Mortgage lending, traditionally known for the pounds of paperwork generated with each transaction, is eliminating pulp from the point of prospecting through the servicing cycle. Among the latest processes to go paperless are underwriting, signature verification and guideline updating.
Mortgage Loan Place has generated traffic at its Web site by offering an FHA Lending Guide for mortgage prospects, according to a news release. As of Monday, the free guide had been downloaded 1,000 times.
Clayton Holdings announced it has a new analytic tool to help large lenders and Wall Street conduits determine whether the closed loans they are buying meet the most prevalent “suitability” standards. The first release of the Suitability product focuses on payment shock and recalculates the ability to pay using a fully-indexed, full-amortized schedule. In September, an optional, add-on module will be available to address additional nontraditional guidance issues and capture nontraditional mortgage procedures, such as no income and no asset verification or stated income loans.
“There are layers to the debate — and the definitions — around suitability and non-traditional mortgages,” Clayton said in the announcement. “Rather than wait for it to be fully defined and legislated, we assessed the issues currently being debated, spoke with our clients and determined what is immediately needed to address this issue,” thereby additional services will be added as issues on suitability and nontraditional mortgages evolve.
Wachovia Corp. chose the Mortgage Servicing package of Fidelity National Information Services Inc. to process its mortgage and home equity lines-of-credit. While Wachovia has been servicing its first-mortgages on MSP for a decade, the expanded relationship will provide securitization, default, escrow management and regulatory oversight capabilities for Wachovia’s HELs and provide transaction processing services for the credit cards tied to Wachovia’s HELOCs, Fidelity reported.
OIH announced that it recently renamed itself possitivity, and will offer its document-management services, including digital-imaging services, to the private sector.
Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions’ TransactionPoint was integrated with DocuSign Inc.’s e-signature solution — a technology enabling secure and legally binding online signatures, the companies jointly announced. TransactionPoint is an online solution that manages, organizes and secures the data, documents and critical activities associated with real estate transactions, while providing authorized parties access to this information and status.
“The TransactionPoint and DocuSign integration significantly reduces administrative delays, expenses, and the waste of natural resources, while improving security and access to the data and documents required for today’s real estate transactions,” Fidelity said.
Meanwhile, Silanis announced it is offering its ApproveIt Web Server and ApproveIt Transferable Records Manager as part of IBM Global Financial Solutions’ recently released Service-Oriented Architecture Foundation for Banking Solutions. Silanis, reportedly the world’s largest e-signature provider, says its technology will ensure legally enforceable electronic signatures as part of IBM’s SOA offering, helping to automate various online banking applications, starting with IBM’s Mortgage E-Collaboration solution. Silanis’ technology will also handle the transfer and storage of transferable records, the electronic equivalents of promissory notes and chattel paper.
TSS Software Corp. updated its Web site, enabling customers to log in to the support center and perform customized functions, while a new login procedure provides secure access to software downloads, licensing codes, and remote support as well as the ability to update preferences, a news release said. The 14-year-old settlement services software provider plans to offer an online storefront.
Advectis Inc. announced it added Cunningham & Co., Gateway Financial Mortgage Inc., Power Express Mortgage Bankers, and LownHome Financial as clients of its BlitzDocs Collaboration Suite for electronic document submission, image-based underwriting and electronic loan delivery. One recent cited for adoption was the ability to quickly rollout and implement investor delivery capabilities.
The Closing Agent Risk Committee has been formed in response to growing fraud, according to an announcement from one of its members. The committee, which stands to benefit mortgage warehouse lenders, will focus on the risks associated with the loan closing process.
“Mortgage fraud has taken on a new, more insidious, collaborative criminal aspect, and perpetrators will take advantage of every opportunity to scam the system,” an FBI agent was quoted as saying at a recent warehouse lending conference. “If they can use multiple warehouse lenders to fund the same loans, they will.”
South Pacific Financial Corp. implemented Lender E-Source’s Loan Library and Electronic Loan Finder, according to an announcement. The technology provides lender updates, simplified loan product searches and eliminates the need for rate sheets.
“We have saved half the money it would cost to employ a person to do the same work,” a South Pacific executive was quoted as saying in the announcement. “It is the most easily learned and accepted piece of technology that we have put in front of our sales staff.”
Interthinx Inc. said it integrated its loan-level fraud detection system, FraudGUARD, with Mortgage Builder Software, a loan origination system. The pairing enables validated risk assessment and mortgage fraud detection as well as the ability to anticipate the likelihood of foreclosure and early payments default before funding loans.
