Understanding The News

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Once a lender signs up for Airlift, Acris consultants will perform a thorough analysis of the lender’s existing technology infrastructure and software applications and return with a clear set of steps indicating what the lender needs to create a virtual office, what challenges specific to the lender may exist, and the different options that are available. Participants in Airlift are under no obligation to buy Acris Technology products or services, but will benefit from a thorough report and access to online tools and resources for moving their business into the cloud.

“With mortgage rates at all-time lows, now is an opportune time for many lenders to be considering a cloud-based future,” says Richard Johnston, president of Acris Technology. “Right away, they get greater data storage with automatic backups, better security and unlimited scalability to handle an increase in business – all with lower overhead. But they also get the ability to leverage mobile technology, add remote staff, and more easily manage today’s tough compliance challenges through a single, common platform.”

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Some Refreshing News

While the mortgage industry is experiencing strain, not all technology vendors are. Those that can provide good product will do well. For example, PROGRESS in Lending Association has learned that Associated Software Consultants, Inc., developer of the PowerLender^® Loan Origination and Processing System, announced that more than 10 mid-sized lenders have chosen the Hosted or SaaS version of their software in the past year.

Hosted PowerLender, a full-featured, rules-based LOS accessed via the internet provides lenders with customizable functionality without the related IT infrastructure costs. These new users have embraced this new-found niche between large, resource-heavy systems and basic turn-key LOS’s offering minimal functionality and little or no refinability.

Lenders cite Hosted PowerLender’s ability to originate consumer loans as well as mortgage loans as providing them the competitive advantage, convenience and cost savings of managing a single system for all loan products. The data integration features, including two-way seamless data transfers, has helped them achieve greater efficiencies, while the business rules provide them with a distinct advantage in keeping pace with the ever-changing compliance issues and requirements.

PowerLender’s functionality combined with lower operating costs provides these lenders with competitive advantages that were previously only available to lenders with significant resources. “The hosted version of PowerLender has increased our efficiency, our productivity and the level of service that we provide our clients.” said Jeff Geddes, Senior Vice President of Lending at Connecticut-based Torrington Savings Bank.

These new clients also embraced the high-level of support that accompanies PowerLender including thorough project planning for fast implementations, an in-house, veteran Help Desk available 24/7, and their exhaustive adherence to compliance including recent TIL changes and upcoming ULDD requirements.

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Breaking LOS News

MortgageFlex Systems, Inc., a leading provider of mortgage lending solutions for over 30 years, announced today the official launch of the newest generation of LoanQuest, the company’s flagship enterprise loan origination system (LOS). The milestone release combines over 30 years of mortgage lending system functionality and experience with the latest generation of Microsoft technology. Here’s why the company thinks this LOS will stand out:

Staying true to the company’s vision, the origination platform allows lenders to differentiate themselves from the competition by providing a lending solution that meets their unique needs while still being affordable and easy to maintain. The system provides extensive user configuration flexibility of the core system and a comprehensive, easy to use tool set for additional system tailoring. The technology platform puts lenders in control of their system functionality, not the vendor. Lenders can build to their strengths while enhancing staff performance, increasing capacity and improving quality and customer service.

During the past three years, MortgageFlex strategically entered into an extensive R&D mode to rewrite its LOS from the ground up including a redesign of the database schema. LoanQuest retains all the functionality developed over the past 30 years while adding significant enhancements that take advantage of the latest technology. LoanQuest has been completely re-engineered utilizing Microsoft’s latest version of .NET architecture including several technologies not available in earlier versions of .NET.

In laying a new technical foundation that will perform effectively for many years to come, the new technology offers significant productivity and quality control features including constantly running compliance logic, a powerful and flexible workflow system, a business rule engine, an imaging system, a product and pricing engine, a network of industry leading service partners, and support for web services and MISMO based interfaces. With LoanQuest, lenders will have peace of mind by being regulatory compliant, having data continuously updated and validated, eliminating data redundancies, reducing processes and processing time using business rules, automating tasks with workflow, and having an enterprise level system that addresses all lending channels including retail, wholesale, correspondent and conduit.

Utilizing world class components such as Microsoft’s Workflow Foundation and InRule’s Business Rule Engine extend the capabilities of this version of LoanQuest far beyond previous versions and other solutions on the market. As a result, the value of MortgageFlex’s solution has increased substantially.

“Lenders are looking to technology to meet their customer service needs in addition to improving their business efficiencies,” according to Craig Bechtle, chief operating officer of MortgageFlex. “Strict regulatory guidelines demand compliance and market requirements have lenders searching for an origination system that allows consumers easy access while saving the lender time and worry about compliance; we believe this next generation of LoanQuest meets these requirements. Loan quality has always been of paramount importance and now lenders can automate manual tasks by employing smart technology that simplifies and promotes the implementation of processes and services through the use of the rules engine. The melding of other technology features like task automation and business intelligence are accomplished by automating work flow steps together with the rules engine and imaging center which results in reduced labor costs while also improving quality,” Bechtle concluded.

“The decision to make a deep-pocket technology investment, over 10 million dollars, was one we had in the planning stages for a quite a while before we committed to full blown development,” said Lester Dominick, president, MortgageFlex. “We were patient while we tested several versions of Microsoft’s .NET technology until a version was released that we were confident could deliver all the functionality we required and was stable and scalable. Our existing and new clients agree that this technology can take them to higher levels of customer interaction, increase compliance and help them achieve cost efficiencies while growing their businesses.”

“Technology buying habits have changed dramatically since 2007,” continued Dominick. “Lenders began buying low-cost solutions that helped them survive in an unpredictable market that stifled growth. Now, lenders are actively competing and many are growing again and they require more sophisticated technology to accommodate those needs. The days of lenders buying just enough technology to get by are coming to a close. They require enterprise-level systems that allow them to automate complex workflows and grow with an ever-changing market.”

MortgageFlex has been hosting clients for over 10 years, and both the company and its data centers are SSAE 16 audit certified. The hosting solution is unique among the “cloud” offerings in that each client has their own exclusive instance of the application and their own database. This model provides superior security compared to “multi-tenant” solutions and meets the stringent requirements of banks, credit unions, and other clients that desire a high level of security. The design also isolates system performance allowing individual lender performance tuning. Because the code for each client is managed separately, the client controls testing and the scheduling of updates. With multi-tenant systems there have been occurrences where a patch made to the shared code for one client brought down everyone on the shared system simultaneously. The system can also be installed in the client’s environment, with MortgageFlex technical assistance available.

The demand for this technology has already landed the company 14 new clients ranging from mortgage bankers to community banks, Credit Union Service Organizations (CUSO), national banks, credit unions, as well as state housing finance agencies.

CUMAnet (Credit Union Mortgage Alliance Network), Basking Ridge, New Jersey,  originates and services first and second mortgages for 51 credit unions in their individual names, according to Jay Romanovsky, Credit Union Relations Officer for CUMAnet, who said “loan processing and fundings per head would increase dramatically” using the new technology, resulting in a “scalable model that will enable us to take on new clients.”

Romanovsky said “fundings are up considerably” for credit unions and volumes are expected to remain strong, beyond the capacity of their former platform, which was manually intensive and missing the automation functions of the MortgageFlex system. “We really like the new system’s processing features and its ability to provide information to borrowers and members in a live environment, accessible via the Web,” he said.

