.pmsc.com.

Bankers Trust Corp.'s corporate trust and agency services has opened its investor reporting website (http://online.bankerstrust.com/invr).The website provides access to CUSIP-level reporting on nearly 6,000 publicly traded mortgage-backed and asset-backed housing securities. The initial rollout of the website enables users to view and download factor and payment information by payment date, structuring their queries by payment or CUSIP number, or by an entire deal. Several enhancements of the site are already planned for later this year, including additional customized reporting and access to certificate holder statements, collateral, loan level data files, and additional servicing reports provided by the trustee.

Chase Manhattan Mortgage, Edison, N.J., is considering developing its own multilender website, according to Dave Matthews, the company's senior vice president and CIO.Mr. Matthews told MortgageWire that "the growth of the Internet has been faster than anybody in technology, or on the business side, had anticipated." Because of the rapid growth, Chase plans to unveil a new homepage in September that directs borrowers to the site's consumer channel or correspondents to the site's business channel. Over time, Chase plans to phase in technology that allows correspondents to lock in loans online as well as provide borrowers the opportunity to receive a credit decision within 15 or 20 minutes. Mortgage brokers will also be able to access Chase's website from the borrower's kitchen table and receive a lending decision. Chase's website address is http://www.chase.com.

Although the effect of the Internet on the mortgage business remains unclear, one Wall Street analyst views the Internet as a completely new framework for asset origination in the U.S. market.It could lead to "abnormally high concentrations of mortgage assets, at least relative to the fragmented physical world arrangements bankers and borrowers currently know," according to Gary Craft, a senior research analyst for electronic commerce at Robertson Stephens, San Francisco. Mr. Craft's comments were included in a report released to coincide with the company's New Millennium conference. Writing in "Investment Opportunities in Banking's New Age: The Emerging Growth Sector for Mortgage Origination, Structuring, Placement and Trading," Mr. Craft says the notion of "breaking up the banks" is apparent within the mortgage lending industry. "Although banks will remain prominent figures in asset funding, they are likely to yield to non-depository organizations at the earlier point of credit origination, structure and underwriting," he writes. "As they do, these credit organization sites will channel their credit asset flow to potentially new sources that, in turn, will help structure and underwrite the credits for ultimate sale to funding sources."

Interlinq Software Corp., Kirkland, Wash., has released a new information conduit that it says can speed the mortgage-loan process by connecting lenders to an emerging electronic marketplace.The company said its MortgageWare Loan Management System/MortgageWare TC is the first interface to Fannie Mae's MortgageLinks information services platform. Currently, lenders rely on written reports or dial in to credit bureaus using various electronic data exchange standards. The new interface allows "an effortless flow of data in a common data standard, eliminating the need to re-key data," the company said. The software works with MortgageWare LMS version 8.1, which Interlinq recently released. Jim Leone, manager of mortgage information systems for Central Carolina Bank & Trust Co., Durham, N.C., beta-tested the interface and gave it a thumbs-up. "The end user spends less time keying in credit information and has more time to handle exceptions," Mr. Leone said. "It also eliminates the potential for clerical mistakes, which could result in poor underwriting decisions." Interlinq's website address is http://www.interlinq.com.

Mark Korell has resigned as chief executive of IMX Mortgage Exchange, San Ramon, Calif., MortgageWire has learned.He had been with the mortgage technology upstart for a year and resigned for "personal reasons," said IMX executive vice president and founder Stephen Fraser. Mr. Korell joined the company from Norwest Mortgage Corp., Des Moines, Iowa, where he was second in command under Mark Oman. IMX operates a fledgling electronic network that acts as a marriage broker, of sorts, between wholesale mortgage lender/investors and loan originators. More than 3,000 individual loan officers are now on the system and IMX is operating in California, Oregon, and Arizona with plans to enter 10 more top markets by mid-year 1999. Mr. Fraser said IMX is "well capitalized" and noted that the company plans to go public within the next year or so. He said Mr. Korell owns a "huge block" of IMX's privately held shares and will do well if the IPO becomes reality. After Mr. Korell left Norwest he was considered a candidate to manage Fleet Mortgage, a shop that has been in turmoil the past two years. Mr. Korell could not be reached for comment. IMX's website address is http://www.imx-exchange.com.

Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp.'s correspondent division has announced a new website combining real-time loan status with Internet technology.The site offers lenders access to loan information and status data for every loan they fund through Chase. "Now when a Chase underwriter or funder enters a status in the system, the reports on the website are updated within seconds," said Deane Hall, executive vice president of Chase's correspondent division. Lenders can gain instant access to information -- such as which loans are about to expire -- view rate and price bulletins, and search an online version of the correspondent lending products and programs guide. "In the past a correspondent had to pick up the phone and call an account rep. Now he can access the system on the Internet and learn the status of the loan," said David Matthews, senior vice president and chief information officer for Chase Manhattan Mortgage. The website address is http://www.mortgage.chase.com/correspondent.

From a technology standpoint, the questions of particular interest from the Fannie Mae survey (see item above) were the percentage of borrowers with Internet access and the willingness of borrowers to purchase a mortgage in cyberspace.The results were surprising. Many more Americans have computers today than had them in 1996, but there has been a decrease in the percentage of people that say they would apply for a mortgage online. In 1996, 36% of adults said they had Internet access, either at home or at work. That number has jumped to 52%. Yet while 20% of adults two years ago said they would "probably or definitely try" originating a mortgage online, only 15% say they would do so today, according to Fannie Mae. Interestingly, there is virtually no difference in the percentage of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers who would try to originate a mortgage online.

Charter Research Inc., Boston, has released a new version of Conquest, its bond pricing and analysis tool.The company said the new release is "an entirely new category" of commercial mortgage-backed security analytical tool. Michael A. Ervolini, president and chief executive officer of Charter Research, said the proliferation of CMBS deals has created a need for "a higher level of performance" from the software. He said the new release improves the ability to access and analyze transactions and offers "the ability to tie bond pricing to the credit of the properties underlying each loan comprising a CMBS loan pool, which we call credit-driven analysis." Mr. Ervolini can be reached via e-mail at ervolini@charterresearch.com.

An electronic link that will enable lenders to bid on loans posted by mortgage brokers will be established by Freddie Mac and IMX, Freddie Mac has announced.Through Freddie Mac's GoldWorks network, lenders will be able to query, select, and bid on loans posted by brokers using IMX's MatchMaker software. "With more than 1,000 lenders on GoldWorks, brokers using MatchMaker will be able to receive real-time bids from the most expansive pool of lenders possible," said Bob Ryan, Freddie Mac's vice president of marketing and pricing. When a lender places a bid, the broker will be notified by MatchMaker as well as via e-mail or alphanumeric pager. Once a bid is accepted, the identities of the lender and the broker are revealed. The lock-in will be binding for both, and loan file delivery will proceed as it would in a traditional transaction, Freddie Mac said. IMX president Mark Korell said loans will be placed "not in hours or days, but in a matter of minutes." Freddie Mac's website address is http://www.freddiemac.com.