One of MortgageFlex’s latest clients, Guardian Mortgage, believes that communications should be open and easy with its customers. To facilitate that approach they wanted a system where a loan officer could start an application and then allow the borrower to finish it at their convenience. “With MortgageFlex, we will be able to respond to an application much faster than before,” said Greg Sweet, senior vice president, Guardian Mortgage Company. “Accuracy is also improved as we don’t need to re-enter application data into a different system to process the application.”

“Lenders are seeking full featured products and LoanQuest has been honed to a rich functionality set during the last three decades by utilizing lenders and industry best practices,” stated Dominick. “We have thirty years of experience and focus in maintaining the absolute highest standards of compliance that is unmatched in the industry. The level of functionality clients have with our new LOS empowers them to effectively manage growth and capitalize on new marketplace opportunities.”

Broadening Its Reach

As the mortgage industry becomes more complex, technology vendors are looking to do more to support their lender clients. For example, PROGRESS in Lending has learned that Mortech has released what it calls a Lending Management Platform and a new website specifically dedicated to the new MarksmanLMP. Marksman entered the market as a product and pricing engine, but now the company is taking the product in a new direction. Here’s the scoop:

New functionality has extended the solution across the front of the lending enterprise, allowing loan originators to use it for lead acquisition, assessment, prospect marketing and initial loan processing. “The lead management objective is to create a true relationship with prospects, start the application, and move forward with confidence knowing the transaction will be completed successfully,” said Mortech President Don Kracl.

“The traditional loan origination system (LOS) is still a critical tool in this process, however employing MarksmanLMP ensures it won’t fall short on all of the tasks that precede taking the actual loan application. The loan officer’s true opportunity lies in forging that relationship with the prospective borrower long before the application hits the LOS.”

MarksmanLMP qualifies leads prior to entering the LOS by simplifying, automating and organizing the entire mortgage lending process, from lead acquisition to assessment and marketing to processing. Online window shoppers are converted into customers quickly and easily, freeing up the LOS from the clutter of deals that will never close in the process.

The new website provides in-depth information about MarksmanLMP, but will also provide tools and advice for mortgage loan originators seeking to streamline their marketing processes, attract and properly qualify more leads and ultimately close more deals.

As we hear of vendors making similar moves, we’ll bring that news to you.

End Duplicate Data Entry

PROGRESS in Lending Association has learned that Web-based LOS Avista Solutions has completed integration with a leading mortgage insurance player. Specifically, the integration is to global financial security company Genworth Financial. Here’s how it works:

The two companies began cultivating a partnership when their mutual mortgage lender customers expressed a strong interest in the ability to order MI from Genworth without exiting their Avista Agile LOS. As a result of the integration, Avista customers can now select MI from Genworth during the loan origination process and can expect an MI commitment from Genworth within 60 seconds.

“Meeting the needs of our customers is a priority at Avista, and a seamless integration to MI from Genworth was a recent request that we felt held great value to Avista, our customers and Genworth,” Avista Solutions CEO Mark Phlieger said. “This new partnership with Genworth allows our users to easily connect borrowers with a high quality MI product that will ultimately help them attract more borrowers and close more loans.”

In addition to offering new rates and expanded underwriting guidelines, Genworth is a full-service MI provider with a commitment to industry leading coverage, service and value. Benefits of MI from Genworth include Job Loss Protection, which can pay a qualifying borrower’s mortgage up to $2,000 a month for up to six months; a Homeowner Assistance Program, a one-on-one partnership with a Genworth professional available in the event of a financial hardship; and Homebuyer Privileges, which comprise up to $3,000 in rebates, discounts and special offers.

By ordering MI from Genworth through their Avista Agile LOS, Avista customers can eliminate the hassle of duplicate data entry, receive MI commitment documents in .pdf format and experience improved productivity through faster processing and response time.

“It is important to our customers to have seamless electronic data interface options,” said Robert Noble, Genworth Mortgage Insurance’s Vice President of Information Technology. “These interfaces improve productivity and reduce the time to generate a Genworth MI commitment.”

Imaging And Much More

Axacore Inc., a privately held provider of document imaging and fax solutions that are supported by high-performance web servers and browser interfaces, has delivered several enhancements to XDOC, its electronic document management system. “This version of XDOC demonstrates our commitment to always finding ways to innovate, in ways that ensure that clients save money and time,” said Steve DeBlasio, National Sales Manager for Axacore. “As a result, we continue to develop features that ensure that the users find the system more intuitive, easier to use, and with all the flexibility of paper.”

Among the enhancements Axacore made in the latest release are:

>> A new auto-merge feature that recognizes document types and automatically appends existing documents.

>> Enhanced document indexing features add greater flexibility and accuracy.

>> Performance enhancements to the SFTP transfer modules that improves the speed and security of document deliveries.

>> Upgraded systematic and batch document processing that supports high-volume document workflows and enables documents to be assigned to departments of the mortgage bank.

>> Enhanced APIs to allow deeper, more dynamic integration with loan origination systems.

>> Updated Annotations including a redaction tool to mask NPPI.

Said DeBlasio, “Lenders and other organizations want technology that pays for itself and to work with partners that continually improve their systems–and that is what Axacore achieved with this latest version of XDOC. We are already planning our next release. Included in this future release will be enhancements for emerging mobile processes as well as significant User interface and security updates. As we have consistently proven, speed, accuracy, ease of use and security will always remain the driving force behind the direction of XDOC.”

A New Integration Emerges

Docu Prep, a nationwide closing document, initial disclosure, and electronic delivery services company partnered with Byte Software, a provider of loan origination software (LOS) for banks, credit unions and mortgage bankers and brokers, offering their services to Byte Software’s customers. This completed integration is available now allowing for easy access to Docu Prep from within BytePro Standard or BytePro Enterprise – hosted or non-hosted version.

Byte Software users can order initial disclosures or closing documents; as well as other business solutions that Docu Prep offers. They have a vast array of products to make the mortgage professional’s loan process more streamlined by providing secure electronic delivery tools, loan analysis testing, bar-coding and dynamic selection of documents.

BytePro Enterprise has a fully SQL database offering comprehensive in-depth mortgage calculations built into the program. The software is ready “out of the box” or it can be fully customizable including automation to meet the unique mortgage business processes of various companies. It includes a back office module for lenders to sell loans on the secondary market for either best efforts or mandatory delivery.

Stomp Out Over-Regulation

As the federal government continues to seek new ways to create jobs and reduce burdensome regulation, the Association of Mortgage Professional (NAMB) recommends that the Administration and Congress encourage the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to rescind its loan originator (LO) compensation rule. Ever since the early April implementation of the Federal Reserve Board’s (FRB) Regulation Z; Docket No. R-1366, Truth-in-Lending on steering and LO compensation, consumers have experienced a dramatic increase in costs on their mortgages, in addition, the expenses have increased for all mortgage companies and a great impediment has been placed on the vital service of mortgage lending throughout local communities.

“Over the past three years, more than six different federal agencies have implemented new regulations and rules to try to help regulate and protect the consumer against unethical lending practices,” said Michael J. D’Alonzo, president of NAMB. “This has resulted in a further drain on our economy through overlapping and overreaching regulations.”

According to NAMB, regulations placed on the mortgage industry by the Federal Reserve and other regulatory bodies has resulted in good people being denied loans, in addition to the burden of increased consumer costs and a drastic reduction in the base of local mortgage professionals nationwide who provide homeownership opportunities in their local markets.

“When you take away consumer choice, you take away what has made this country great which is healthy competition,” said D’Alonzo. “This regulation, in essence, has established fixed pricing in the mortgage industry causing pricing to go up.”

As with many new regulations coming out of Washington, the new rules and regulations out of Dodd-Frank are overreaching and have slowed down the housing recovery and job creation, as housing remains the backbone of the national economy.

“Instead of really determining the root cause of the mortgage crisis, like loan type, Washington instead has issued new rules and regulations at individuals, rather than tackle the loan type scenario,” said Mike Anderson, vice president and Government Affairs Committee chair of NAMB. “Like the example NAMB used in its testimony before Congress on July 13, 2011, ‘Did the lawmakers legislate, regulate and impose stricter guidelines on pharmacists, doctors or drug stores after the discovery of harmful prescription drugs like Vioxx?’ No, they did not … they simply pulled the product from the shelf. It was loan type that caused the mortgage crisis. By no means is NAMB advocating going back to the days of reckless and irresponsible lending practices; however, with credit overlays, laws and new regulations, the housing recovery is extremely slow to any substantial recovery. LO compensation has caused hundreds and hundreds of small business to shut their doors and countless layoffs of support personnel in the mortgage industry.”

Everyone Needs Advice From Time To Time

Financial Literacy Solutions LLC, a firm that uses the power of the Internet and the accessibility of video to educate consumers about their mortgage options and to provide a more effective communication channel for loan originators, servicers and asset managers, has released a podcast featuring company founder Garth Graham. In the first of what will be a series of industry-facing, informational podcasts, Graham talks about how the impact of financial counseling for troubled borrowers can be often be hard to measure.

Mr. Graham attended the event on Capitol Hill where four leading experts presented evidence of the value of housing counseling. In his podcast he addresses how counseling has economic value despite the economical challenges in the industry.

“Data seems to consistently indicate that people who receive counseling are more likely to perform better than people who don’t receive counseling,” Graham said. “But what academics want to be able to say is that somebody who volunteers to go to counseling, or seeks out counseling is more likely to be responsible and therefore more likely to perform better regardless of counseling. That’s much more difficult to prove.”

Graham contends that while this may seem to be a true statement, it can’t be proven because there’s no such thing as “placebo” counseling, a term he coins in his podcast. It’s also difficult to assess the true cost benefits of financial counseling because there are so many variables and there is no perfect data, Graham said.

Even so, Graham says that financial counseling and education are critical if American consumers ever hope to get control of their financial futures. He maintains that online video education will be the key to providing this information to consumers in the future.

The podcast and related research is available online, and can be widely embedded or shared on other websites. Please visit .http://flsvideo.com/Effectiveness-of-Counseling.

Financial Literacy Solutions provides Internet video learning solutions targeted to the financial services industry. The company’s flagship product is the “Interactive Video Solution” (IVS), which allows clients to quickly deploy any of the company’s 200+ financial education videos for up-to-the-minute educational video information for their borrowers, all through their existing websites. The videos technology has been accessed over 1 million times in the past two years, providing over 50,000 hours of online video education to consumers each year. Completely branded and customized solutions can be deployed in days, allowing FLS clients to better educate their customers through the Internet. For more information, contact Garth Graham at 954-325-7816 or visit the company on the web at http://www.flsvideo.com.

A New LOS Hits The Market

As PROGRESS in Lending has reported in the past, a new LOS is gearing up. Well, now it’s live. ISGN will launch the Catapult Mortgage Origination System—the company’s browser-based loan origination technology that can be accessed not only via desktop and laptop computers, but also via smart phones and tablet devices—at the company’s Synergy Client Conference. The Synergy 2011 Client Conference will be held at the InterContinental Buckhead hotel in Atlanta, Georgia on August 14-16, 2011.

The Catapult Mortgage Origination System is ISGN’s next-generation loan origination technology. One of Catapult’s more noteworthy features is a platform that has mobile device functionality. Catapult is available as either a cloud-based technology or as a licensed solution that is installed at a lender’s site. Both options demonstrably lower a lender’s operational costs to use the system. The system is ready-to-use yet highly customizable, and also features an integrated product and pricing engine, workflow and imaging functionality, comprehensive point-of-sale tools and relevant system reporting capabilities.

Synergy 2011 is a three-day intensive forum for ISGN clients to gain more in-depth knowledge of ISGN’s mortgage-related technologies. The conference offers opportunities to network with industry peers and speak with ISGN product managers, and is comprised of a series of specialized training sessions, workshops, seminars and roundtable discussions, which are sponsored in part by industry leading partners United Guaranty, a provider of mortgage insurance products and risk-based pricing; Ernst Publishing Company, a provider of land recording requirements and guaranteed fees; and QuestSoft, a provider of automated compliance software and services. The individual tracks are designed for product users, business and technical analysts, as well as middle management and executive management. The mortgage industry segments covered include origination, settlement services, servicing, default management and construction lending.

“New regulations and protocols have restricted the way mortgages are transacted and serviced, and lenders need to know there are technologies to help them stay efficient and compliant,” said Ankush Dham, director of technology products and services at ISGN. “We’re committed to helping our clients be as successful as they can be. One of the most important tools for success is product knowledge, which is why we created the Synergy Client Conference. We’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback from our clients and great attendance for past events. With lenders as concerned as they are about compliance and efficiency, we anticipate a strong turnout this year as well.”

Correcting Data Issues

Franklin, Tenn.-based Wipro Gallagher Solutions, a provider of end-to-end loan origination software and services for financial organizations, has implemented EarlyCheck, a Web-based interface, in its NetOxygen loan origination system (LOS) to remain in full compliance with Fannie Mae’s Loan Quality Initiative (LQI) mandates.

Specifically, EarlyCheck enables users to identify and correct potential eligibility and data issues as early as possible – prior to loan delivery, which greatly lessens the number of loans that are returned from Fannie Mae on account of incorrect information. The interface can be used for loans underwritten with any method (Desktop Underwriter (DU), manual, etc.), and there is no usage fee associated with the checks as part of the initial release.

Once a user enters a loan application and submits the application to DU, the user can run the EarlyCheck interface on the loan. EarlyCheck produces a report detailing any inconsistencies between the information submitted to DU and existing information. Errors that keep a loan application from passing through Fannie Mae are marked as a fatal error for the loan application in the report. The user can correct the error before submitting the loan to Fannie Mae, thereby streamlining servicing and saving time.

Some of EarlyCheck’s features include the following:

>> Less manual error resolution;

>> Fewer delivery stops, resulting in less financial and operational impact;

>> Reduced funding delays resulting from delivery issues;

>> Enables lenders to check the EarlyCheck service at any time in the process prior to loan delivery;

>> Provides real-time, loan-level results in a user-friendly report or files;

>> Provides a summary of issues and a detailed message for each issue; and

>> Checks things like SSN (Social Security Number), occupancy, address, LTV, monthly debt expense, loan limit and required delivery fields.

“NetOxygen’s seamless integration with EarlyCheck enables our users to proactively identify and correct any potential hiccups that could hold up the loan delivery process,” said Narayan Bharadwai, business head for WGS. “This greatly saves time and eliminates unnecessary frustration for lenders interested in closing more loans.”

The Hunt For Accuracy

Optimal Blue, the developer of a Web-based platform that couples decisioning technology with content management for the mortgage industry, has launched its online broker origination portal and investor credit overlay tools. Comprehensive in scope, the origination portal incorporates a seamless integration with Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter (DU) application, enabling lenders and originators to make informed credit decisions on conventional conforming and FHA loans. In addition, the rollout also includes investor credit overlays, showing users the underwriting and purchase stipulations unique to each investor merged with the DU findings.

In this market providing the right access to tools at the point-of-sale is critical. It’s imperative that mortgage lenders have real-time information, from accurate, real-time product and pricing to accurate decisioning and underwriting technology. This engine has incorporated access to decisioning for brokers, retail loan officers and lenders, providing genuine efficiency gains that help originators and lenders increase pull through and further automate the workflow while protecting lenders again repurchase risk.

According to Larry Huff, co-CEO of Optimal Blue, “Having DU in this space hasn’t been a competitive differentiator to date, but as more lenders focus on boosting their origination portal’s and back office capabilities , being able to offer them collectively with Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter along with the investor overlays has been extremely appealing. In one view, customers can see the loan stipulations alongside the individual investor’s credit overlays. For processing, secondary marketing, underwriting and shipping departments, this is tremendously compelling – it provides a high level of confidence as to whether the loan will be purchased.”

Optimal Blue’s eligibility has always been a core competency, so it was a natural progression for the company to focus on enhancing that aspect of the engine. Optimal Blue’s staff worked diligently to incorporate eligibility on the credit overlays at the investor level. For any lender, not being able to sell a loan can have significant financial ramifications. These investor credit overlays provide confidence that loans have been underwritten properly and can be sold.

Huff continued, “Within one platform, originators and lenders have accurate, real-time pricing and eligibility, access to DU decisioning, and the most comprehensive credit overlays and secondary marketing tools in the industry.”

The last year has been significant for Optimal Blue, having restructured its engine, released Loan Originator Compensation functionality, and now, releasing the DU integration and investor credit overlays. According to executive management, the company is continuing to work on several significant and complementary developments and plans to release those in the next few months.

Ensuring Appraisal Quality

Quality Mortgage Services (QMS), a provider of mortgage quality assurance and mortgage compliance solutions, has released ADDP appraisal quality control offering, which is capable of feeding appraiser performance history information, required under Dodd-Frank, to the company’s MARS mortgage loan QC system and its AMS appraisal management software.

“Federal regulators are very serious about ensuring the quality of the valuations our industry uses to make loans, and appraiser performance history is one way the government plans to oversee this process,” said Tommy A. Duncan, President of Quality Mortgage Services. “This, at first, appeared to be a significant burden to lenders and their Appraisal Management Company partners but is now made easy by our software.”

Given the scope of the work, the volume of business that many firms perform, and the new regulations, it is vital that quality control firms develop a means to rate the quality of valuations that are performed and then transmit that data in an automated fashion. Moreover, everyone performing appraisals needs to have a percentage of their work scrutinized through periodic, in-depth monitoring, regardless of the transaction’s size or complexity.

“But once that is done, there has to be an automated, secure way to deliver the performance rankings and that’s why we developed the MARS mortgage loan QC system and the AMS appraisal management software,” said Duncan. “The aim is to ensure compliance with regulations and ensure that collateral valuations are accurate and timely. That means retaining the best performers based on their past performance but that requires the infrastructure needed to collect and archive that data in a searchable, intuitive fashion.”

As loan underwriters, mortgage loan QC personnel, loan auditors, appraisers or AMC personnel submit appraisals through ADDP, the graded appraisals are added to a database that tracks the performance of each appraiser in the panel. That information is now available seamlessly to MARS and AMS. The resulting appraiser report card is a vital tool for lenders who maintain their own appraisal panels as this track record of performance supports the lender’s decisions on whether an appraiser is retained on the panel or released.

ADDP is also available to appraisers for per-transaction fee, allowing them to know what their score will be before they deliver a report to the lender, giving them time to repair any defects in the report before it negatively impacts their performance history with the lender or AMC.

Flexibility Is Key

As more and more borrowers fall behind on mortgage payments, servicers and lenders alike need to embrace technology to make paying your mortgage easier. ChargeSmart, a provider of mortgage debit and credit card acceptance for organizations, formally announced the launch of ChargeSmart Direct to exclusively serve its growing partner network of businesses, municipalities and lenders nationwide.

ChargeSmart Direct members benefit from industry-low transaction rates; no implementation or upfront costs; no hidden fees; merchant and customer real-time reporting; customizable screens that eliminate clumsy re-directs to third-party sites for payment completion; fee flexibility; and the ability to establish partners as the merchant of record on customers’ billing statements. Here’s how it works:

Existing ChargeSmart partners are already enrolled in ChargeSmart Direct and organizations interested in joining the network can find additional information online.
“As consumers’ expectation to pay with a card continues to increase, merchants are under greater pressure to meet that demand,” said Tim Brinkman, CEO of ChargeSmart. “ChargeSmart enables organizations to effectively fulfill the payment preferences of their customers through a custom integration solution with no implementation expense, and now through ChargeSmart Direct, they have additional access to dedicated support staff who clearly understand their business needs.”

Founded in 2008, San Francisco-based ChargeSmart is a provider of debit and credit card acceptance for organizations, allowing businesses to meet their customers’ card payment preferences without the expensive fees and technical challenges associated with traditional card acceptance programs.

Get A Handle On Your Risk

You don’t want to be caught unaware these days. The old saying “Knowledge is power” is an understatement in today’s mortgage environment. You have to know your risk, your pipeline, and pretty much everything about your business. How do you do that? Of course, technology can help.

To this end, PROGRESS in Lending Association has learned that Data-Vision, Inc., a vendor that offers Internet lending technologies that enable mortgage lenders to quickly and affordably implement web portal and e-lending capabilities, and Precision Risk Management Systems, Inc. (PRMS), a provider of modern risk management solutions, have partnered to deliver risk management solutions. Here’s how this alliance benefits lender users:

Data-Vision President, Randy Schmidt, stated, “In an effort to constantly add value to our hundreds of clients nationwide we have partnered with PRMS to deliver risk management and production analytics tools to help our clients achieve greater profitability. By partnering with PRMS, our customers can better manage risk within their pipelines.”

PRMS helps lenders achieve greater profitability by using their advanced risk management technology tools or by using their comprehensive managed hedge services. In addition, PRMS’s dynamic production analytics and adverse selection tools will help lenders measure and manage the performance and profitability of their loan sources and loan products much more effectively.

David Demster, Executive Vice President of PRMS, said “PRMS is very excited to be working with Data-Vision. Through the relationship, Data-Vision will be able to offer its clients modern risk management solutions that consistently maximize loan execution, even in volatile markets.” Demster added, “In addition, the advanced Production Analytics system is an invaluable tool providing the in-depth information lenders need to measure and manage loan sources, pricing and enable lenders to make truly data-driven decisions.”

PRMS provides both software and managed hedge services to the mortgage industry. Its suite of products and services enable mortgage lenders to accurately measure and quantify interest rate risk as well as operational risk utilizing the most technically advanced analytics and neural-based modeling methods. PRMS’ dashboard-driven Production Analytics suite offers advanced production and loan source metrics to extend and complement any loan origination system.

An Eye On Workflow

Today’s ever-changing business market requires financial institutions, including community banks, to demonstrate agility to remain competitive. They must have the right technology to assist in that effort. IndiSoft, a technology development firm, offers the workflow technology that enables community banks to not only manage internal workflow but also communicate more efficiently with business partners.

“As more consumers turn to community banks for financial services, the institutions need to ensure their processes are automated and capable of keeping up with the demand,” said Sanjeev Dahiwadkar, CEO and president of IndiSoft. “Community banks are especially poised for growth because today’s savvy consumers want to develop personal relationships with their bank.”

RxOffice offers case management and a level of open architecture and transparency that has been beneficial to the healthcare and residential mortgage industries. The platform’s open architecture allows users to easily modify any process based on legislative or bank-specific changes. RxOffice’s multiple modules, including Third Party Vendor and Reporting, enable community banks to maximize efficiency with business partners while effectively managing their books of business.

“At IndiSoft, we want our technology to be the backbone for improving the business processes that ultimately effect our entire economy,” Dahiwadkar explained. “Community banks with the ability to gather and manage consumer information can achieve the goal of improved processes and better customer service, which can spur more banking activity and a stronger community.”

A New Homeownership Program Launches

Default Resource, a provider of default management, valuation and loss mitigation services, has launched a new homeownership outreach program geared to helping troubled borrowers stay in their homes while assisting servicers in their loss mitigation efforts. The dynamic program includes initial borrower outreach, door-knocking and in-person initiation of the loan resolution or short sale process. The service is fully compliant with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and may be privately labeled to ensure protection of existing borrower relationships.

“Leveraging our nationwide network of qualified and highly trained personnel, our homeownership outreach program was designed to maximize borrower contact and facilitate asset resolution while simultaneously enhancing the relationship between our clients and their customers,” says James H. Zeldin, executive vice president of Default Resource.

The new Default Resource homeownership outreach program is more than a simple door knock program. It is a scalable, compliant means to enhance borrower interaction. “By utilizing both our diverse vendor network and our cooperative business model, our clients experience lower losses and greater homeowner retention,” adds Zeldin.

Based in Frederick, Maryland, Default Resource is a diversified financial services company that provides the full spectrum of default and origination products and services to the real estate and mortgage markets. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides REO asset management, valuations, loss mitigation and consulting services for real estate professionals. Founded in 2005, the firm serves top tier mortgage servicers, financial institutions, hedge funds, mortgage insurance companies and governmental entities nationwide.

Lifting The Burden Of Compliance

PriceMyLoan has completed an integration that enables lenders to use the PriceMyLoan platform to make automated underwriting and loan pricing decisions, while simultaneously relying on ComplianceEase to ensure loan-level compliance with thousands of Federal and state laws, including policies covering new loan originator compensation requirements.

Default Resource, a provider of default management, valuation and loss mitigation services, has launched a new homeownership outreach program geared to helping troubled borrowers stay in their homes while assisting servicers in their loss mitigation efforts. The dynamic program includes initial borrower outreach, door-knocking and in-person initiation of the loan resolution or short sale process. The service is fully compliant with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and may be privately labeled to ensure protection of existing borrower relationships.

“Leveraging our nationwide network of qualified and highly trained personnel, our homeownership outreach program was designed to maximize borrower contact and facilitate asset resolution while simultaneously enhancing the relationship between our clients and their customers,” says James H. Zeldin, executive vice president of Default Resource.

The new Default Resource homeownership outreach program is more than a simple door knock program. It is a scalable, compliant means to enhance borrower interaction. “By utilizing both our diverse vendor network and our cooperative business model, our clients experience lower losses and greater homeowner retention,” adds Zeldin.

Based in Frederick, Maryland, Default Resource is a diversified financial services company that provides the full spectrum of default and origination products and services to the real estate and mortgage markets. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides REO asset management, valuations, loss mitigation and consulting services for real estate professionals. Founded in 2005, the firm serves top tier mortgage servicers, financial institutions, hedge funds, mortgage insurance companies and governmental entities nationwide

The new functionality gives PriceMyLoan customers seamless access to ComplianceAnalyzer—ComplianceEase’s application that provides automated compliance and loan-level regulatory compliance audits, which are part of the same technology suite that banking and mortgage regulators use for their new electronic Examinations (e-Exams). Gigi Campbell, national sales director at PriceMyLoan, explained, “The combination of our products ultimately helps fulfill the goals we have set before us: to enable lenders to do more with less.” Here’s how it works:

ComplianceAnalyzer performs multi-jurisdictional audits on residential mortgage loans, instantly providing feedback on Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA Section 32 and 35) rules, Truth In Lending Act (TILA) provisions, state and municipal high-cost/anti-predatory lending laws and consumer credit regulations. The system also audits against various secondary market investor and GSE compliance guidelines as well as internal lender policies, which include tests covering new loan originator compensation requirements.

The web-based, real-time system enables lenders to shift from a traditional sampling and manual review process to an automated methodology that is more effective at identifying potential issues before they become more serious, and more expensive problems.

“We saw a natural synergy between ComplianceAnalyzer and PriceMyLoan,” said Jason Roth, senior vice president at ComplianceEase. “Both companies provide automated technology screening to expedite decision making during the loan origination process.  With new Truth-in-Lending regulations that restrict loan originator compensation and forthcoming changes under the Dodd-Frank Act, loan pricing and loan-level compliance have become increasingly intertwined. ComplianceAnalyzer provides the same accuracy and efficiency for compliance that PriceMyLoan customers have become accustomed to for automated underwriting and loan pricing, boosting a lender’s QC and closing processes.”

The integration can seamlessly transfer a loan from PriceMyLoan to ComplianceAnalyzer, which then analyzes the loan information and generates a report highlighting the loan’s risk level and provides details concerning potential violations or exceptions. ComplianceAnalyzer’s audit reports are delivered to users directly within the PriceMyLoan system.

“As technology providers, our goal has always been to take a tedious and time-consuming process and streamline it,” said Campbell. “PriceMyLoan and ComplianceEase address two of the most resource-intensive and critical components of a lender’s workflow—underwriting and closing—and improve upon it with tools that effectively let lenders handle more volume without having to add staff.”

The Battle To Be The Premier Middle Market LOS Heats Up, Again

LOS space is heating up. We were the first to bring you news that CoreLogic acquired Dorado and that LPS acquired PCLender.com. What does all this mean? Larger companies are looking to acquire LOS technology to attract the middle market lender. These big companies are used to going after the upper tier market, but let’s face it, there’s only so many upper tier lenders. At some point you have to move down market. These two acquisitions in part, were designed to buy LPS and CoreLogic a foothold in that middle market.

Well, it doesn’t stop there, because PROGRESS in Lending has just heard of more LOS breaking news along these same lines. Having just recently earned a capital infusion from Monitor Clipper, Mortgage Cadence is poised to make several bold moves this year. Their first big move includes the launch of a totally new LOS that will now compete with other mid-market LOS offerings. The battle for the middle market is on. Here’s how the new Mortgage Cadence product looks to differentiate itself from the others:

Mortgage Cadence has launched its Cloud-based, Symphony Loan Origination System, calling the tool “an affordable, on-demand origination solution for lenders of any size. The product fills a current gap within the marketplace by making available enterprise-level power in a preconfigured solution that locks down compliant processes and any lender can implement and put into production in just a few weeks.”

“All but the nation’s largest lenders have had to settle for substandard loan origination automation for far too long,” said Chuck Kimball, executive vice president of product experience for Mortgage Cadence. “Lenders of all sizes deserve an LOS that offers them all of the compliance support, time-saving features and reliability that the nation’s Top-100 lenders have come to expect. With this offering, we’re giving it to them.”

Traditionally, LOS technology for mid-tier lenders has more closely resembled 1003-form filling software for mortgage brokers. The onslaught of new federal and state regulations accompanied by more stringent investor guidelines and reduced margins has placed enormous pressure on mid-tier lenders to manage a more complex mortgage process. Before Symphony, small and mid-tier lenders didn’t have the software to do that job.

The new Symphony application features collaborative process capabilities, real-time data access, a branded website and a redundant infrastructure providing 24/7 availability, security and disaster recovery. In addition, all system updates and upgrades are provided automatically for free. The new LOS allows lenders of any size to:

>> be 100% Web based and respond to any regulatory changes within 24-hours

>> reduce pricing variances with a product, pricing and eligibility engine

>> ensure compliance by having an on board doc prep service

>> leverage 100% compliant documents backed by an E&O policy

>> route work efficiently and effectively to the right people with dynamic tasking

>> safeguard data integrity by working easily with third-party vendors through pre-built integrations

>> drive efficient workflow automatically

>> image any document coming into the system

>> build and implement customized underwriting conditions

>> get the highest levels of efficiency through concurrent editing of the loan file

>> get the highest level of Web-based security with SAS70 Type II compliance

As these technology players that traditionally catered to the top tier lender try to move to get the attention of the mid-tier lender, we’ll keep you posted on their progress.

LPS Acquires An LOS

We reported earlier in the week that CoreLogic acquired Dorado. Well, we got a tip on another big acquisition that you need to know about.  We were referred to the site www.mortgagenewsclips.com by a few industry sources. It’s actually a very informative site filled with a lot of good mortgage-specific information. We would recommend that you give it a look.

As we were looking through the site we came across an article by Rob Christman about mergers and acquisitions. If you follow us, you must have noticed that there have been a lot of technology M&As recently. Well, in this article, among other things, Rob talks about another LOS acquisition, this time by Lender Processing Services. Here’s the scoop according to Rob:

He writes, “Out in California, Paramount Equity Mortgage (CA, OR, WA) announced plans to partner with infomercial direct-sales company Guthy-Renker. The two will roll out a mortgage, insurance and solar power marketing platform as early as this summer – draw your own conclusions. Guthy-Renker is primarily a marketing company, and is taking a “significant” equity interest in Paramount’s mortgage banking operation. It will work with Paramount to create multi-media marketing for Paramount’s three main products, which includes home mortgages, life & auto insurance products, and residential photo-voltaic systems. “The mortgage market is really poised for growth right now.”

“In the mortgage software vendor space (doesn’t that sound techy?) PCLender.com has been acquired by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS). LPS is a provider of technology solutions for mortgage origination, processing, settlement, valuation, appraisal, and default services. “Joining forces enables LPS to provide PCLender’s leading enterprise mortgage software and technology solutions along with Empower, LPS’ premier, enterprise-wide loan origination system. Together, under LPS’ Origination Technology Solutions division, we can now provide lenders of every size with state-of-the-art, end-to-end loan origination solutions to maximize operational efficiency, further reduce costs and better serve your customers.”

“In other corporate news, Grandpoint Capital (CA) will buy Orange Community Bancorp (CA) for $30mm in cash, or approximately 1.5x book value, and in Louisiana Iberiabank will purchase Cameron Bancshares for roughly 1,7x book value.”

You heard it here first, LPS has acquired Web-based LOS PCLender.com. Another LOS acquired. Now instead of 100 independent LOS offerings, we may be down to 98. We jest, but you get the point. There are a lot of LOS firms out there. Who knows where all this consolidation will end and what it will mean for innovation, but we’ll keep you posted.

Finally CoreLogic And Dorado Take The Next Step

After years of investing in Dorado, First American, now CoreLogic, has finally decided to acquire the LOS outright. The deal is a $32 million dollar all-cash transaction. CoreLogic says the acquisition was about getting collaborative cloud computing applications and architecture built by Dorado. Prior to the acquisition, CoreLogic held a 38% equity interest in Dorado.

With the acquisition, CoreLogic gains patented cloud computing-based technology that extends and accelerates the embedding of CoreLogic decision management applications into client operating environments, making transaction decisions faster, more automated and more accurate. CoreLogic anticipates expanding these services to enhance its 360-degree approach to delivering improved loan quality and transaction transparency from point of sale through investor delivery to the secondary market. So, will Dorado as a brand now go away?

CoreLogic will deploy Dorado technology into its strategic outsourcing business. Dorado, which will operate as CoreLogic Dorado, provides a suite of enterprise lending solutions that automates loan origination and consolidates internal and external service integrations into a unified process, connecting lenders, their partners and consumers through a collaborative, real-time workflow. Dorado technology also facilitates the integration of real-time borrower, organizational and market information into mortgage finance transactions so that lenders, servicers, investors, and borrowers experience improved loan quality and transaction transparency.

According to CoreLogic President and CEO Anand Nallathambi, this acquisition contributes to the enhance shareholder value demands a new watermark in efficiency and transparency across all aspects of financial transactions. The existing capabilities that Dorado brings to the table as well as the potential opportunities that exist to expand these capabilities make this a growth enabler for us. This acquisition extends our leadership.”

To put the financials into perspective, if CoreLogic spent $32 million for 62% of Dorado, that would value Dorado at about $51.6 million. Back in 2005 First American, again now CoreLogic, invested $50 million into Dorado. If we assume, and we don’t know, that $50 was what they paid for 38% of the company, that means that Dorado was worth $131.6 million in 2005.

Regardless, now the courtship between these two companies is over and they have decided to get married. We’re told that over 50% of marriages end in divorce, but hopefully this deal will be a big positive for everyone. We’ll keep you posted on the most recent events from this new entity called CoreLogic Dorado.

Partnering To Ensure Accuracy

ISGN has partnered with LoanSifter, a provider of product and pricing technology to offer MORvison’s first integrated loan product and pricing engine through the MORvision Plug-In Partner Network. LoanSifter provides lenders with automatically updated, real-time pricing, adjustments and eligibility guidelines on over 160 correspondent and wholesale investors.

The bi-directional integration enables MORvision customers to set up and maintain loan originator compensation plans, meeting the latest Reg Z requirements, and obtain loan product and pricing information directly from within MORvision. The integration results in loan originator compensation compliant investor product and pricing data, improved efficiencies, and reduced errors.

LoanSifter’s product and pricing engine was developed to ensure that MORvision lenders deliver the most competitive loan offer to borrowers without cutting corners on accuracy. The integrated solution also leverages LoanSifter’s secondary marketing platform to allow for locking loans, applying lock extensions, etc., which is all reflected in MORvision in real-time.

Prior to this integration with LoanSifter, MORvision customers faced the challenge of maintaining control of originating, pricing and locking loans in a market that is sometimes volatile, while trying to avoid duplicate data entry between the loan origination system and the loan product and pricing engine. The LoanSifter integration facilitates effective communication between loan officers and secondary marketing professionals with a suite of tools to include a Web-based portal, pipeline management, loan eligibility and pricing, secondary lock desk and rate sheet generator for accurate pricing and product information.

“In today’s environment, lenders need loan originator compensation compliant tools that can give them a competitive edge,” explained Bruce Backer, president of LoanSifter. “The ability to easily and quickly incorporate automated products and pricing in a lender’s workflow is critical in creating a positive experience for all involved. The partnership between LoanSifter and ISGN means superior data quality, better control and compliance, and improved profitability.”

“The LoanSifter integration with the MORvision platform provides better loan pricing data for lenders and better secondary market execution,” said Murali Gomatam, head of technology products at ISGN. “The integration ensures the integrity of the data in MORvision’s database, which continues to serve as a single source record for all loan data. This enhances fraud prevention and quality control, resulting in high quality mortgages for borrowers, MORvision lenders and investors.”

Partnering To Ease Servicing Fines

Every year, hundreds of thousands of fines are levied against vacant foreclosed properties, an issue that plagues neighborhoods, local governments, mortgage servicers and asset owners. Examples of code violations include property registration non-compliance, trash in the yard, broken windows, algae in pools, overgrown lawns and property improvements made without permits. Fines for these code violations can compound daily in excess of $250.

As a result, DepotPoint, Inc., a provider of Web-based default management, short sale and REO workflow solutions, and Code Violation Services, Inc., a provider of code violation disclosure reports and vacant property registration services, have entered a strategic partnership through which users of TrackPoint, DepotPoint’s technology platform for managing default transactions, will be able to perform code violation checks on their properties. Here’s how it works:

Code Violation Services will analyze and identify unrecorded, municipal code violations on defaulted property managed through TrackPoint, saving TrackPoint users costly fines from unresolved violations and reducing the timelines for the sale of REOs and other distressed property.

Most servicers, investors and asset managers lack the expertise, technology and resources to fully identify and address code violation issues, while many local municipalities do not have the resources to track down violators, resulting in ever-increasing fines that must be satisfied before a sale can be consummated.

“Unresolved code violations are a huge obstacle to distressed property sales,” said Joe Filoseta, president and CEO of DepotPoint. “Our partnership with Code Violation Services will help banks, asset managers and other parties find and resolve current violations, as well as work proactively to prevent new ones. The result is a reduction in loss severity and distressed sales that move forward unimpeded.”

“The skyrocketing foreclosure rate over the past several years has resulted in an extraordinary number of code violations nationwide, which has made it extremely difficult to return nonperforming properties into homes for deserving families,” said Rudy Krupka, president and CEO of CVS. “I know we share DepotPoint’s commitment to reversing this trend, and look forward to working together.”

Not Everybody Is Hurting

We talk a lot about how bad the market is. We talk about falling originations. We talk about unemployment above 9%. We talk about a lack of investor confidence. But we also talk about borrowers that are active in the market today, online borrowers. Vendors and lenders that can tap this market are doing very well, in fact.

For example, ChargeSmart, an alternative payment solutions provider enabling card acceptance at no cost to billers, said that its 2010 company performance metrics, demonstrating sustained growth in terms of transaction volumes, revenues and introductions of new payment programs to the industry. Here’s why:

Last year, ChargeSmart increased transaction volume by more than 400%—supporting growing user demand for new ways to make electronic payments—and now serves more than 300,000 customers nationwide. Much of this growth can be attributed to newly added features and flexibility, such as ChargeSmart’s recurring payment program.

In addition, the company significantly increased staffing levels in its customer service centers (which are exclusively based in the U.S.); grew its established channel partner network in the payments, utilities, auto finance, cards/collections and mortgage industries; and implemented improved fraud screening procedures to its system. ChargeSmart also launched a newly redesigned blog, offering helpful personal finance tips and advice to customers.

“Our company’s growth over the past year reflects how modern consumers are increasingly using online channels to pay for items such as utility bills or auto loans,” said Tim Brinkman, CEO of ChargeSmart. “By eliminating the expensive interchange fees and technical challenges commonly associated with card acceptance, we allow our biller partners to more easily meet customer demand for a variety of payment options without having to incur the typical associated costs.”

Mortgage players should take notes.

Working Overtime On Compliance

DecisionReady, a provider of default servicing compliance solutions, has reviewed one million delinquent residential mortgage loans for loss mitigation, and foreclosure process and policy compliance for leading servicers. The DecisionReady technology platform offers end-to-end compliance for every stage of default servicing—from early stage delinquency through loss mitigation, foreclosure and the post-sale process.

In today’s servicing environment, ever-changing state and federal regulations and myriad government programs have introduced unprecedented complexity around servicer policy definitions and the related challenge of implementing compliant default servicing programs. The rising complexity of delinquent mortgage loans, and their escalating volume, also has resulted in a significant increase in both direct and indirect servicing costs. Servicers need to respond by changing their servicing process, adding more associates and implementing new technologies.

DecisionReady’s software technology allows servicers to ensure that their associates are adhering to the latest servicer guidelines and supplemental directives. The solution provides for global deployment of new policies and procedures very quickly, and it simplifies training. The decisions made on each loan by each associate are documented for quality control reviews, investor forensic audits and portfolio analytics. The platform facilitates the easy customization of rules to conform to each servicer’s individual policies and their interpretation of investor guidelines.

And DecisionReady can respond quickly to help servicers meet new regulatory and compliance issues. Last year, the company within a few weeks developed a software module for its technology platform enabling servicers to respond to robo-signing issues by managing the review and execution of the affidavit of indebtedness documents.

The DecisionReady Compliance Suite is available to servicers through web-based software, which complements the major servicing systems. It includes modules for collections, loss mitigation, and foreclosure compliance for multiple investors including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD. Each module helps servicers comply with the numerous regulations in default servicing.

“Exhausting all available home retention options prior to proceeding with foreclosure is a complex and key decision point for all servicers,” said Ravi Ramanathan, chief executive officer of DecisionReady. “The investor guidelines around topics such as sufficient customer outreach leave much room for interpretation. When has the servicer done enough to meet the guidelines? It’s such challenges and complexities that was the impetus to form the company in 2010.”

DecisionReady has more than 7,000 servicer associates in the United States and offshore using its technology. The solution manages a multitude of decision points for each loan, incorporating hundreds of loan level data elements from core servicing systems to ensure compliance. The technology has enabled DecisionReady’s servicer clients to more than double the caseload for each associate while increasing the accuracy of the decisions they are making and achieving accuracy rates of more than 99%. The technology enables the company’s clients to globally implement and consistently enforce servicing policies as a simple extension to existing servicing systems.

Dan Mahler, chief strategy officer of default servicing solutions at DecisionReady, noted, “Our technology makes sure that every time a servicer has to consider a homeowner for a loan modification or a short sale they are following the exact same sequence of procedural steps, conforming to the timelines and in the right fashion as dictated by investors and regulators. Our senior management team has decades of experience in mortgage banking, mortgage technology and default servicing.” Mahler spent 13 years in senior management positions in default servicing before co-founding DecisionReady.

The DecisionReady Compliance Suite offers solutions and consistent policy enforcement in collections, loss mitigation, short sale, pre-foreclosure review, foreclosure sale date postponement and the review and execution of affidavit of indebtedness documents to prevent robo-signings.

The Acquisition Closes

TPG Capital has completed the acquisition of the Property Information business of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. This business, principally located in the U.S. and Europe, provides property information, solutions and services to insurance, financial, legal and real estate professionals. The transaction was first announced on November 5, 2010.

TPG also announced that Chris Cartwright has been named CEO of the U.S. business. He will also provide executive leadership across all global business units of the new company. Mr. Cartwright, 45, most recently served as CEO of the Corporate & Financial Services division of Wolters Kluwer, a global information services and software company.

“We are very pleased to complete our acquisition of the Property Information business, which represents another strategic addition to TPG’s portfolio of data services companies,” said Bryan Taylor, a partner at TPG. “Chris’s decision to join as CEO is a further testament to the strength of this new company group. Chris brings invaluable experience, a strong vision for this business and a great reputation for customer focus. We think that is a formula for continued growth and success.”

“I am excited to work with all of the experienced and committed employees in the U.S., U.K. and Canada,” said Mr. Cartwright. “The global business units offer valuable, data-driven workflow solutions that enable real property related professionals to increase productivity and manage risk. With the resources and commitment of TPG, I believe we can expand both our capabilities and our customer base.”

Since 1997, Mr. Cartwright held a series of leadership roles within Wolters Kluwer including serving as CEO of CCH Legal Information Services, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Legal, Tax & Business Division in NA, and most recently, CEO of the Corporate & Financial Services Division. He also founded and led Wolters Kluwer’s Shared Services and Technology organization in North America from 2003 to 2008.

Before joining Wolters Kluwer, Mr. Cartwright served as a senior vice president for Christie’s International Inc. Prior to that, he was a management consultant in the Strategic Management Services Group of Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Cartwright graduated cum laude with M.P.A. and B.B.A degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.

“TPG is enthusiastic about the prospects for the Property Information business, which is a leader in nearly all of the markets it serves,” added Nehal Raj, a principal at TPG. “We are committed to building on this market leadership over the next several years by opportunistically investing in growth organically and via acquisition.”

TPG Capital is the global buyout group of TPG, a private investment firm founded in 1992, with more than $48 billion of assets under management and offices in San Francisco, Beijing, Fort Worth, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. TPG Capital has experience with global public and private investments executed through leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, growth investments, joint ventures and restructurings.

TPG’s data services and software investments have included Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) and Lender Processing Services (LPS), Hotwire, IMS Health, Intergraph, Sabre Holdings, SunGard and Vertafore. Real estate-intensive investments include Catellus (pending acquisition of ProLogis real estate portfolio), ST Residential (a $4.5 billion portfolio of mortgage loans and REO assets previously owned by Corus bank), Harrah’s Entertainment, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Neiman Marcus, ParkwayLife REIT, PETCO and Surgical Care Affiliates. The firm has also made significant investments in insurance such as Ariel Reinsurance, Direct General, Endurance and ProSight Specialty Insurance, among others.

Achieving Transparency

Looking for greater transparency? Equifax thinks it has the answer. Equifax ABS Credit Risk Insight Direct now links up-to-date borrower credit information to Lewtan’s ABSNet Loan database of residential deal and mortgage performance data. The solution’s expanded capability brings another dimension of transparency into the analysis of mortgage-backed securities—enabling investors to better predict loan delinquency, default and prepayment and make more informed trading decisions.

This latest enhancement to the ABS Credit Risk Insight product line is the result of Equifax’s relationship with Lewtan, a provider of asset-backed securities performance data and analytics for the global securitization industry. ABS Credit Risk Insight provides leading indicators of loan performance such as updated credit scores and detail on all mortgage and home equity payments, owner-occupancy and performance on past mortgages. By statistically matching anonymous borrower credit information to Lewtan’s ABSNet performance database, Equifax’s solution gives investors deeper insight to improve model accuracy, identify current healthy deals and strengthen deal surveillance.

“Understanding the needs of the secondary market has enabled us to bring a number of innovations to today’s investors looking for greater transparency into securitized mortgage loan performance,” said Steve Albert, Vice President of Equifax Capital Markets. “Through our relationship with Lewtan, we are connecting investors with an industry-leading source of information to help them accurately value the underlying collateral health of deals and ultimately make more strategic purchase and sale decisions.”

With deal coverage spanning all structured finance asset classes, Lewtan’s ABSNet database tracks more than 100 performance variables per deal. Its built-in surveillance tools allow investors to quickly compare a deal against other deals in the market and effectively monitor multiple securities without wasting resources manipulating remittance reports. To improve model and valuation accuracy, investors now have the option of appending Equifax data solutions to Lewtan securities data.

“Working with Equifax, we are providing the industry with tools that are powerful enough to facilitate the flow of critical information in the secondary market so that there is greater visibility into the actual, up-to-date financial condition of borrowers,” said Ned Myers, Chief Marketing Officer, Lewtan. “Leveraging unique and extensive data assets, ABS Credit Risk Insight gives investors greater confidence than ever before in their analytics and predictors of loan performance.”

Over the past year, Equifax has invested in a number of enhancements to its ABS Credit Risk product line, including the addition of the FICO credit score and the FICO Mortgage Industry Option known as the BEACON Mortgage Score. Investors have the option of selecting the FICO score or VantageScore, a consumer credit scoring model developed by Equifax and the other major credit reporting companies.

Ensuring Control

The Market Analysis section of this e-letter talks about compliance. You can’t have compliance without control. If you don’t know what you or others in your organization are doing, how can you be compliant? You can’t.

To this end, Docu Prep has released an enhanced version of MyPortal earlier this month. The web-based, stand-alone system has simplified its menus while improving organization.

“Customers will have greater access and flexibility, “Docu Prep’s Senior Analyst Britt Christiansen said. “The MyPortal release is more streamlined, increasing user efficiencies.”

The new enhancements allow customers greater administrative control as well as user performance. MyPortal gives users the ability to tailor their operation in the manner that best fits their needs, therefore making it user friendly with any operation.

Using the new view history option, users can also retrieve document packages of previously closed loans enabling access to documents, which may be required for audit or final document purposes. This ability gives customers a more complete review of their loan file history.

Docu Prep provides nationwide closing document and initial disclosure services including secure electronic delivery tools, loan analysis testing, dynamic selection of documents and barcoding. Document production via LOS interfaces, web services and standalone systems.